Black Mirror: Arkangel (2017)

As a consistent viewer of Black Mirror I find myself contemplating on whether or not these scenarios could come to play in our future. I specifically wonder about the "Arkangel": Next-level parental controls, episode since I have children and anxiety it hits home for me. With all the advances in GPS, parental controls on the internet and other options in preventing child abduction, is this the next step? In the Black Mirror episode of "Arkangel" as described on imdb.com. The main character, Marie is a single mother of her only daughter, Sara. After losing Sara, in a park when she was young Marie, whom is already very protective of her daughter, decides to look into a new technology. A chip is implanted into little Sara's head and connected to a tablet that allows Marie, to track her through GPS, monitor her health, and view and hear what Sara, can see and hear, as well as control what see can see by blocking out stressful situations. As a teenager Sara, starts to have issues so Marie, promises to get rid of the parental controls. She packs it away until Sara, doesn't come home one night. Mom is shocked to learn when she powers on the unit that her daughter is having intercourse with her boyfriend. She soon learns that sex is not the only activity her teenage daughter has been up to. Drug use and an unplanned pregnancy are soon discovered. Against Sara's, knowledge Marie, threatens her boyfriend and terminates her pregnancy with an abortion pill that she discreetly disguised as a vitamin shake. Sara soon finds out after adverse reactions to the pill and confronts her mother. After nearly beating her to death with the tablet used to impede on her privacy in a rage of emotions and not knowing how badly she injured her mother because of the parental controls on the device being on. Sara then runs away from her mother and home, leaving Marie, bleeding, distraught and alone. Unexpectedly, because I thought it was a great episode however the first review I read the writer, Zack Handlen did not agree. In his description of "Arkangel" he states "the episode's emotional crux rests on a mother-daughter relationship destroyed by the mother's inability to allow her child to live her own life." Which is a fairly accurate portrayal nonetheless being that Handlen, is not a parent I think he lacks the empathy we feel as parents to protect our children. He also claims that ""Arkangel" is not a particularly fun hour of television." Because it touches on abuse of the system and is dark. While reading other reviews from the Den of Geek website where views give their own opinions on the episode. They question the possibility of an "Arkangel" program actually working. Dan Perlman questions how it would be able to run and store information on a simple tablet for so long. But only one inquires into the possibility of something like this really becoming a reality. User with the name spikethedee, asks "Would have liked to see where they would have gone with the idea if it had caught on - how would kids adapt to not being able to say "I'm going to Dave's house" or whatever when they wanted to get drunk and do whatever it is young kids do these days?" Currently, according to the Child Rescue Network, 2100 kids are reported missing every day in the US alone. Most are cases of miscommunication and runaways. However around 15% are actual abductions. Some by family members, others for more sinister reasons such as for sexual assault, human trafficking. There are several programs in place to help recover missing children, for example Code Adam is when a child goes missing with in a store the store employees block all exits and start searching. In hopes to reunite the child with their parents before the abduction can fully be finalized. There is also the Amber Alert organization which is a system of informative communications through television, social media, text messages and road signs. This program alone has helped successfully recover 924 children just since March of this year. Although most of these programs are for after the child goes missing. There are a few options to help prevent a child abduction. Some of which are borderline touching on the system that they use in "Arkangel." For instance, the GizmoPal by Verizon is a watch in which a child wears that has GPS tracking on an app on the parent's phone. The GizmoPal is also has two-way calling that allows the parents to choose up to four contacts in which the phone calls. It is supposed give parents "Peace of Mind" to easily locate their children. There are other watch phones with GPS for this purpose. At the moment this seems to be the only preventative option besides educating your children. However contrary to popular belief even though injecting microchips into the fascia layer of the skin to be programed for convince purposes such as access to your car, computer and entry into certain buildings. There is currently no GPS capable microchips available on the market as of yet. Nonetheless it looks as though there may be a high likelihood that we see it in the near future. As per population demand, as said by Todd Morris, CEO of BrickHouse Security to the Observer publication "at least twice a day, a parent calls with the same question: Is it possible to implant a tracking microchip in their kids?" At the moment Mr. Morris claims that due to bulky battery sizes and lack of recharging abilities even microchip GPS is not plausible. On the other hand, we have expert Dino Burbidge, director of Technology and Innovation with ad agency WCRS, who says "that practically speaking it's just not something we have the capacity to do yet." Burbidge does not believe that it would even be practical with problems of hacking, location in which the implant would have to be installed for proper functioning, and the ability for them to be disabled or forcefully removed. I find the argument against the plausibility of GPS microchipping to make some very valid points. Besides the obvious need for power so a large battery would be needed and that wouldn't be very cosmetically pleasing. The chances of hackers gaining access to these chips would be alarming to parents. Also the idea of someone doing exploratory surgery with a dirty kitchen knife to remove it would be frightening. Through everything I read while researching a microchip that can be injected into a human's sensory system in order to be able to see through someone's eyes or hear what they are hearing, was not even heard of. That kind of tech is so far into the future that the only evidence of it is Black Mirror's episode of "Arkangel". Although as a parent I would appreciate the peace of mind in knowing where my children are at all times. I understand the controversy something like the Arkangel program would cause. You have to let your children experience life and trust that they will be safe. A lot of the reviews mentioned that you would be impeding on your child's privacy. As well as the possibility of putting your child at different risks. You could perhaps be handing a hacker who is a child predator access to your child's location as well as personal experiences. Based on my research it doesn't appear that an Arkangel program is conceivable in the impending future. I do feel as though we can learn from the "Arkangel" episode and most of the Black Mirror series. It has a lot of classic be careful what you wish for scenarios. While we believe we are doing good and it comes from the heart. In some cases, we create more harm than good. Hopefully the series will give us some insight on the different potential predictions. If not that in the very least spark debates to include other's visions. These matters because sometimes we feel we know what is right but don't see all the potential outcomes. Other's have diverse interpretations which can perchance save us from some trial and error situations. As an individual, we should try to see things from multiple points of view. In this case, try to imagine how Sara felt having her privacy invaded. We as people have to make mistakes in order to learn and grow mentally. Even with the Arkangel program the family in the "Arkangel" episode still had several other problems. Not one thing can solve all of your issues and in many cases can cause other disputes. I asked earlier if this type of monitoring was something that we could expect in the future. I hope by reading this you will feel at ease knowing that it is not really likely any time soon. That maybe if the tech advanced enough later on that you could make an more enlightened decision on whether or not this would be something that you would attempt to install into your child.

Definitely not as creative and original as some of the more memorable episodes from previous seasons, but the excessive parental guidance premise is interesting nonetheless and well-developed. The young actress plays a likable main character and the scenes involving teenagers are believable and not cringy.

Once the overprotective mother has an implant installed, she has set things in motion that can only get worse. Sara, in an opening scene, chases after a cat and her mother becomes obsessed with protecting her. She has kind of iPad that can be used to check her heart rhythms, her nutrition, and most of all, what she sees. The kicker is a device that blocks anything that may be traumatic, so the girl grows to adolescence having a totally sheltered life. When the plug is pulled, she begins to experiment like crazy with her peers. Soon the mother resurrects the device with horrible consequences. The episode is really hard to watch. The mother is really the central character in that she can never accept her daughter being on her own.

This was utterly dreadful. A good idea, but no real development. If this was the first episode of season 1, this show would be dead.