IoT-Enabled Child Safety in Vehicles: A Review of Technological Interventions, Policy Implications, and Societal Outcomes

Abstract

Pediatric vehicular safety is a significant public health and social welfare issue, involving the appropriate use of child restraint systems, the prevention of vehicular asphyxiation and entrapment, and the societal integration of intelligent monitoring technology. This analysis examines problems related to child safety restraint compliance, new detection methods based on the Internet of Things (IoT), and their wider legislative implications and societal effects. Notwithstanding extensive legislative initiatives and public health campaigns over the decades, adherence to child restraint systems is strikingly inadequate, with alarmingly high misuse rates across multiple studies indicative of entrenched social, behavioral, and educational obstacles. Simultaneously, pediatric vehicular asphyxiation continues to claim young lives annually across tropical and high-temperature regions worldwide, with respiratory failure due to oxygen deprivation and carbon dioxide buildup recognized as the principal cause of death, contrary to the prevalent assumption of heat stroke.