A rocking boat that typically has only guy lines on the edges isn't exactly a safe environment for them. Anyone that's watched a kid that young could tell you how fast they move or roll or fall. Even worse would be if they were confining the kid to the interior only.
Were this actually a hard problem we'd be hearing constant reports of kids overboard. And yet we don't. The problem clearly needs attention but past results show it's not insolvable.
"...why didn't they fix the equipment that broke?", but in bad weather it can be very difficult to impossible at sea, even when you have the spares.
Part of Abby Sunderland's 3-year training for her trip was disassembling and fixing each major piece of equipment, or installing a spare, at sea and in bad weather. Bad weather is part of an around-the-world trip, not a surprise part. That was what I meant: if you're going to undertake certain activities you've got to prepare to deal with even the difficult scenarios.
As for a 406 beacon vs. satellite phone, what do you do with a sat phone? Ask someone back home to dial 911? Even if I had a sat phone link and a doctor said we'd have to evac the kid I'd use the 406 beacon so that all SAR teams got the right assignments, etc, and for the beacon's homing signal.
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