Introduction
With every dawning day we are getting busier and busier. No matter how many roles we play each day at home, at work place, at the mall, as moms and dads we always think of our kids no matter where we are. We worry about their safety all the time when we can’t physically reach out to them. And when we hear about sex offenders, kidnappers and drug dealers on TV, we literary freak out thinking about our children’s safety. If there is some way to keep track of our kids’ locations, whether they are at school like they are supposed to be, whether your teenagers hang out in not so nice surroundings after school, it would be a great consolation for you as a parent. Thanks to the technological innovation now there are several ways to keep track on your kids while you are at office working or away from kids. Following is a short discussion on how to track your child’s location utilizing the GPS technology.
ALSO READ: HOW TO Track Your Kid’s Facebook Activity
Using Cell Phones and Smartphones
Out of the portable electronic gadgets, cell phones and smartphones are the most popular and dominating gadgets people frequently use, and the usage has been incrementing exponentially over the last decade. Speaking of cell phone and smartphone usage of teenagers the figures show an unsurprising growth, as projects like Pew Internet & American Life has revealed analyzing surveyed data over years. According to the reports, back in 2004 only 45% of teenagers between ages 12 and 17 owned a cell phone, which has risen up to 77% by 2012, around 25% of them being smartphones. Therefore chances are that your child already owns a mobile phone, either a cheaper cell phone or a sophisticated smartphone. You can track your kids and monitor them via your laptop or smartphone, by accessing location details on your kids’ mobile phones, provided either by the phones’ GPS units or by carrier operators.
In the app stores stacked with hundreds of thousands of applications, there are some super useful apps you can use for tracking your kids. GPS Tracking Pro for Android, Footprints for iOS, NQ Family Guardian for Android and Real Time GPS Tracker are some of the popular apps available on iOS and Android platforms for tracking your kids. These apps allow you to access real time location details of the kids, set safety zones, send SOS alerts etc. using your own smartphone or any internet accessible computer.
Using GPS Devices
Using a small tracking device, like the ones you see on many detective movies and TV shows, you can keep track of your kids right from your home, office or anywhere else where you can access the internet. GPS trackers are tiny and lightweight, and report you back the location of your kid. These trackers are used by hikers and mountaineers all the time for keeping track of their locations in case of an emergency. In the same way you can use them to track your kids. There are much more sophisticated models that can even notify you if your teenager flies in the car over the speed limit. Once you tell your child about the tracker and agree on locations they are supposed to be, you can avoid accidental false alarms and panics. Following are some popular, feature packed GPS trackers available in the market today.
Spark Nano 3.0
Spark Nano 3.0 is a next generation GPS tracking device manufactured by BrickHouse Security, enabling you to monitor your child’s location through a web based interface. The web based interface is pretty much simple, free from clutter, yet offering number of cool features to aid the tracking and monitoring process. For instance the Geo-Fence feature allows you to designate a specific area your child is supposed to be all the time on a map, by drawing a circle. If your teenager or kid is going away from the zone the tracker instantly notifies you of the suspected behavior. This can further be refined defining different geo fences for different time intervals, like when they are supposed to be at school and on the way home. The amazing battery life of Spark Nano 3.0 which spans over 23 hours per single charge makes sure you never lose track of your kids due to a dead battery.
Zoomback Advanced A-GPS
Zoomback Advanced A-GPS too provides a bunch of options to keep track of your kids in real time. Find Now feature allows you to receive continuous location updates via email or sms notifications once in every 5 minutes or every hour. Safety zones are the zones defined by you where your child is supposed to be at different times of the day, so if they leave the zone at any time instantaneously you are notified of the change. Location history logs up to 7 days can be accessed via the simple web interface with ease.
Amber Alert GPS
Amber Alert GPS too offers you a bunch of features to monitor your child’s location via a web based interface. Apart from the common features found on other GPS trackers, Amber tracker offers some special features such as the SOS button. SOS button allows your kid to inform you immediately of her location in case of an emergency. The predator alert notification system notifies you instantaneously if a known sex offender resides in the area where your child is. In case you are worried about your teenager speeding above the allowed limits, this gadget can inform you right away if they fly over the speed levels.
Conclusion
It is a diverse world. Once your kids leave the home and your constant attention either to school or to football practice or anything, they are exposed to many prying eyes of the predators. These include sex offenders, drug dealers, bullies and thugs. While you are away from your kids, may be working at your office or driving home, your stress levels are higher when you think of your kids’ safety, especially cons idering numerous incidents on child abuse reported on TV. At least knowing their current location while you are away from them gives you some kind of consolation. Therefore equipping your child with at least a simple, tiny GPS tracker device, if you don’t want to buy a smartphone for your kid right now, is a great step. What’s most important however is educating the kids about staying away from strangers, saying NO to strangers’ requests etc. For an added layer of protection of your kids you can pin a simple GPS unit in their school backpack or pocket and explain to them in simple words that you can see where they are even when they are not at home. You can even practice them to press the SOS button in case of an emergency. You can explain to your teenagers that if they fly over the allowed speed levels or roam in not so nice surroundings you can remotely see that. Therefore investing in a small GPS tracker, if not a smartphone is certainly not a waste of money.
Author Bio:
This article was created by J. Weaser – a huge gadgets fan and father of 2 twins . James is an expert in software, now he is working on free DVD copy project. Other software that was developed by him you can look at IQmango website.