Do You Know Where Your Children Are? New Technology Helping Parents Keep Track Of Their Kids

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By Mia Bolaris-Forget

There are ovulation monitors, baby monitors, and now for parents with older children a new technology that allows you to monitor your tweens and teens.

Most commonly the device is housed within your child’s cell phone or debit-like card giving concerned parents a heads up on where their children are and what they are doing.

From how fast he/she is driving to braking techniques and current location this tracking device delivers important information to parents via email, cell phone text message or the web.

While some teens may consider the device “invasive”, parents and experts alike insist that it’s an excellent way to stay connected with tweens, teens, and young adults, keeping them safer because they know they are being watched, and at the same time letting them know you care.

This new technological creation is currently (at the time of this writing) offered by four companies including Nextel wireless phones (known as Teen Arrive Alive), and through a tracking service from uLocate Communications Inc.

Other devices used to track active tweens and teens include (at the time of this writing0 the Wherifone, a specialty locator phone that implements the Global Positioning System, and the CarChip. It is about the size of two nine-volt batteries stacked together, that upon installation (in your child’s vehicle) tracks speed, distance, and driving habits.

The concept is catching on quickly (at least with parents) across all of North America (including Canada) and into the U.K., with the greatest interest, according to officials, in the South and East.

One Georgia based company who began a program allowing parents to prepay their child’s meals, now offers (at the parents’ request) a service that allows them to monitor what their kids are ordering and eating (at school).

Another Boston based company offers a service allowing teens to use their cells to make purchases at fast-food restaurants, grocery stores and other participating retailers, linking the phone to a credit or prepaid card giving parents the opportunity to track and check expenditures.

Technology from the U.K. alerts parents via text message, email or phone when students fail to show up for class and offers them progress reports on their academic achievement and behavior.

Long Island Family Life & Parenting Articles > Do You Know Where Your Children Are? New Technology Helping Parents Keep Track Of Their Kids