GPS BABY TRACKER FULLLocation tracking apps market themselves as essential parenting tools in a world full of danger. Circle for example, which monitors internet use, starts at $9.99 (£7.39) a month, and TeensSafe’s five-device plan is currently $99.99 a month. GPS BABY TRACKER FREELife360 alone has been valued at over $1bn, and operates in more than 140 countries. While many apps do have free options, most also offer the option of upgrading to paid accounts for additional features or to connect more devices. One 2019 survey of parents and guardians in the UK found that 40% were using some kind of GPS tracking on a daily basis.Īnd they are big business. While Bombusa doesn’t believe all parents are now using such apps, she says their proliferation and the amount of investment in them is certainly indicative of high demand. On the more extreme end of the market, apps like FindMyKids allow a parent to remotely activate the microphone on their child’s phone and even record audio, while TeenSafe boasts a “ stealth mode” which, says the company, means the child will “never find out that their parents are tracking them”.īeyond physical tracking, apps can also manage a child's digital life, “whether it's what they're spending if you’ve got an allowance online, how they use gaming consoles, when they’re using it”, says Bombusa. Apps like OurPact allow a parent to see screenshots of their child’s online interactions, while Bark actually scans their messages to alert parents to “concerning interactions”. For parents with teen drivers, there’s also speed monitoring and crash detection – something Spector says she has found particularly useful. The simplest are location-sharing apps, which come installed on phones like Find My Friends on iOS devices, or Google Family for Android. There are also third-party apps that enable users to gather a seemingly limitless range of data from connected phones.Īt the basic end, this includes features such as geofencing, so an alert is sent when a phone leaves or enters a certain area. The choice between the two “depends on your type of parenting, in terms of how closely you want to monitor your child”. Ghislaine Bombusa, head of digital at UK-based Internet Matters, which advises parents on internet safety, says there are essentially two types of tracking options. GPS BABY TRACKER SOFTWAREWhile Life360 dominates the family tracking market – it’s currently the sixth most downloaded social media app on the iOS App store in both the UK and US – there is a vast array of software available, all offering parents varying degrees of monitoring. Apps are becoming ever more sophisticated in the data they're gathering, raising questions about personal security. And children raised being app-monitored are now reaching adulthood, leaving the parents with the quandary – when do you turn them off? Yet experts say parents wanting to use them should think very hard about how they’’ll do so, and how they’ll talk to their children about them. A parent’s natural instinct to protect their children is a component of growth, of course – but these apps keep booming as many parents feel the world – both off and online – is inherently and increasingly dangerous. “I like this subtle part of, ‘he’s safe and I don’t need to pester him’.”įamily-tracking apps have exploded in popularity over the past decade or so. “I don’t want to be the helicopter parent, but we’ve had this for a while, and there’s a part of me that’s hesitant to totally cut it off,” she says. But even though he is now 18 and living across the country, she admits the idea of him removing the app and taking away those reassuring dings “makes me feel stressed”. The family have used the app for several years now, and Spector says while her younger children tend to turn off their locations at times, her oldest son has always been relaxed about using it. “It’s just a way for us to know as a family where everybody is.” They got home, ding,” says Spector, a patent attorney. The app keeps constant tabs on the whereabouts of her three children, letting her know when they’re on the move, when they’re safely home, if they’re somewhere they shouldn’t be and a whole host of other data. “They got to school, ding. That’s because, like 32 million people around the world, Spector and her whole family have Life360 installed on their phones. But rather than waiting for him to call or text, the Baltimore, US-based mum was carrying on with her day, and awaiting a reassuring ding from her phone. Elaine Spector was anxious to hear whether her son had safely gotten back to his dorm in Texas, after a recent visit home.
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