Tracking devices for kids allow parents to monitor their children’s locations. These tools can also send notifications or set off an alarm if the child wanders away. However, these monitoring tools must be used responsibly and with the consent of the child.
Participants in our study revealed that they use tracking devices not out of nosiness, but to keep their children safe online and off. These tools can also help with other safety concerns like sexting and cyberbullying.
Keeping tabs on your kids
There are many ways to keep tabs on your kids, and one of the most popular is a mobile phone tracker. These devices allow parents to monitor their child’s location and limit screen time. They can also remotely lock the device and track app usage. They can even provide a history of the locations visited by their kids.
Smartphones expose young children to a variety of hidden internet threats. These include sex-related content, as well as the ability to communicate with nasty strangers. Some tracking apps can help prevent this by limiting who they speak with online and allowing parents to block their contact information.
Although these tools can be helpful, it’s important to remember that they should never invade a child’s privacy. Child psychologists generally advocate for a balanced approach, in which parents foster open dialogue and step in only when necessary. However, this can be difficult in the real world, where danger lurks at every turn.
Keeping tabs on your teens
There are a number of apps and devices available that allow parents to track their children’s whereabouts. Most of these are free and include zone alerts that let the parent know when their child has entered or left a specified area. Parents can also drop a message to their child for free to check in with them.
Many of these tools come with parental controls that monitor web browsing, social media and apps on kids’ phones and tablets. This allows the parent to see what their kid is doing online and helps them steer clear of risky activities like cyberbullying, suicidal thoughts, adult content and sexting.
However, many experts warn that too much monitoring can stifle kids’ development. They suggest that parents should talk to their children about why they want to use a device to monitor them and that they should always be respectful of their privacy. They should also avoid changing any settings on the child’s phone without their knowledge.
Keeping tabs on your pets
A digital GPS tracker is the perfect solution for tracking kids and pets without putting them at risk. It provides peace of mind in case they run off at the park or are lost, and it also allows you to monitor their movement patterns to see if they are being active enough or to identify any potential health concerns.
A GPS tracker uses Global Positioning Systems to pinpoint a location and a cellular connection to send that information to the parent’s phone. Most have a base station that establishes this link, but some take a more all-in-one approach by using their own cellular connectivity instead.
If your pet does run off, you can mark them as missing on the Huan app, which will notify other users in your community to be on the lookout. This feature is a game changer for parents who want to encourage independence but aren’t ready to hand their child over the smartphone yet.
Keeping tabs on your employees
While some of these devices can help keep parents connected with their children, they can also pose a privacy risk. Many tracking apps are designed not for the safety of children, but to make money by collecting personal information and selling it to other companies. This data is often de-anonymized, putting kids at risk of harm and leaving parents vulnerable to surveillance.
Some parents revealed to monitoring their child’s location for a few seconds at a time as a last resort when they were worried that their kids were in danger. Others were concerned that their kids were using social media, YouTube or the Internet while at school, potentially exposing them to pedophiles and stalkers.
Tracking apps are not the solution to these problems, but they can provide a valuable tool for keeping tabs on your kids and employees. Some of these apps allow you to monitor text messages, IM chats, GPS location and more. Some even have the ability to listen in on conversations, and can record or mask profanity.
