Most parents have experienced the panic of losing their child in a public place, even if it’s just a few seconds. However, a new technology is helping keep track of kids at all times. 7’s Lynn Martinez shows us in today’s Parent to Parent.
WSVN — You could call Joanne Davis a very protective parent.
Joanne Davis: “I think paranoid, overprotective.”
She normally doesn’t take her eyes off her twin boys Taylor and Tyler.
Joanne Davis: “For every parent, your number one concern is the safety of your child.”
But parents like Joanne now have technology to help keep an eye on the kids.
Joanne Davis: “There are some wearable smart locators for children that have just come out.”
The first is the Filip.
AT&T Spokesperson Kelly Starling: “The Filip device is a wearable smart locator and phone for kids that’s designed in the form of a wristwatch.”
It was created by a dad whose son went missing for 30 minutes at a mall.
Kelly Starling: “Wanted to find a way to blend the GPS, the wireless, the Wi-Fi, so it worked indoors and outdoors.”
The parent downloads the app to their smartphone. Then they pre-program five contacts their child can call in case of an emergency.
Kelly Starling: “The child would push the red button once to call the person.”
If the child is in an emergency situation, they just hold down the red button for 3 seconds.
Kelly Starling: “Then it will start to call all the numbers that are programmed to that device.”
It will text or e-mail the exact location of the child.
The next is called an Amber Alert GPS device. It can be stashed in a child’s backpack or pocket and similar to the Filip, it has tracking technology.
Kelly Starling: “It would immediately send out a beacon to where that child’s exact location is.”
It also gives you predator alerts.
Kelly Starling: “So, whenever your child gets in 500 feet of a registered sex offenders home you will be alerted of that.”
And it also has a really cool feature called bread-crumbing.
Joanne Davis: “I have it set up to automatically send me my child’s location every 30 minutes.”
Joanne says she really likes the fact her kids can just push a button in an emergency.
Joanne Davis: “If I did have to run into the house for something and they can’t scream loud enough for me to hear them but at least they can push that button.”
Parents need to have a data plan set up for both devices to work.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.att.com
Filip: http://soc.att.com/1eO6p6l
Amber Alert GPS device: http://soc.att.com/1d9OQmn