Track your kids by mobile phone

Back in the day, most kids played out on the street. But if recent research is to be believed, nearly a third of children now miss out on playing outside because of parental fears for safety. If you worry everytime your child leaves the house, mTrack has launched the i-Kids phone, which can pinpoint a child’s location to within 20 metres via phone or net.

The phone, which is endorsed by children’s charity Kidscape, has limited call capabilities and just four numbered buttons – three can be allocated to the phone by the parent together with a additional button that the child can use to get help at any time from all the stored numbers. Once subscribed to the service, parents can track their child in three ways – free through a map online or on a mobile which tracks the child every 10 minutes, instant tracking via a ‘ping’ (costing 50p per ‘ping’) or through a safety zone alert, which notifies parents via sms if their child has strayed from their specified area (50p per text).

To get the service you first need to sign up to i-Kids. The price is £49.95 for the handset (which comes in a range of colours), plus a monthly cost of £11 for a 1 year contract (or £5.23 for 2 years). You get 10 free location requests to start you off, after which they’ll revert to 50p each. Find out more at www.i-kids.net/uk.

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