Being a parent is difficult and hard work. From the very first days of life, the baby makes it clear what baggage of responsibility and obligation is entrusted to the parents. When a child grows up and begins to gradually become accustomed to independence, it is extremely difficult for mom and dad to accept. Yesterday, your beloved baby held your hand and did not lose sight of you, and today she has her own affairs and her personal life. Modern technologies come to the rescue, informing adults about the whereabouts of the child, allowing you to protect the most expensive - children.
Three whales of parental “espionage”
Such is the fate of modern children born in the era of high technology - the expectant mother regularly does an ultrasound scan to make sure her baby is well, and then the baby monitor and baby monitor are the first tools for tracking a baby. It would seem that everything is fine, the child has grown up, has learned to walk, talk, communicate and even make decisions, but the heart of the parents is out of place again.
Consider the main options for possible tracking your child through the phone.
Services of mobile operators
The largest mobile operators in the country already have a similar service in the range of services provided or are in the process of developing something similar. The most famous are the service “Locator” from “Beeline”. Its essence is simple - having ordered the service, a notification is sent to the phone of the potential person under control, in which he must inform about his consent to surveillance of his location. Then, at any necessary time, the customer of the service can see the location of the owner of the monitored phone on a special site or by ordering SMS.
The “Child under supervision” service from MTS allows not only to track coordinates, but also to receive notifications in case an adventurer leaves one of the declared geofences that the customer of the service (parent) defines when configuring the service (for example, “school”, “home” , “Football”).
Advertising such services, experts argue that the distance of the error in determining the location can be from 200 meters to 1.5 kilometers. The error is undoubtedly large, but the result depends on the speed of reaction of parents to deviations in movements.
GPS tracker
This device has earned special attention among people of extreme professions - climbers, geologists, as well as lovers of all kinds of long hikes and adventure seekers. Today, a GPS tracker can be used in more domestic conditions, such as controlling the movement of children.
In fact, this is the same bug with the function of a mobile phone. After all, it has the ability to answer incoming calls, as well as make outgoing calls to several mobile numbers.
You can use such a device both in a standard form and in the form of a children's smart watch with an integrated GPS tracker. Importantly, location accuracy is very high.
Mobile applications
Immediately on the minus of this type of surveillance - you will need to purchase a child a fairly expensive smartphone that will support such applications. The most famous applications from the child tracking series by phone are “Find my iPhone” for users of iPhone smartphones, Cerberus - in case of using an Android-smartphone, “Tracker Plus” - a free monitoring program that is as simple and easy to use as possible.
Any type of surveillance of children is tested and justified by its benefits. In addition, according to the latest data, on the territory of Russia, in the case of “disturbing calls” (police, ambulance, Ministry of Emergencies), 90% of the time spent on telephone calls to explain their location, and only 10% to tell about what happened. The statistics are very sad. After all, we all understand that if there was good equipment, these figures would be different, and, accordingly, the data on rescue and assistance would be more positive.
Useful features of tracking software and devices
Choosing a way of additional control over their children, each parent will choose the option that suits him, having previously studied the capabilities of the program and its specific functions.
If earlier tracking was limited to indicating the object on the map, now developers have gone further by introducing all sorts of unusual and useful suggestions:
- sound enable function - allows you to turn on the sound if necessary, the device will play what is happening around the device (respectively around your child);
- geofences - by setting the permissible geofences in advance on the map, parents can not only track the time of arrival, departure and stay in a particular geofence, but also receive notifications if the child leaves the specified allowed route;
- low battery - using this function, parents will be able to receive a timely reminder about the need to charge the phone, in addition, it is possible to monitor the use of the battery (games, calls, and so on).
Alternative Service Usage Options
The most common use for tracking devices is to track a child. It is useful, convenient, gives parents the confidence that their children are safe, and eliminates the need for extra parental issues for the kids themselves. However, you can use such technological things in the modern world in completely different cases:
- Pet Watching. This is a compact GPS tracker that can be attached to the collar of an animal. If a pet is lost, it can be found in a matter of minutes.
- Luggage tracking. This option is often started by people who have experienced the loss of luggage. A similar incident can occur both through the fault of carriers and in the event of theft. If the luggage is equipped with a tracking device, then here the problems will be minimized, the luggage will be returned as soon as possible.
- Shipping control. Often used by management of shipping companies as employee control. Any deviation from the route or a delay in the schedule will immediately be brought to the desired level.
- For the safety of the elderly. They require no less attention than children. However, monitoring them is more likely not a constant monitoring of their movement, but the possibility of determining the position in case of need. For example, if a person becomes ill, and he is not able to ask for help or call in case of memory loss.
- On a trip, especially if a person is a lover of extreme walks or unforeseen adventures. Love risk and spontaneity. No problem. Now your relatives will not drink Corvalol when you enjoy. The device can always determine your location or report an incident.
Having decided on the option of tracking a child, the main thing is not to overdo it and not to forget that such a service was created for security, and not for total control and suppression of personal life. There are both ardent opponents of such services and fans. Opponents argue that such surveillance violates children's rights and negatively affects parent-child relationships. Fans are sure that monitoring a child through a mobile phone is very convenient, because he must be supervised 24 hours a day.It is important to find a middle ground. Perhaps before using the surveillance, you should talk with the children, discuss this important issue, explain to him the seriousness of the situation and tell him that such control is not surveillance, but possession of a situation related to their safety.