GPS is a fantastic technology that has been applied in so many areas of our daily lives. When you enter a destination in Google Maps, the service uses GPS to track your location and guide you towards your intended spot.
For families, GPS technology is of particular importance because it can be used to track, and thus protect, its more vulnerable members. Tracking your children’s journey from school to home, for instance, can be invaluable if you cannot pick them up yourself.
And if your child wants to visit a friend in another neighbourhood, you can make sure that they are staying safe and not doing anything risky. This can be accomplished either via GPS tracking apps or dedicated tracking devices.
GPS Tracking apps
The first step in your journey to track your family should be GPS tracking apps. There are, in fact, services entirely dedicated to this purpose. The prime example of this category is no other than Life360, a networking app for families with a strong emphasis on location tracking.
The app has two main areas of interest for families. The first one is ‘Circles’, a feature that allows users to create dedicated groups such as ‘Parents and children’ and ‘extended family’. Users who belong in a Circle can always view each other’s location in a live map.
This is extremely useful because you can set up exactly who can view your children’s locations and when. So if they are visiting an uncle who lives far away, for instance, you can add everyone to the same group so that they can be aware of each other’s location for a limited time and then remove them from the group when they come back.
The other feature of major importance is Places. This is simply Life360’s version of geofencing. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it relates to the ability to define areas on a map and receive notifications when a user (like your child) leaves or enters that location.
For instance, you can know if your child has left their school zone without them having to pick up the phone and tell you. If you are working when they come back, you can rest easy knowing that they have entered your home even if they forget to call you.
Dedicated GPS tracking devices
The other solution is dedicated GPS tracking devices for kids. These standalone devices come in many different shapes and forms and allow you to track their location through dedicated apps.
The Liberty Watch, for example, is a rugged device that uses GPS and Wi-Fi technology to accurately track your child’s location at all times. It includes a SIM card for mobile data and it allows you to track your children even if they do not have access to a phone.
Another great example of a GPS watch is the Filip 2. This device also has a speaker and a microphone and can hold up to 5 numbers, meaning you can easily call your children and vice versa without the need for a phone.
Wearables can be fantastic solutions but not every child will be comfortable with wearing a watch. The alternative is to provide your children with devices that can be placed in their pockets or their backpacks so that they can always carry them when they are going out.
For instance, the PocketFinder is a tiny device that does not break easily and can be placed anywhere. One of its most important features is its ability to send an SOS alert. This is accomplished by tapping on the surface three times. This will teach your children how to contact you in an emergency without alerting anyone else.