GPS feature gives parents the option to locate children
WILSHIRE BOULEVARD News last week that two teenage boys were found alive in a Missouri apartment after they were reported missing, one of whom had vanished more than four years ago, has kept a cell phone business here busy the past few days.
Parents worried that their child could be the next victim of abduction have flocked to Startronics — an electronics store selling car stereos, home theater systems and cell phones — to grab a hold of a new cell phone equipped with Global Positioning System [GPS], a software normally utilized in the form of a car navigation system.
Fifteen-year-old Shawn Hornbeck had been missing since 2002 when he was discovered by police on Friday in a Kirkwood, Mo., home during a search for 13-year-old Ben Ownby, who had gone missing earlier that week. Police arrested Michael Devlin, 41, charging him with one count of first-degree kidnapping.
In the parental version of Big Brother, wireless companies like Verizon and Sprint have banked on the GPS market, rolling out high-tech cell phones with features like the turn-by-turn navigation system and a family finder feature that enables parents to keep tabs on their children at virtually all times.
Through a computer on their own cell phone, a parent can locate their child through the GPS tracking system installed in the cell phone. The function displays a map of the real time location of the child, the speed at which they are traveling and the nearest address. Other features allow the parents to set boundaries in the phone, which will immediately notify the parent if the child leaves those boundaries. For example, if a parent sets the perimeter of Santa Monica High School as a boundary, then a message will be sent to their phone whenever their teenage child ventures off campus.
The option is available through Sprint in a service called “Sprint Family Locator,” and Verizon, which offers “Chaperone.” The service is also available through Disney Mobile.
Parents cannot use the feature without the child’s knowledge,said Kathleen Dunleavy,Los Angeles spokeswoman for Sprint. Whenever a parent sends in a request asking for their child’s location, a text message is automatically sent to the child’s cell phone notifying that “mom has just located you,” she said.
The product has grown slowly in popularity since wireless companies introduced the feature more than a year ago, since Allan Keiter, CEO of MyRatePlan.com, an unbiased comparison shopping Web site.
The navigation system is currently the more popular GPS product since it appeals to a broader audience. The child locator, on the other hand, might take some time, especially considering children who are young enough to warrant such a feature might not even have a cell phone, Keiter said.
But younger children might be more open to the idea of being under the watchful eye of a parent at all times, he said.
“Kids in late elementary school are old enough to have the cell phone, but are young enough to not be turned off by the feature,” Keiter said.
Last year, many children received their Christmas presents from Startronics where parents, attracted to the idea of having the peace of mind of knowing where their kids are at all times, purchased new cell phones.
The interest in the cell phones subsided until last Friday, said store manager Eddie Borgwardt on Tuesday.
“They want to get a hold of their kid 24/7,” Borgwardt said. “I got a 50-percent increase in parents looking to keep in touch with their kids after the kidnapping a few days ago.”
If Karen Beardsley’s children were still young, she would’ve been more than happy to activate the feature on their phones. Her children grew up knowing that they would have a hard time keeping secrets from their mother, who wasn’t afraid to say that she searched their personal belongings.
“A privacy issue didn’t exist in my home,” the Bakersfield resident said during a visit to downtown on Tuesday. “As long as they’re in my home, I was going to police them. It didn’t matter if they were 6 or 16 [years old].”
After the final bell rang on Tuesday afternoon, students spilled onto the sidewalks and streets outside Santa Monica High School, about 80 percent with a cell phone attached to their ears.
“This is too much,” said sophomore Sadal Shokli of the GPS feature,while hanging out with her friends on Michigan Avenue after school. “You need your privacy with your phone.”
The feature would be best applied to young children, since they are more vulnerable to kidnappings and can get easily lost, according to Shokli.
“Once a child turns 15, a parent should give them a real phone without the GPS,” Shokli said.
“I would turn my phone off.” David Mun, a freshman at Samohi, does-n’t believe his parents would force the child locator feature on his phone since they have a good, trusting relationship.
“I think it’s OK in some cases, when the kids are wild,” Mun said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 17, 2007. Read the original PDF.