Halloween is a popular holiday, but it also runs the risk of danger as drivers deal with a greatly increased number of pedestrians wandering around on the streets. This is a night where there’s a 50 percent greater risk for children to be struck by cars, as Lawschack.com reveals, so keeping track of them during trick or treating gives you the peace of mind to know that they’re okay. While you do everything you can to bring them to a nice neighborhood for the holiday fun, there’s always the chance of something happening. You’ll know it as quickly as possible when you’re putting GPS and tracking technology to use.
Footprints
Want a GPS tracker that your kids aren’t going to be able to turn off? Footprints, which requires installation on the parent’s phone and the child’s, updates you on your child’s location in real time. They cannot turn it off on their end, and you can see their entire route. One particularly useful feature with Footprints is the geofencing feature, which allows you to define a particular area that your child can be in. If they wander out of this area, you receive an instant notification so you can ward off any potential issues. This is a free app for iOS and Android, which can be found at Apple’s App store.
Find My Friends
Find My Friends is designed for older kids, mostly teenagers, to find out where their friends are. They can meet up with their friends for Halloween parties or other fun, by allowing their locations to be seen during a permissions list. Only people who have been given the permission to see your teen, are capable of getting the GPS information. This iOS app has parental controls that will always broadcast the location, allows the parent to see where their child is, and can also force the app to turn off. The main reason that the older age group is recommended for this app is due to the ability of your child to pick people to share their location with. You don’t want to have your kid giving out personal information to people they don’t know. After all, if they get in the habit of that, they could be on the line for identity theft down the road, as Lifelock points out. This is a free app for iOS and Android, according to CommonSenseMedia.org.
Lookout
Lookout is designed for more than simply tracking your children during Halloween, but it’s very effective at that so it should be among your top choices for a tracking app. This security app has features such as anti-virus and app privacy protection for keeping your smartphone secure. It also gives you GPS tracking so you can keep your children safe. Lookout displays the phone’s information through a web browser, using Google Maps. This Android and iOS app is offered for free at Lookout.com.
Trick or Tracker
There are a lot of tracking apps, but each has unique features which may work better than others for your family. Trick or Tracker (TrickorTracker.com) is another useful tracker app that sets pre-assigned time intervals for trick-or-treaters to alert their parents of their location. Parents will have ease of mind by knowing exactly when their kids will check in. There is a separate child app and parent app so each one can personalize the settings. This app is useful for Halloween and year-round. Available for Android and Apple for $4.99.
Gone Out – Later Folks
Here’s another app that’s perfect for both tweens and teens, alike. Gone Out – Later Folks is an app that allows your children to tell you exactly where they’re going, when they’re going to be there, how they’re getting there, and most importantly, when they’re getting home. The only real downside to using this app is its social media integration, but the privacy settings can be adjusted to prevent posting of location information. Common Sense Media lists Gone Out – Later Folks at a price of $1.99 for iOS.
