Press Release: Mobile phone service to track kids
18 July 2005 - A new service has launched today
that allows parents to keep track of their children via their mobile phone.
The new service called KidsOK, which has been
endorsed by leading children's charity Kidscape, works by allowing parents
subscribing to the service to establish the location of their child's mobile
phone within 60 seconds. Rather than making unwanted phone calls or text
messages to keep track of their child, parents using KidsOK simply 'ping' their
child's mobile by sending a text message to 60777 including the child's name,
for example "ping mark". KidsOK identifies the position of the child's phone to
within 500m in built up areas using state of the art GSM location based
technology, sending a text description and map of the location back to the
parent's phone.
"Receiving an
embarrassing call or text message from your mum or dad wanting to know where you
are is the last thing kids want when they're with friends. Having KidsOK
available in stores up and down the country means that parents have a new way to
overcome this issue. Now they can use this service to discreetly 'ping' their
child instead of calling or texting," says Richard Jelbert, CEO and co-founder
of mTrack Services, the company behind KidsOK. "The KidsOK service is based on
encouraging trust and co-operation between parent and child, striking a balance
between giving kids their freedom and knowing where they
are."
The KidsOK pack includes the first
year's subscription, three handsets (parents' or children's) enabled and the
first ten pings. Larger families can enable further handsets on payment of
£4.95 p.a. per handset. Further 'pings' are purchased in bundles of 20 from
KidsOK for £9.95. The KidsOK service does not require a PC and there is no
need to install any software. Parents using the service need their mobile phones
to be enabled for WAP (GPRS) which operators do for free. The UK's four major
operators (O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone) have enabled the service but,
subject to decisions from Virgin and 3, children's phones on Virgin and 3 cannot
be located.
KidsOK mobile phone location
packs will be available in over 500 outlets across the UK including selected
Arcadia Outfit, Comet Destination, Bhs, Boots, Millets, Blacks and The Link
stores at a recommended retail price (RRP) of £39.95. Each KidsOK mobile
phone location pack sold generates £1.00 for charity.
Posted: Mon - July 18, 2005 at 06:14 PM