British parents using mobile locate services for four-year-olds

Link: SourceWire | Press Releases – Mobile Phone Tracking proving popular with British mums

Safety-conscious parents are buying mobile phones for children as young as FOUR, it was revealed in a new survey carried out by MobileLocators.com.

Fears about child abduction have left British mums and dads desperate to keep tabs on their youngsters – and as a result, nearly two thirds have invested in a mobile phone for their offspring.

But many parents are taking security a stage further – by turning to the very latest satellite spy technology to ensure the safety of their kids ‘on a day-to-day basis”.

The controversial ‘Big Brother’ technology is a new method of tracing mobiles – and kids – wherever they are.

Hundreds of mums and dads have already registered their children’s mobile phone numbers with the website http://www.mobilelocators.com to pinpoint the user’s exact location.

And of the 2,100 people polled – two thirds said they would be happy to invest in the new software, no matter how intrusive.

I think if I was a parent, I’d be doing this. Half of me reckons I would be totally relaxed along the lines of ‘hey, you need to let your children grow up themselves’ — the other half of me would be obsessively monitoring them to check they’re ok. Could get a bit much though, that.

Still, I like the peace of mind it affords parents.

Now, as for Mobilelocators.com — great concept — but I’d like to see it with the following updates:

– Remove all the google ads — makes it the site look cheap and fly-by-night
– Drop the Ordnance Survey maps and put on Google. Everyone likes Google Maps, particularly the consumers that they’re targeting
– Completely redesign the site and make it beautiful and easy to use — normob consumers aren’t going to react too well to it.
– When I click sign-up, I expect to stay with Mobilelocators, not to be redirected to verilocation.
– I got confused when I clicked on Traceamobile — that appears to be the family/consumer version of the site.

Mobilelocators (or, er, the Traceamobile service) are charging five pounds per month, to track up to five handsets — and it includes up to 120 lookups per year (or, if my maths works, 10 lookups per month, or 2 per handset). Extra lookups start at 35p each — buy a lot and you can get them for 20p each.