Family Tracker App Has Huge Potential

Despite its creepy (and misguided) marketing, the Family Tracker is one of the coolest apps I’ve seen recently.

The App Store description reads:

“Your husband tells you he’s going to be late tonight due to a business meeting. Is he really at the office, or is he having dinner somewhere else? Your wife told you she is going out shopping with her girlfriends at the mall. Is she really there or is she with her gym teacher? Your kids tell you that they are staying late with friends to study for their test. Are they really there, or did they go out partying?

No more lies or excuses! You can now find out where they are, at anytime, as long as they have their iPhones with them. “

While people may very well be using this app for these purposes (although I wonder what kind of adulterer would really consent to installing this,) I immediately considered its potential for younger children.

How often have you been on the ski hill when a child next to you on the chair has a walkie-talkie to communicate with their parents? Or how often have you heard that a child is lost at the mall? I think the GPS ability to track someone to their exact location is really this app’s true potential - which has tremendous potential for child tracking purposes. There would be real peace of mind for many parents knowing that if something awful did happen, that there would be a way to quickly locate a lost or kidnapped child.

Cell phone users are becoming younger and younger, so for those children who are using them, this could be another tool for protection. At what age parents/children should then uninstall this app, is another question.