Cult of Mac: a blog about the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone - and the people who love them

18 comments

Ok, so this is a really good idea. But yea, I don’t know many teens that would voluntarily allow their parents to track them when they know they’re not supposed to be somewhere. I think that if the parents could already put their email or something in the phone when they “secretly install” Teen Tracker, and then they could get online somewhere and click like a refresh button and it instantly gives them a map to the current location of the teen. That might be a bit more productive. I don’t know. Just a suggestion

Jennie Patterson, on March 4th, 2009 at 7:26 am

HaHaHa HA!

That is awesome!

Clay, on March 4th, 2009 at 7:34 am

That’s a bargain! Where can i buy teens to use it on?

Marcel, on March 4th, 2009 at 7:57 am

The app is a bit boneheaded in it’s usability, but I must say — your take on parenting is one of the reasons so many kids today are growing up worthless.

If you call your teen and tell them to send you a note proving where they are, it really shouldn’t be negotiable whether or not they want to — right? They don’t want to? Fine, come home. Your fun is over.

Why are parent’s such wimps these days?

The Idiot, on March 4th, 2009 at 9:14 am

Is it possible the point is not to monitor, but to find lost kids?

oakertood, on March 4th, 2009 at 10:20 am

There is an application called iLocalis for jailbroken phones that can send the location of the phone to a website for an interval of minutes that you set up (it runs in the background). You would have to hide the icon in case that you dont want your kid to be suspicious, using one of the many apps that allow this. That’s it, problem solved!!! Parents I encourage you to jailbreak your kid’s phones .

marco, on March 4th, 2009 at 11:44 am

This is actually a very good app. First of all, Parents are Parents… If they say you need to have this application installed on your phone, Teenagers better do it or suffer the consequences.

I remember my friends coming over to my house and calling their parents from the house phone to show the parents that they were ACTUALLY at my house. The parents would read the name off the caller ID to tell where the child was. So, in reality, this app is great. And for concerned parents, $5 is probably well worth it.

Way to grill the app makers though, for a great app.

I’ll give you this, that is pretty embarrasing for teenagers though.

Chase, on March 4th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

There are free apps that will do this same thing, and far better. Why not put Loopt on their phone? Chase, you must BE the app maker, cause by the description, this app sucks.

Scott, on March 5th, 2009 at 5:33 am

@The Idiot, Chase
Yeah, ’cause teenagers respond well to ” DO WHAT I SAY OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!!1!!1!!ONE!!!”

Great parenting advice.

For draconian dictators.

Church of Apple, on March 5th, 2009 at 12:15 pm

When it comes to cell phones and teens, “do what I say or suffer the consequences” is extremely effective. If you say “I’ll take it away if you don’t let me check up on you,” they’ll give in to pretty much anything. From a sociological standpoint, mobile phones really are quite fascinating. Kids believe they can’t live without a phone, and parents like that they’re able to keep in touch.

Daniel, on March 6th, 2009 at 6:51 am

pfff. first buy your teen an normal gps-phone with an internet-account.. everywhere on the net you’ll find free software which shows your or your teens location on google-maps..

died, on March 7th, 2009 at 1:25 am

Cool idea, sorta, but what exactly differentiates this from the (free) Google Latitude, except that Latitude has the ability to update your location continuously?

Yes, Latitude allows you to “set your location” manually, but unless your teen is updating that location continually, you know how old the data is.

As a parent, I hope I never have to resort to using such a tool to verify my daughter’s wherabouts. If trust is broken to the level that I don’t trust her to accurately tell me where she’s going, then we have a more fundamental problem that technology cannot solve. On the other hand, knowing her location in case she gets into trouble would be of benefit to both of us.

I’ve used Latitude on several occasions to track myself for my wife’s benefit – when I go kayaking on the ocean, for example, she’s more comfy being able to track my location and having a “last known” location if I don’t check in on time (check-in is generally set to an hour after I expect to land). I roll the phone into a waterproof stuff sack and put it in a waterproof pocket on my PFD. Even though I go with friends, have the proper gear, etc, it’s nice knowing that my location is being published pretty precisely to narrow any possible search/rescue should it become necessary. Assuming I’m in cell range, of course.

I don’t think this app is worth any money, but I do think the technology is useful if the “trackee” can see a benefit to it – such as a teen rebuilding trust who has a way to verify their location with their parents upon request, or a teen who shares their parents’ concern for their personal well-being and sees the benefit of speeding up assistance should it become necessary.

Nate, on March 9th, 2009 at 7:35 am

Great. Software that abusive spouses/boyfriends/girlfriends/pimps can use to track their victims location.

TG, on March 18th, 2009 at 9:37 am

Sure anyone with half a brain could probably figure out how to uninstall it. But if you were smart you’d figure out a way to fool the program and thus have the upperhand on parents, spouses, pimps, or anyone who thought they were a genius for wasting there money on this stupid app.

BarnabyJones, on March 19th, 2009 at 7:39 am

Simple fix for the child…..when your parent calls, don’t answer, or simply do and utter this simple line…

“Hi Mum/Dad. Hey, I’m just on my way home……wait a sec….going through a…..tunnel…..signal…getting……….weak….,” hang up and problem solved

Rhys Thorp, on March 24th, 2009 at 12:32 am

The product name is stupid.

Mike DoubleD, on March 25th, 2009 at 10:40 am

Did you see their Spouse Tracker app? I just found it.

Jake, on March 30th, 2009 at 11:30 am

Scenario, your teen finds themself in trouble… perhaps in a situation they don’t want to be in. Perhaps they sense danger. They hit teen tracker. Or they get a flat tire on a dark road and want to let the parents know exactly where they are.

You kids should wait till you grow up and get some kids of your own before you start dissing this. There are parents and their children who don’t need to “rebuilt trust” and have great relationships and this sounds like it could be useful as a safety backup. Latitude doesn’t send a message. This one does: “I need you to know where I am.”

Well done.

WayneH, on April 3rd, 2009 at 8:50 pm