Sprint Family Locator

Just in time for back to school, Sprint has enhanced its child-locating service, Sprint Family Locator, making it available to more families and simplifying the registration process. Sprint also offers a phone with built-in parental controls and a new Web access management feature to help parents limit their children's access to only the phone services they deem appropriate.

Sprint Family Locator is an inexpensive ($9.99 a month) way for families on the go stay in constant touch. Mom, Dad or a trusted caregiver can locate loved ones without disturbing their activities, receive notification when a child enters or leaves a designated area, and quickly/easily send text messages to one or more family members. This service uses GPS technology to determine the location of authorized mobile handsets, which it then displays on an interactive map. Sprint Family Locator also provides the user with text-message communication and account management options. These features are accessible from both a registered mobile handset and the secure Sprint Family Locator web site.

Permissions: To activate the service, parents and guardians can list up to four phone numbers they want to locate. For additional security, the parent creates a safety word that the parent and child both use only during the registration process to ensure permissions have been granted by both parties. Parents can also give permission to others, such as a grandparent or nanny, to locate a child.

Locate: When a parent or guardian requests the child’s location, Sprint Family Locator uses GPS technology to pinpoint the location and display it on an interactive map, along with the street address and surrounding landmarks, on the parent’s or guardian’s phone or PC. The child is notified by a text message each time his or her location is provided to the parent or guardian, ensuring open communication. The child and parent have the option of having the phone vibrate when the text message is received or to use an audible tone to alert the child they have been located.

Contact: Once the child is located, the parent or guardian can immediately call or send a text message to the child’s phone.

Safety check: The parents or guardian can set alerts to notify them when the child arrives at a specified location, such as a school, home or a relative’s house at a designated time. For example, a parent or guardian can be notified whether a child has arrived at school by 8:15 a.m. each day.

Reports: Information on recent location requests is provided in text and map form.

How accurate is this service? Accuracy depends on whether the phone can be located by GPS technology, which is the most accurate, or cell tower location. When the phone can be located by GPS, the service is accurate within a few yards. If the phone is locatable only by cell tower location, the accuracy is usually within 50 to 100 yards, but may be as low as 500 yards or more.

Can this service find a phone that has been turned off?
No, Sprint Family Locator can only find phones that are in their coverage area and that are turned on. Since you may want to schedule Safety Checks during school hours, you should set your children’s phone to silent or vibrate to avoid interrupting their classes.

How safe and secure is this service?
Only the account holder who is financially responsible for your handset can grant permission for Family Locator to locate your handset. As an extra layer of security, this account holder must grant permission from their password-protected account. Only persons the account holder authorizes can locate your handset, and only using passwords the account holder approves.

What type of family is this service appropriate for?
Family Locator is an aid, not a substitute for proper parental supervision. It is meant to provide peace of mind for both the parent and child (of any age). Both child and parent must mutually agree to use the service by providing a unique security code created by the parent during registration. This service was not developed as a means to provide a “watchdog” service for parents. In a world filled with scary possibilities (getting lost, abduction, faced with a dangerous situation) this service is meant to deliver an added degree of security to both parent and child. Family Locator can also be a useful tool in other relationship scenarios, such as adult child/aging parent.

What is the cost for the service and are any special phones necessary?
Sprint Family Locator is available for download on 30 compatible parent phones. The number of locatable child phones is 58 -that's substantially more phones than any other carrier with a similar service. For $9.99/month, subscribers can register up to four phones to locate, get unlimited location requests and send 100 text messages to each child phone.

Sprint has also announced a Restricted/Unrestricted Web Access feature that gives a parent the power to manage access to the open Internet for all plans on the account. Web Access is free of charge and is available on all phones and all service plans. Using My Account on the phone or My Personal Information in the manage tab from the online account, the parent can restrict phone access to Sprint PCS Vision and certain Internet sites that Sprint has deemed appropriate for all ages.

The service is available at www.sprint.com/familylocator