LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — More and more parents are turning to smart devices like Apple AirTags to keep track of their children, who are too young for a smart phone.
Reporter Becky Worley gives us a closer look for this week’s Monday for Moms.
Keeping an eye on a toddler can be challenging, so moms like Brooke King are turning to Apple AirTags for some help.
“I always find myself running after her quickly, so I didn’t want to teach her if she ran off, I would just run after her and it was OK to continue this behavior,” King said.
King’s 3-year-old daughter, Kelly, wears the tracking device as a bracelet mostly in crowded areas.
“It does help me feel more in control of the situation. As a parent my top priority is her safety, in addition to her ability to have some independence,” King said.
And if they were to get separated, she’s able to see her exact location on her phone.
Apple says AirTags are intended for tracking items not people and says to stay on top of kid’s whereabouts. Parenting expert Ericka Souter says devices like AirTags are a good way to give children a slice of independence while also keeping an eye on them for safety.
“If you have little ones who may be walking to school alone for the first time or going to after school activities. And you just want to make sure that they’re safe, and parents have a lot of safety concerns in this day,” Souter said.
But she says when using these devices, you also must factor in your child’s age.
“If you have a teenager who needs to go back and forth to school, or hangs out with their friends, or has a curfew, you have to eventually begin to trust them to follow the rules and be back home when they need to be back home. So, for a lot of families, the teenage years are kind of a cut-off for something like the AirTag is monitoring their whereabouts,” Souter said.
