Mobile tracking service goes on sale in UK

Source: Netimperative

Mobile phone location service KidsOK has gone on sale in the UK today, allowing parents to locate their child using a mobile phone. Endorsed by children's charity Kidscape, KidsOK mobile phone location packs will be available in outlets across the UK including selected Arcadia Outfit, Comet Destination, Bhs, Boots, Millets, Blacks and The Link stores at a recommended retail price of £39.95. Richard Jelbert, CEO and co-founder of mTrack Services, the company behind KidsOK, said the service offers parents an alternative to sending “embarrassing” calls or text messages to their children while they are with friends. The firm said they can establish the location of a mobile phone within 60 seconds. Parents can 'ping' their child's mobile by sending a text message to 60777 including the child’s name, for example “ping mark”.

KidsOK identifies the position of the child's phone to within 500m in built up areas using state of the art GSM location based technology, sending a text description and map of the location back to the parent's phone.

The pack includes the first year's subscription, three handsets enabled and the first ten pings. Larger families can enable further handsets on payment of £4.95 p.a. per handset. Further 'pings' are purchased in bundles of 20 from KidsOK for £9.95.

UK network operators O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone have enabled the service but, subject to decisions from Virgin and 3, children's phones on Virgin and 3 cannot be located.

All mobile numbers are encrypted by the KidsOK servers to ensure privacy and parents go through Home Office approved security checks during registration before they are able to use the service. Every child tracked by a parent has to opt in to the KidsOK service before it can start and they can switch the service off at any time.

The KidsOK service does not require a PC and there is no need to install any software. Parents using the service need their mobile phones to be enabled for WAP (GPRS).

The firm said that each pack sold generates £1 towards the KidsOK Charitable Trust which provides donations to a variety of children’s charities and good causes.