by Cheryl Scott

Created on: August 28, 2009   Last Updated: August 29, 2009

This article will help you learn to use a cell phone to keep your child safer. The cell phone has two functions in safety. One function is for the child to be able to call you or the police for help. The other function is for you or the police to use the phone's GPS device to locate a lost child. To keep your children safe you will want to be certain you are correctly using your cell phone capabilities.

For all functions of the cell phone to be useful to your child, the cell phone must be on their person. As basic as that sounds, children forget their phones frequently. Parents should not take it for granted that the child has the cell phone on their person when they leave the house. You might wish to get into a regular habit of checking your child every time they go out to be certain they have their phone on their person.

If the battery is dead or malfunctioning, the cell phone is useless regardless of which safety function you wish to use. Batteries on cell phones should be charged properly, regularly, and not run down by excessive calls or texting. Cell batteries should be fully charged before their first usage. After the first usage the battery should be charged nightly. Your child should use the phone only to make important calls to you or other helpers. Your child should not use the cell phone as a toy. If the child uses the cell phone for excessive texting and or phone calls, the child will run the battery down rendering it useless in time of emergency. The GPS function in the phone is useful if the phone is shut off, but not if the battery it dead. Teenagers do not prefer for their phone usage to be restricted, but nonetheless, they should learn that the cell phone is a tool not a toy. To teach this concept to your teenager you can initiate a reward system of offering your teenager big rewards for coming home with fully charged batteries.

You can use your GPS capable cell phone as a tracking device to locate lost children. The GPS means Global Positioning System. Many cell phones are GPS capable through a wide variety of networks. You should ask your cell phone provider if your particular phone has this ability and if their network supports the technology. Most do, but please check on this.

To use your cell phone's GPS to track a lost child, the function must be turned on manually. When I was at the phone store and asked could my phone track my child the sales man happily reported "yes". He did not, however, tell me that it could only do this if

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