KidsConnect is a GPS tracker phone for kids

The KidsConnect phone lets you see your child's location on a map, send texts and even secretly "listen in" to their surroundings.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Richdimiro and this is Rich on Tech Daily. So
I had a cool device come my way called the
Kids Connect Phone. This is an interesting little gadget for
parents who want to keep in touch with their kids
and also keep track of them on a map. So
it's a very simple cell phone. It only has a
touch screen and then four buttons on it. In fact,
there's not even an easy way for a kid to

(00:22):
figure out how to turn this device on or off.
So the touch screen can store up to fifteen phone numbers.
You pre program those in. And the thing about this
phone is that it can only make or receive calls
and texts from numbers that you preapprove, so you have
to add them to the address book, and then and
only then can the phone get calls from them, make

(00:42):
calls to them, or of course the same thing with
text messages. So that's kind of cool. So first and foremost,
it's a GPS tracking device, so you can always see
where your kid is on a map, and then you
have a location history so you can see where your
kid has been on a map. There's a feature called SOS.
So this is that fourth button I was telling you about.
So if you press and hold that button, it will

(01:04):
get in touch with up to three people that you determine.
It will also send a text message to them with
the location of the phone. Then there's a geo fencing
feature which lets you set an area around their school
or wherever you want the kid to be, and if
they enter or leave that area, you will get an
alert that says, hey, the kid entered or left that
alert that area. And finally, this one's really interesting. It's

(01:27):
called voice monitoring. So this allows you to send a
text message to the child's device and then the device
will secretly call you back, so it doesn't light up,
it doesn't ring or do anything fancy to let you
know that you're listening in on your child, so you
can pick up your phone and hear what's happening around
your child. So the Kids Connect phone again as it's called,

(01:47):
is one hundred and thirty dollars. You do have to
pay a monthly fee of thirteen dollars a month minimum
for their service. You cannot add this as a separate
line to your current phone plan with say Verizon, their
T Mobile, or AT and T, although the service for
the Kids Connect phone is provided by T Mobile. Now
the software on the back end not so pretty. You know,

(02:10):
this is an independent company. It's definitely not up to
the standards that we're used to of say Facebook and
Instagram and how slick all their apps look. So I
found it to be a little bit wonky on the
back end to try to figure out how to do things,
and it just doesn't have that like slick look to it.
But I think the company's onto something. Parents definitely want
a device that's easy for their kids to use. This

(02:33):
can be for kids ages four and up, and also
just something that would have the battery last a really
long time. This has like maybe two days of battery life,
three if you really stretch it. But we need something
that lasts like a week, so you can put it
in your kids backpack for the week, forget about it,
and be able to get in touch with them at
the same time. So I'm glad that kids Connect is
working on this. I think this is a good start.

(02:55):
I think that if a company like at and T
or te Mobile, or if Verizon eventually sold these phone
in their store and you can add it to your plan,
that would be really nice as well. So if you
want to see the video I did on the kid's
connect phone. You can see it on my Facebook page.
Just go to facebook dot com slash Rich on tech.
A lot of people kind of mixed on this thing.
Some of them are saying, you know what, just get

(03:16):
your kid a real phone, or you know, maybe you
don't need a phone for your kid at all. This
is all too much, so you can voice in with
your opinion on my Facebook page. Thanks so much for listening.
I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk to you next time.