Sprint Family Locator: There's Safety in Numbers and Cell Phones

I recently read an article about a missing teenage girl from Brooklyn, NY. The article was one of those sad, never should have happened stories that is constantly repeated over and over. Young people should not travel alone. Sometimes I feel like grown people should not travel alone. The missing young girl was in her early teens and she was found dead in a trash bag. Whoever killed her decided to throw her away like a piece of garbage and I was so taken back that I did not even realize I was crying. The saddest things was that the young lady had maybe one or two write ups in a local newspaper…nothing national…no search team for her...nothing as usual. The media loves to cover who they love and that's just reality. Therefore, we as parents, aunts, brothers or grandparents have to take precautions with our children and their safety measures.

Reading the story made me think about my childhood and how I traveled in packs with friends. I honestly can not remember going anywhere without at least three other girls my age. I was a social butter fly who loved company and sometimes I feel like that was the best way to keep me safe. Apparently, my parents were aware of this, and always seemed to pair me with a group of friends, or one of my brothers if I was leaving the home. The idea is to never give up on the buddy system. Children with cell phones and even the family locator program some cell phone companies have adopted is another great way to keep our beautiful children safe.

According to TechNews.com, the Sprint Family Locator is a location-based service (LBS) that lets a parent use a phone or PC to pinpoint the location of a child on a map, complete with the address and surrounding landmarks, and to verify the accuracy of the information within a specified radius. "Sprint Family Locator is a valuable tool that can help parents and guardians have a better sense of their children's whereabouts when they're apart," said Danny Bowman, vice president of product marketing for Sprint.

Tips:

-Pair your child with at least two or more people before they leave the home
-Make sure you know exactly where they are going
-Give your child a cell phone preferably with the Family Locator component
-Drive or go with them to their destination
-Tell them to never speak to strangers

Unfortunately, we live in an ever growing world of love, as well as violence, and we need to maintain the proper tools and principles to protect our children in it. So, the next time you send your daughter or son to the store make sure they are not alone.