Consumer Alert: Tech tools to keep your kids safe while trick-or-treating this Halloween
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Halloween is less than two weeks away, so now is the time to make sure you have the tech tools to track your little ghost or goblin.
If we’re lucky, we as parents are cool up until our kids become tweens. Neither my tween nor my teen want me trailing behind them when they’re on the candy hunt.
Many parents believe it’s safe to allow kids 11 and older to trick or treat with friends without a parent. But according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 4,500 kids are injured each year on Halloween, and kids 12 to 15 are at the highest risk, likely because they’re running around in a sugar-fueled frenzy without a parent to slow them down.
Not surprisingly, more than 30% of Halloween-related injuries are trips and falls. So after we’ve had a good talk with our kids about safety and laid down clear rules and boundaries, we need to be able to track them.
I sat down with AT&T tech guru Jason Komenski about tech tools that are already on your little goblin’s smartphone.
Jason Komenski, AT&T: “So if you have your child turn on shared location services, and you have access to their Find My iPhone, and your Family Sharing services turned on their phone, whether it’s Android or an Apple iPhone, you’re able to see their every movement throughout the night.”
But what if your little ghost or goblin doesn’t have a smartphone? No worries.
If you have an Android, you can use a Samsung Galaxy SmartTag which sells for just over $20 on Amazon. You can just drop it in your kid’s trick-or-treat bag. If you have an Apple device, you can use an Apple AirTag which will cost about $25. Jason showed me how it works.
Jason Komenski: “Before I sat down here, I put an AirTag somewhere in this room and we’re gonna find it together.”
Deanna Dewberry, News10NBC: “Okay.”
Jason Komenski: “We’re gonna go right to my Find My iPhone app on my phone.”
Deanna Dewberry: “Okay.”
Jason Komenski: “So I click on this right here and it says ‘play sound.'”
Deanna Dewberry: “Ah – in my purse! Well that, that’s awesome!”
If your kiddo is within about 100 feet of your house, you can make that alarm go off to remind them it’s time to come home. Also, if your child has a smartwatch, remind them about the emergency button and review how and when to use it.
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