(NEW YORK) — For mom Brooke King, keeping an eye on her toddler can be challenging.
As a result, she has turned to Apple’s AirTag smart devices for some peace of mind and to help her keep track of her 3-year-old daughter, who is still too young for a cellphone.
“I always find myself running after her quickly … I didn’t want to teach her that if she ran off, I would just run after her and it was OK to continue this behavior,” King explained to “Good Morning America.”
In crowded areas, King has her daughter Kella wear the AirTag in the form of a bracelet. If they were to get separated, King can then check her iPhone and see Kella’s exact location.
“It does help me feel more in control of the situation. As a parent, my top priority is her safety in addition to her ability to have some independence,” King said.
After an AirTag is connected to an iPhone, whenever they’re brought near each other, the iPhone will recognize it. AirTags can also be given custom names. Apple told ABC News that the AirTags are meant to track items and not people and suggests customers can use the Apple Watch instead to stay on top of their children’s whereabouts because it has more robust safety features.
Parenting expert Ericka Souter told “GMA” that AirTags can be a good way to give young children independence and let parents look out for their kids at the same time.
“If you have little ones who may be walking to school alone for the first time or going to after school activities and you just want to make sure that they’re safe, [an AirTag might be a good idea],” Souter said. “Parents have a lot of safety concerns in this day and age.”
For older children, Souter said it’s important to build trust and boundaries, and using AirTags might not be the way to go.
“If you have a teenager who needs to go back and forth to school or hangs out with their friends or has a curfew, you have to eventually begin to trust them to follow the rules and be back home when they need to be back home,” Souter added. “So, for a lot of families, the teenage years are kind of a cut off for something like the AirTag monitoring their whereabouts.”
Apple sells individual AirTags for $29 but also offers them in pack of four for $99. Aside from pairing them with an Apple Watch, there are other options with the purpose of tracking children. Similar competitor products usually retail for about $100 and require a monthly fee for service.
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