HOWELL, Mich. — Summer is just around the corner, and once school is out, kids will be going in all different directions enjoying the warmer weather.
That's when one local dad came up with an idea.
Chris Pagett of Howell came up with the idea a few summers ago when a neighbor boy came over to his house to play with his kids. The boy asked Pagett to call his mom to tell her where he was, but Pagett didn't have her number. So he created an easier way to keep track of your kids.
"That's when it kind of hit me about an idea."
The app, called SafeSubs has about 2,000 downloads since it's launch date in January. Pagett and his business partner Chris Ross in Texas wanted to give parents a way to track their kids, while also giving them the freedom to roam.
"Really to encourage play and give kids some freedom without giving them a cell phone or giving them a smart watch or a GPS tracker, this is another avenue for that, it doesn't cost anything," Pagett said.
Janel Moon uses the app to keep track of her kids.
"I have four kids going in four different directions at all times so I am able to quickly look at my phone and see where they are at as opposed to tracking down parents and asking them if they've seen my child," Moon said.
When a child comes over, the parent checks them into their house, and it sends an alert his or her parents. The creators say it's safe to use because it doesn't share location information with others, and to register a child, you must provide confirmation via cellphone. In addition, everyone in the group is made aware of the new member.
"It's a tool that will allow these people to create smaller, parent, like-minded communities to look after one another in subdivisions that have a lot of children and grow from there," Pagett explained.
A tool that is making the lives of thousands of parents a little easier.
"I don't have to micromanage my children or be a helicopter parent and I can let them be. My kids don't have cell phones...it's a nice way to know where they are at without being on top of them all the time," Moon added.
Parents can also list their child's allergies on the app. In addition, there is also a hangout feature where parents can check their kids in and other parents in the neighborhood are notified that their child is available to play. Parents can also block people on the app if they feel its needed.
The app is free to download. You can find it in the iTunes store or on Google Play.
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