back to article T-Mobile touts US teen tracker

T-Mobile USA is offering to prevent teens texting while driving for only $5 a month, and track their movements for free, as long as they have an Android handset. DriveSmart Plus comes from Location Labs, which also provides FamilyWhere for those who want their offspring's movements plotted on a convenient map. DriveSmart …

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  1. Cameron Colley

    May be of some use to Cathy Cruz Marrero?

    Perhaps Cathy Cruz Marrero could get it for Cathy Cruz Marrero's phone to stop Cathy Cruz Marrero walking and texting so Cathy Cruz Marrero doesn't fall into anything else?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Cathy Cruz Marrero

      I think Cathy Cruz Marrero just wants to hear Cathy Cruz Marrero talk about Cathy Cruz Marrero.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    If you need to be watched in order to behave properly

    then you should not be allowed the use of a motor vehicle in the first place. FULL STOP.

    Or as you Americans say "PERIOD".

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    durrrrrr

    "kids rich enough to have Android phones would never stoop to travelling on public transport."

    A working demonstration of mental illness!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Wait... what?

    What does that have to do with T-mobile? Is this like an exclusive distribution thing or something? If its an Android app, it should run on any Android phone, no?

  5. OkKTY8KK5U

    Tracking teens...

    ...because we all know that children are possessions, right?

    Seems to me that if you've arrived at the point where you as a parent feel a need to track your child's movements like this, you have already catastrophically failed as a parent or you're the worst kind of petty control-freak. Either way, hopefully, someone will figure out a way to hack this so the trackees can send false data back.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    (untited)

    If American kids rich enough to have Android phones would never stoop to travelling on public transport, does that mean they don't use cabs either ?

    Solution is simple, buy a cheap phone your parents don't have control over. Maybe swap android phones with friends to keep anyone checking up on them guessing.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Turn off phone?

    And then miraculously leap from place to place.

    @voodoo Presumably the offering from t-mobile is that it's part of the rom, so more difficult to remove than your average android app. Not that it'll stop people rooting it and shoving their own rom on; it only takes one kid amongst a circle of friends.

    Strangely, I didn't need any safeguards like this to realise that texting and driving is a bloody daft thing to do.

  8. J 3
    Go

    And...

    And, besides what other people suggested, how about when they are riding as passengers in someone else's car? Would this be the time to use the override button, I suppose, and explain later? What a pain in the neck...

  9. Ef'd
    IT Angle

    Android phones, huh?

    So it seems that this is implemented as software. This will be great when some enterprising teen creates a hack to override GPS coordinates reported from the device. Give it a month and every kid will be able to easily lie to their parents about their location: "See? The phone says I was at school all day!"

  10. jamesrhamilton
    WTF?

    Hmm

    I hope Europe would block anything like this, noting that even teenagers have the right to privacy. (It's probably also a good parenting idea to give them some, and it's the silliest parents who'll never realise that.)

    Yours,

    Bitter Former Teenager

  11. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Happy

    Great phone for adults then

    Judging from the why people drive and text around here I'd recommend this for a lot of adults ... oh yes, and train drivers in California who don't seem to be able to drive trains and text at the same time either...

    1. KjetilS

      This is a title

      I'm sure there is only a matter of time before it becomes mandatory to have *every* phone lock up while moving. Just wait and see....

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