Durban – When Nisha Moodley’s brother, Robin Thaver, was killed in a traffic accident at the age of 20, her world was shattered. Having lost her mother when she was just 16, she had taken over the mothering role and felt protective towards him.
“He went to visit friends that night in 1988 and, while travelling down a lonely road, he was hit by a drunk driver,” she recalls. “We expected him home by midnight and when he didn’t arrive, we started to panic. There were no cellphones in those days so we phoned family and friends to find out where he was. In the early hours of the morning, our worst fears were confirmed when a stranger called to say Robin had been in an accident and was dead. Had he been found earlier, he could possibly have been saved.
“The thought of him lying in a mangled wreck on a lonely road with no help is something I will never get over.”
When her son, Theo, 22, started driving, the memories of her brother’s traumatic death flooded back.
“I knew I had to do something for my, and other parents’, peace of mind. These days we have the technology to find people so I decided to develop a mobile app, suited to our country.”
While there are other tracking apps on the market, Nisha worked with a company to customise her app to include features she felt were appropriate for South African families, and the Family Alert App was born.
The app enables you to monitor your children or loved ones, informing you of their locations at all times, without phoning and messaging. Suitable for children from the age of about 13, it lets parents know where family members are and alerts them if they are in an accident as it detects acceleration and impact. The person being monitored is able to send a distress message to loved ones. It is also useful for the elderly or infirm, should they fall or need help, says Nisha.
The app is downloaded on to the phones of the parent, or person who is monitoring, and the one being monitored. It gives a location update when the family member moves more than 50m away from their previous location. Information such as: time/date, address, battery status, map and street view of the location, and directions to the family member’s location will be sent to the parent.
Users are also able to send distress alerts discreetly in dangerous situations, which can be heard even if the phone is on vibrate or silent mode. The tone will persist until the parent views the message and the location will be shown. The battery state is sent to advise the user of Parent Alert that the phone is about to die.
The app uses GPS, Cell Tower Triangulation and wi-fi, works anywhere in the world and uses under 0.2 MB a day for location and emergency updates.
What does it cost?
There is no subscription for only updates and panic alerts. For other features such as location updates, the monthly subscription is R35 or R25 a month per subscription for families with more than one subscription. The app is available for Android smartphones and tablets, with plans to introduce IOS and BlackBerry versions soon.
Could there be resistance from teenage or adult children who don’t want helicopter parents tracking their movements? Nisha’s children, who are at university, don’t believe so.
Theo, 23, says he does not feel he is being watched and feels if a teenager or young adult has nothing to hide, it shouldn’t bother them, while Samantha, 26, believes you should never take safety for granted.
Educational psychologist, Dr Anand Ramphal, says this type of app can be good, provided everyone involved uses it responsibly.
“Teenagers place great emphasis on their privacy and their ‘secret lives’,” he says. “Any intrusion by parents on their sacred turf is strongly resented. At this stage of our children’s development, an app can be problematic and may be viewed as a ‘spy tool’.
“If distrust already exists between parent and adolescent, the youngster will view the app with suspicion and is unlikely to agree to it being downloaded to his smartphone.
“But where there is a wholesome relationship between parents and child – a relationship built up over the years, through parental behaviours such as not talking down to the teenager, not repeatedly criticising or pretending to have all the right answers, avoiding ultimatums and commands unless absolutely necessary and listening attentively to what the teen has to say – the teenager is far more likely to agree to using the app.
“He may seek certain reassurances from his parents, for example that he will have his moments of privacy, a request which understanding parents will readily grant because of the confidence they have in the son/daughter.”
Vanespiri Pillay, director of Childline in KZN, says while the app seems to be a good way of keeping children safe, parents and children must agree to it, because teenagers also want freedom.
“Children need to be taught from an early age how to stay safe,” she says.
“And parents need to be vigilant in supervising their children.
“Children should be empowered with life skills and protective skills from infancy, so that they will be aware of impending threats. A device, while helpful, may not protect a child at all times from the harsh realities of life.”
* For more information, see http://www.alertapps.co.za