Children are receiving cellular telephones at an earlier age than before. Many parents consider them a necessity in raising their children.
But one parent, Nick Herbert of the United Kingdom, was angry when he had trouble getting his son, Ben, to text him back after he purchased him a smartphone.
That ire led to Herbert inventing a device that’s being called “the parent’s revenge” in some circles. It’s a RespondASAP that will lock a child’s phone until they reply.
Herbert explains on the app’s website why he decided to create the device after buying his son a phone.
“However, what I thought was a solution turned into a different problem,” Herbert wrote. “Because the phone was ‘smart,’ he could play games and watch videos on it. So invariably he keeps his phone on silent so I wouldn’t know.”
That led to Herbert deciding to take matters into his own hands.
“There are messaging apps that tell you when a message is delivered and seen, but the point is the message can be ignored or not seen because he didn’t hear it,” Herbert explained. “So ReplyASAP is my solution to this problem.”
Distractify.com reports theapp allows a parent to send or schedulemessages, and makes a message audible even if the recipient has their phone on silent.
That noise will drone on until the recipient acknowledges it.
The app will also display this message on their phone over whatever they are doing, blocking the phone until the child replies. It even gives the sender the recipient’s location.
The app is currently available only on Android phones, but should be coming soon for iOS devices. RespondASAP starts at about $1.25 to connect to one other person.
Is this a small price to pay to be able to grab the attention of your children when it is necessary?
Or is it too much intrusion for a parent into the lives of their children?
