Track my kids - More and more often, we hear on the news of children being kidnapped or abducted. Missing for months, years or permanently; these stories seldom come to a happy ending.

Fortunately, it is within our power to help effect a better outcome. We can help our local police locate our missing children and save our kids from misery and a possible untimely death. Here are several solutions I have found and implemented to track my kids as a concerned citizen and parent who would not want to experience a feeling of helplessness in this situation.

Yes, There are several ways you can track your kids location with their cell phone.

First up is Sprint Family Locator. Cost is 15 days free and then $5 a month for 4 phones. Works best with sprint or nextel phones but can work for other phones as well. Uses both gps and cell tower triangulation so that as long as the phone is on you can get a good idea were it's at. Very handy when your kids lose their phone. Access from Mobile or PC for your convenience. No installation necessary although your phone must have GPS capability. Sprint Family Locator allows you to set up safety check for specific dates and times and emails you the results so that you don't have to go to the program and run a check for regularly occurring events such as kids return home from school.

Next up, Accu Tracking, great for keeping track of new teen drivers (speed is tracked and displayed). There are a couple of ways you can go here. You can register you own phone if it is compatible or you can purchase a starter kit that has a prepaid phone included, ready to go. Accu Tracking service runs $5.99 and is compatible with Google Android, Boost Mobile, Nextel, Blackberry and Windows Mobil Phones. They provide detailed instructions for software installation and setup. The starter kit ($99) gets you a boost mobile pre paid phone that has the AccuTracking software pre-installed and configured on the phone. Your tracking account is also pre-registered and configured. Once you received the kit, you only need to activate the phone online at boostmobile.com, which can usually be done in 10 minutes. An easy wa
y for me to track my kids.

If you have watched the movie "Taken" starring Lliam Nieson you might have noticed that the first thing that the young lady lost when she was abducted was her cell phone. Most preditors these days know they must get rid of this divise as soon as possible. If one of your main concerns is abduction or kidnapping, a cell phone would be the least desirable method for tracking your child.

Universal locators are small GPS divises that can be easily hidden, possibly give you a longer window of opportunity to locate your child. They are small enough to be easily stuck into the watch pocket of a pair of Jeans or interior jacket pocket.

Zoombak's Universal Locator works with GPS and cell phone technologies interfaces and sends reports through a nation wide (U.S.) network and allows you unlimited locates 24/7. Zoombak also comes with the ability to establish up to 5 safety zones. Once established, anytime the locator enters or leaves a safety zone you are notified by text and email. A location log is kept for up too a week. Batteries last 5 days on stand by or as many as 150 location requests before recharging is required. Monthly service contract required at $9.99 a month.

I just looked over my latest cell phone bill and noticed that my youngest child shared 8177 text messeges last month...thank goodness I opted for unlimited texting! If your a concerned parent you are probably trying to keep track of who your kids are getting texts and phone calls from. It's a big job and also one that raises lots of privacy issues. Only you can judge how much you need to invade you kids privacy in this way but a little checking up never hurts.

I use a reverse lookup service to get the best most up to date info on who owns the phones used to contact my kids. Sure, there is a small fee involved ($39.95 yearly membership) but it enables me to do unlimited numbers of lookups and the reports they give are first rate. They tell you owners name, address, plan carrier in case you need to complain about harassment, and background information. 

My quest to track my kids and protect them has given me a good collection of tools to do the job. Today as they step out into the world I have a lot more confidence and sleep better at night because of it.