Parents, kids not calling you back? Frustrated mom develops app that remotely locks devices until they do

It should come as no surprise to parents or teenagers alike, when the parent calls or texts, the kids very often ignore their mom or dad.

This is not a new phenomenon, kids have been ignoring or rebelling against their parents since the dawn of mankind. Technology that makes us all connected can be easily ignored too. While the kids see it as a parent that won’t leave them alone, often mom or dad just want to check in and make sure all is well.

When Sharon Standifird was trying to contact her kids, and they didn’t respond, she was furious that it was simply due to them electing to ignore her. Never mind that the kids don’t pay the bills, or that Sharon was just checking in, the kids made a mistake that motivated their mom to develop an app that forces the kid’s hand.

Called Ignore No More, Sharon embarked on the challenge of developing an app which virtually shuts the kids’ phones down until they return her message. “It takes away texting, it takes away the gaming, it takes away calling their friends. The child will always be able to call 911,” according to Sharon.

Available now in Google Play, Ignore No More (see source link in slide show), will remotely lock the kid’s phone, offering them only the ability to call a pre-selected list of contacts. The parent can then provide an unlock password and everything returns to normal.  The app cannot be disabled by the kid either.

Needless to say, Sharon’s (and other parents’) kids respond to her in a much more timely fashion now. Her son, Bradley, it torn on his mom's accomplishment, “Um, well I thought it was a good idea, but for other people, not me.”





source: CBS New York (1, 2)