It's safe to guess that just as many moms have a smartphone in their purse as they do a half gallon of milk in the fridge. Which makes smartphones a smart place to post about missing children.
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Stephen Fern, founder of the app Lost Kidz knows first hand how terrifying it can be when you realize your child has wondered off. While traveling in France, one of Fern's six children went missing for 25 minutes. They found him unharmed, but from that incident the idea for Lost Kidz was born.
With Lost Kidz, the moment you realize your child is missing, you launch the app on your phone and send out an alert. All Lost Kidz users within a 1 mile radius will get the alert, including his or her picture and other details, if you chose to include them. Only others who have the Lost Kidz app will be alerted to your cry for help.
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After 30 minutes, the app will widen the search radius and alert other Lost Kidz users. When two hours have passed, the app will alert every Lost Kidz users in 30 miles.
The Lost Kidz website points out that users of the app should call the police first in an emergency.
The Lost Kidz app is free to download on iTunes. It costs an additional .99 cents per year to register your child and should you need to do so, send alerts. All Lost Kidz users receive the alerts for free, regardless of whether or not they register a child on the app.
"If 50 million people can connect to an app which allows people to 'draw something,' what would happen if we all banded together behind an App that could save lives?," he tells Mashable in an email. "Who wouldn't be motivated by that as a challenge? I was inspired by this vision. And the amazing reaction from everyone we have shared that vision with along the way was even more motivation to bring this to fruition. We want this to be on the smartphones of every parent and caregiver on the planet. It's a huge challenge: but one worth fighting for."
Fern was able to get funding from his brothers and the American Humane Association, according to Pando Daily.
The Amber Alert system also recently released an app for Android, with plans for an iOS one in the near future. The app has GPS technology, AT&T connectivity and is also integrated the National Sex Offender database. If your child gets within less than 500 feet from a registered sex offender's house, the app will alert you.
Would using an app like Lost Kidz give you peace of mind? Tell us in the comments.
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, FrankyDeMeyer
Matt Petronzio contributed to this post.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/send-missing-child-alerts-smartphone-lost-kidz-app-152714614.html
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