A mother, fed up with her kids ignoring her calls, created a smart phone app that allows parents to lock their children's phones until they get in touch, CNET reported Sunday.
Sharon Standifird, from Houston, was enraged the day she called and texted her teenagers and they didn't respond, but after months of working with developers, "Ignore No More" came to fruition.
With one tap, a list of parent-picked contacts comes up. The child can call one of the numbers, get the password and unlock the phone. It takes away texting, gaming and calling other numbers outside of the parent-selected contacts, but the child will always be able to call 911, Standifird told CBS. The app is only available for Android phones via Google Play and costs $1.99.
The app seems to be successful so far, and least for Standifird, because she said her son Bradley responds to texts and calls more quickly than he used to. Bradley likes the idea, but only for other kids.
"Well, I thought it was a good idea, but for other people, not me," he told CBS.
The app has a website set up for it so parents can receive more information. In the frequently asked questions section, the website explains that if a child tries to disable the application by deactivating the administrator role, the parent receives an email alert saying, "warning, your child is tampering with Ignore No More."
Even if a child shuts the phone off, activates airplane mode or removes the battery, Ignore No More will lock the device as soon as the phone comes back and connects to the internet or nearest cell phone tower.
The only thing a child can do to avoid Ignore No More is to uninstall the app from their phone. In this case, parents can download it again and activate themselves as the administer.
