A mother who is sick of her teen ignoring her calls has created an app to put an end to the teen's disrespect.
The app is called "Ignore No More," and it essentially locks a phone at the mother's command, allowing it to only do two things -- call 911 or call home.
"When you lock your child's phone with Ignore No More your child has only two options -- he or she can call you back, or call for an emergency responder. No calls to friends, no text, no games, notta' until they call you back. When they do, you can unlock their phone if you choose to do so. How's that for parental control?" says Sharon Standifird, the creator of the app, on the Ignore No More website.
While the app seems ingenious for parents, there are those who probably won't find the app as appealing.
"I thought it was a good idea. But for other people, not me," says Standifird's son, Bradley. According to Standifird, despite her son's wishes, the app is working and her children are much more alert to her calls.
The way it works is that parents install the app on both their device and their child's device. If a child decides to ignore his or her parents' calls, the child's device can be remotely locked with a password that only the parent knows. The child then has to call the parent to get the password.
Despite the great idea, it has not taken long for a workaround to be found. All it takes is for the child to go into the Device Administrators page in Security, and uncheck Ignore No More. If the parent has not changed the password since the last time they locked their child's phone, then the app can be uninstalled like normal.
It is for this reason that the team behind Ignore No More urges parents to not give their children the password until they have the phone in their possession and can unlock it for themselves. Otherwise, parents need to be creative and find a different password each time that they use the app.
If the child tries to uninstall the app without the password, their device automatically locks down and an email is sent to the parent. At this point, if the child knows the password, they can simply enter it and uninstall the app.
The app is currently available for Android devices, and costs $1.99.
