Recommendations for a child’s watch with built-in tracker for park trips?

[Barrenfieldoffucks]

I’m looking for a watch with a tracker built in for my nigh on 9 year old. He is starting to want to make the odd independent park trip so this may be a good idea.

Does anyone have a recommendation?

Why do you want a tracker?

If he’s snatched, the first thing the kidnapper will do is rip of his watch and dump it. People aren’t idiots.

If you don’t trust your son to follow instructions to stay in the park not wander, perhaps he is too young to be out alone.

A tracker won’t tell you if he’s met a teenager offering him vapes, or a weirdo who likes revealing himself, or a mean kid, or someone with a knife or a scary dog.

Would a cheap phone with life 360 be better than a watch? It shows exactly where they are, what speed their walking at, if their in a car, on a bike, what % their phone is on and can have set bubbles that ping if they leave an area

My 11 and 9 year old have recently started playing out and life360 saves me so much anxiety. I still worry but feel better knowing where they are / that they can contact me if they need me

( I won't ever let mine go to the park without mee or another adult. Parks are absolutely feral )

My 10 year old has a KARRI - it’s like a walkie talkie. No screen but sends voice messages to your phone and back to the KARRI. Has a gps tracker so you can see where they are. Works abroad too. We’ve found it great for independence, most of the time it just stays in his pocket but if he fell off his bike or something he could message us, and I can tell him when it’s time to come home. There’s no way I want a kid that young having a phone.

I don't mind our park, it's within a 4 or 5 minute walk from our house and school, in a quiet residential area.

As such I'm happy with our choice to start letting him walk back from it on his own, we just want something that can show if he has left yet etc.

Karri sounds interesting, will have a look

DS has an Xplora. Its pretty alright though the tracker glitches sometimes but probably all trackers do.

My 9 year old son has an Xplora - not for tracking but so I can call him home or he can find one of his friends to play out. Or I suppose the tiny possibility that he gets hurt on his walk to school (we are the furthest house from the school so the first bit is on his own), he could call me. The tracking isn’t great but the phone bit works perfectly and it gives him a lot more freedom.

That's pretty much what we are thinking of it for. Though he won't be walking to and from school yet.

What is the battery life like?

He pops it on the charger when he gets home - so wears it maybe 12 hours. It can almost last 2 days but not if he uses it a lot. So not awesome but it’s just part of the routine now to plug it in. Several of his friends have one too and haven’t heard any huge complaints. Had it about a year now maybe?

You can buy a watch strap that an Airtag fits into. The benefit is the tracking works well and you could also use the airtag for other things (eg luggage) when he’s not using it. However it won’t tell the time and he can’t contact you/you him - if you want that, I’d probably get a brick phone, especially as senior schools seem to be going that way. Depends on your main purpose.

DS's xplora is mostly for calling too, though sometimes I check where he is when he hasn't come home on time.

Battery lasts for a few days if he isn't making a lot of calls but he does like to call his friends and talk for ages, and calls me at work to ask when I'm coming home.