How do you track your kids safely without spending loads on mobile data???

[icantwaitforsummer]

Hi all, my Son just started year 7 (and he is quite a little 11 year old) the anxiety about him having to get the school bus on his own and then walk for 15 minutes makes me worry so much. I actually hate it.

I spend the entire day as work thinking did he get there? Did he miss the bus? Has he been hit by a car? I know it's ridiculous but if I could just quickly check my phone and it's see it says he is at school I could relax.

Life 360 doesn't work as he doesn't have endless data on his phone contract so tracking him used the data within a week.

Find my IPhone doesn't work unless he has mobile data too.

There must be something I can buy to just put in his bag so I can see he is there safely? Or another way of doing it on his phone without mobile data?

How do you all do it? or are you far more relaxed than me and just let them crack on?

Apple air tag?

You can get wrist straps for apple air tags. I put one on my 6 year old when we went to London. It looked kinda like a watch. But with no face.

Airtag in his bag. But also a Lebara lowish data contract is for next to nothing & you only need to check Find My iPhone once to make sure he has arrived. No data is used on your or his phone thereafter.

Extendable lead?

The school would ring you if he wasn't there. Stop worrying!

Does the school not ring if he is absent? Also if he has a phone why not just get him to send you a quick text when he gets to school gate and then when he gets home? xx

Is he using loads of data on something else? I track mine on Find My and she’s never run out of data once except for the time she watched loads of YouTube going on holiday.

I use find my iPhone, it doesn’t use lots of data. I don’t use it often but every time I’ve checked it, it’s worked fine. Mine has a time limit for his phone apps so he doesn’t get the opportunity to use up all his data really

I recently changed my DCs phone provider to voxi mobile because you get free social media data for this reason! I got them the social plus music for £15 which also includes 105gb a month. They should never run out now!!

If it s a school bus surely he is walking into school with other kids?
We're you tracked by your parents when you went to school? What did they do?

Looks at smarty mobile, ds gets 8gb for £6 per month and I get 40gb for £9. It has never run out and we use life 360.

We used life360. I have just checked my mobile and it says life360 has used 124mb of data in the last month, including a week on holiday with no wifi. That is not much, depending on what data.allpwance he has. You can check how much data is being used in settings, but I don't think it would have been life360 using it all up!

We have just signed up for a year contract with O2 so can't change contract unfortunately and I only put 1gb of data on there so he could go on social media.

It's not a school bus it's a public bus and we are in a village so he is on his own.

I'm going to have to get a data bolt on I'm guessing? As find my iPhone doesn't work with mobile data off. He has no fun apps on there and checked he hasn't used it for anything else.

When I went to school it was a school bus and I had my sister, whereas he is on his own. I'm sure by year 8 I will be calmer but I need something for now.