Cell phones can track childrenSprint Nextel service would pinpoint location

With the help of technology, kids will no longer be able to claim they are at a friend’s house or at school when they really aren’t.

On Thursday, Sprint Nextel rolled out a cell phone service that allows parents to pinpoint where their children are by tracking their cell phone. The parents can flip open their phone or log onto the Internet and find their child’s location stamped on a map.

The technology, using global positioning system (GPS), has been available for some time, but it has mostly been geared toward businesses that want to track workers. Now the technology is available in easy-to-use consumer applications.

The Sprint service, using technology from Emeryville, Calif.-based WaveMarket, is called Family Locator. Once a family signs up, an application is loaded onto the parent phone.

The parent phone has four simple options: locate, messaging, manage or exit. After choosing locate, a map appears with the child’s location. The service uses GPS, but if it’s not available, it will locate the phone based on the nearest cell phone tower. The service will not work if the phone being tracked is off or is not receiving a signal.

Family Locator is available on both the Sprint and Nextel networks.

For $9.99, there are unlimited location requests for up to four phones. If both parents want the service on separate phones, they will have to pay for the application twice.