According to a report in Red Herring, Verizon Wireless plans to launch a child tracking service this May. The service will debut on the LG Migo, a kid-friendly phone that the carrier launched late last year. Privacy concerns have stalled the launch of a GPS based tracking service so far, but Verizon Wireless has apparently decided that it will be a popular feature for safety-conscience parents. This jives with what we have heard from LG representatives--the functionality has always been in the Migo, but it's up to Verizon Wireless to make use of it.
Joe Astroth, Autodesk’s vice president of Location Based Services, talks about the service:
The Chaperone service will cost between $10 and $15 per month, and parents will be able to locate the Migo phone within several yards using the parent’s cell phone or an Internet site, Mr. Astroth said. The parent will also be able to receive a text message if the child leaves a designated area in a service called “geo-fencing.”
Child tracking won't be the only location based service that Verizon Wireless will launch, expect a turn-by-turn navigation service called VZ Navigator to launch later this year. It's only one of a handful of services expected to debut.