Blocking Cell Phone Bullies
By: Tina Shively
Updated: December 6, 2011
A new software app developed in East Rochester can now help parents find out who's calling and texting your child, and how often it's happening.
East Rochester based Xelex Mobility Solutions has a brand new cell phone app on the market.
It can help parents keep their eyes on their children, with the help of their computer.
Kurt Karshick is Vice President of Sales at Xelex. He said "There's almost a sense that they're losing control because technology is coming at us so quickly...It's a safe and easy way to utilize your familiy members phones to monitor what's going on and help keep them safe."
It's called Family Track.
Through the paid service, parents can enter their children's cell phone numbers into their home computer.
Then, the phone's GPS allows parents to get a behind the scenes look at what their child is doing.
The program includes a child locator, a schedule reminder, and a way to protect teenage drivers and passengers.
Karshick added "Automatically once your phone hits a certain speed limit you can not view your text messages thus eliminating people from the temptation."
Another feature is the abilty to get notifications if someone, possibly a bully, is frequently harrassing your child by phone or text message.
"Unfortunately kids are almost embarrased to talk about it so they won't necessarily share what's a good text versus a bad. But parents have the ability to see patterns and approach them and sit down with their kids and talk to them about it."
Parents can also restrict and block text messages or calls from users, forcing them to voicemail, and relieving teens from distractions.
As a father of two, Karshick understands what parents go through to keep their kids safe.
He hopes the Xelex app will help more of them tackle potential problems before bullying becomes a burden.
Karshick added "Whether it's depression, whether they're over tired, whether grades are going down, it allows them to put some of the pieces together sooner than later and potentially intervene and prevent things like a bullying act or some of the self-destruction that's going on with teens today."
For more information on Xelex, click here.
