Halloween is not just a (kinda) scary night for kids, it can be downright frightening for their parents. How do you keep them safe.
Did you know it is illegal for convicted sex offenders to hand out candy on Halloween? In many places they cannot turn on their outside lights and in some cities, police plan to lock them up until Halloween night is over.
The scary thing is, most of us don’t know that convicted sex offenders may live down the street and if you don’t know, your kids certainly could knock on their door.
One app is eye-opening for parents and could keep their kids far from their house.
Offender Locator works on both iPhones and Android devices. The developers gather public data and display the names, addresses, and crimes. The sex offender database is available for anyone to see; Offender Locator places that information on a map. Zoom in on your street, neighborhood or city and every convicted sex offender’s home is marked with a pinpoint. Click on one and you’ll see their mug shot, name, address, birthdate, the offense for which they were convicted and much more information.
The app is free with advertisements. 99-cents removes the ads and send alerts when you get in close proximity of their home.
Life 360 is perhaps the most well-known family safety app and has been around for many years. Parents, or anyone for that matter, can set up a group of family members or friends. They’ll not only see the location of each person on a map, but the app will send an alert if one of the members of the group goes outside a perimeter established in the app. If there’s trouble, anyone in the group can reach out to every other member with an SOS message which shows their exact location.
Life 360 is being used by parents to keep an eye on other members of their family, it’s also used by groups of friends on college campuses. If a person is going from one place to another, everyone in the group will receive an alert message if they don’t show up in a reasonable amount of time.
Life 360 is available for iPhones and Android devices. Halloween is a fun type scary night for kids. It doesn’t have to be frightening for parents.