Ignore No More- A digital time-out for kids

by Startacus Admin

Sharon Standifird is a mum that you definitely don’t want to mess with.

From her time serving in the Gulf War to scaling Mount Kilimanjaro, she meets life's challenges with headstrong determination and a ‘failure is not an option’ type mentality.

Most recently Sharon has added an unexpected string to her proverbial bow, and is taking the world by storm with the simplistic genius of an app she has created.

The problem that she, and countless parents and guardians the world over are faced with everyday is how to stop your children from ignoring your calls when they are out and about.

Those of us who were teenagers at the time of the ‘mobile revolution’ can sympathise to an extent with the kids of today. After all, there we were trying to have fun and suddenly our parents had the capacity to contact us any time, anywhere.

Still - we had the option to ignore the call and face the consequences later if we wanted.

Ignore No More could lay waste to that particular sliver of freedom and bring welcome reassurance to many a panic prone parent as this aptly named app makes the prospect of ignoring a parent’s phone call a very unattractive one for kids.

How does it do that?

It gives parents the power to remotely lock their child's phone so that the only functions they will be able to access are calling back or calling emergency services. The phone can only be unlocked with the use of a unique code known only to the parents, so the child is left with 2 options - continue to ignore their parent and lose the functions of their phone, or call back to retrieve the code. But couldn’t the kid just uninstall the app from their phone? No… in a twist of sledge hammer irony, if the child/ young person attempts to remove or in any way tamper with the app, their phone will immediately lock and the parents will be informed via email…harsh but effective!

You won't be surprised to learn that Ignore No More has also sparked many a heated debate and has found its way to the centre of discussions about how much control over our kids is too much control. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on, you can't deny that it’s pretty darn genius.

I wonder how long it will take an uber tech savvy member of the Y2K generation to defeat it?

If like Sharon, you have a great idea / startup / project, why not add it to our marvellous collaboration space where you can receive loads of support from fellow self starters, mentors and investors.

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Published on: 27th August 2014