As parents we’re continually looking for innovative ways to ensure their children's safety. The Apple AirTag, primarily designed for locating personal belongings, has sparked curiosity and experiments among parents for its potential use in tracking their kids. Apple, however, has made it clear that "AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person’s property."
Despite this clear caution, parents still post tutorials on TikTok for hiding AirTags on their children’s person or belongings, and there are an abundance of wristband’s available on the internet compatible with the Apple AirTag. In a video with over 60K views, Lexi @strollinginthesuburbs shared a tutorial on how to insert an AirTag into the sole of a child’s shoe.
Our town has weekly summer concerts at a local arts park. They’re always a blast, buzzing with families eating, drinking and dancing with kids running in circles around it all. In this setting, there’s always a bit of that parental anxiety lingering in the air. We want our daughter to explore and enjoy her community and friends without us hovering over her, but the world doesn’t feel as safe as it used to.
In a flash of what felt like parental genius (or desperation for a bit of peace of mind), we took the AirTag from my key ring and tucked it in her pocket. This way we could keep a virtual eye on her without stifling her freedom. It felt like a neat, modern solution to an age-old problem of letting kids explore safely.
Turns out, our makeshift child locator didn’t really do the job. The idea was good in theory, but in practice? Not so much. The AirTag, which is pretty ace at helping you find your misplaced wallet or keys, didn’t quite cut it for keeping track of our little mover and shaker in real-time. It seemed like the AirTag was constantly playing catch-up, and not very well.
It was a bit of a letdown, honestly. We had this image of seamlessly checking our phone and knowing where she was in the crowd. Instead, we learned firsthand that when Apple says AirTags are meant for finding stuff, not people, they’re not kidding. So, our little aha moment turned into a nah moment pretty quickly.
This experience led us to reconsider our options for monitoring our daughter’s whereabouts and wellbeing when we’re not immediately present. After researching various products, we decided to switch to Littlebird for our upcoming adventures.
Unlike the AirTag, Littlebird is specifically designed for tracking the safety and location of children. Littlebird is built to give children freedom while keeping parents informed and reassured. It offers features tailored to parents' needs, and is certified specifically for children under the age of 12.
Our experiment with the AirTag highlighted an important lesson: the right tool for the right job matters, especially when it comes to the safety of our children. While the AirTag is a fantastic innovation for locating lost keys or bags, it falls short when applied outside its intended use, such as tracking a child in a crowded space. In contrast, devices like Littlebird are designed with parental needs in mind, offering a reliable and effective solution for tracking a child's whereabouts.
