TEXAS – For parents of teenagers, not knowing where your child is can be frustrating, even frightening. But giving them a cell phone doesn’t always mean they’ll answer.
That’s why a Texas mom took control and invented an app that her kids — and yours — can’t ignore.
Sharon Standifird was livid the day she called and texted her teenage children and they didn’t respond. Once she knew they were safe, but ignoring her calls, she got an idea.
“We need to develop an app that just shuts their phone completely down and they can’t even use it,” she said. “And I started, literally just started researching how to develop an app.”
Her husband, William, says he wasn’t surprised. “Anything she’s ever really set her mind to, she’s done,” he said.
Standifird has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and served in the Gulf War. “In Iraq we did patrolling as military police. That was the unit that I was assigned to,” she said.
So becoming an app developer was just one more challenge for this mom on a mission.
After months of design and working with developers, Ignore No More was born.
“As a parent, all I have to do is touch the app, tap his name,” Standifird explained. “To lock Bradley’s device, enter at least a 4-digit unlock code. And now I’m going to press ‘lock Bradley’s phone.’ And if you watch Bradley’s phone, it’s going to go blank. Bradley needs to call me because I’m the person that has the unlock password.”
With one tap, a list of only parent-selected contacts comes up. The child can call, get the password and unlock the phone.
“It takes away texting, it takes away the gaming, it takes away calling their friends. The child will always be able to call 911,” Standifird said.
So how does her son, Bradley, feel about the idea?
“Um, well I thought it was a good idea, but for other people, not me,” he replied.
“I do have to say that he responds to my texts and my calls a whole lot quicker than he used to,” Standifird said.
