Spy on your children with the KidsOK phone service

KidsOK is a new mobile phone service that enables you to locate your offspring by pinging their mobile phones. You send a simple text message (eg 'ping michael') from your registered parental phone, and the service sends back a map showing the current location of your child's mobile. If your phone can't receive pictures, you get a text description.

The service works on all the UK networks apart from 3 (at the time of writing). A one-year subscription costs £39.95 and enables you to register three phones as either master or target phones. You also get enough credit for ten location requests -- or 'pings', in KidsOK parlance. Additional pings cost £9.95 for 20, so it'll cost you 49.8p every time you want to know where your children are hiding.

KidsOK says the service enables you to find out where your children are without ringing them up and embarrassing them in front of their peers. Crave suspects the real appeal lies in the fact that your offspring won't humiliate you by rejecting your calls. We also predict tears before bedtime: when the school bullies beat up little Johnny and steal his rucksack, you'll be happily tracking his mobile down to the videogame arcade while he sits weeping in the playground.

You can sign up online, by phone, or at retailers such as Comet and Boots. Once that's done, Big Mother is watching... -ML