When a regular parent is frustrated by teenage children for not picking their calls, they yell and shout, they may also give a time-out, but not Sharon Standifird; she built an app that shuts their phones down.
Standifird was livid one day after her children refused to respond to her repeated calls and texts. Her worry turned to anger once she knew they were in fact safe and an idea sparked. "We need to develop an app that just shuts their phone completely down and they can't even use it," she told FOX News. "I got on the internet and I literally just started researching how to develop an app."
Standifird got in touch with Mountaineer Technology Ventures - a technology firm based in Fulshear, Texas which was founded by a school teacher turned entrepreneur in 2013 - and after months of developing and designing, "Ignore No More" was born.
Standifird explains that all the parent has to do is touch the icon for "Ignore No More" in their phone, type the child's name and enter a four-digit code and press lock (child's name)'s phone. Soon after, the child's phone goes blank and to unlock it, the child has to call their parent as he/she is the only one who has the password to unlock it.
"When you lock your child's phone with "Ignore No More", your child has only two options - he or she can call you back, or call for an emergency responder. No calls to friends, no text, no games, notta' until they call you back. When they do, you can unlock their phone if you choose to do so. How's that for parental control?" asks the creators of the app, in the website for "Ignore No More".
Her husband William said that he was not surprised with this endeavor, because "Anything she's really set her mind to, she's done". Standifird has also served in the Gulf War and has even climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
While, her son is less excited about the app as he knows it will not be used just on others, but also on him, Standifird says "he responds to my texts and my calls a whole lot quicker than he used to."
The app can be purchased for Android phones on Google Play for $1.99 (Rs 120.92) and requires Android version 3.0+. Some of its key features are that it is very easy to install and will be up and running in less than 10 minutes. One account is capable of controlling the devices of more than one child and one child's device can be controlled by more than one parent. Moreover, it is virtually impossible to disable the app.
While people on Twitter are quite excited about the product, it has received some negative reviews on Google Play regarding lack of availability on most phones.
"It's a good concept, but should list phones that it works with. My daughters m8 doesn't have ICE so I couldn't list myself as an emergency contact. Makes the App useless," commented Terence Blade, who gave the app two stars.
Heather J, who gave the app one star said, "Dissapointing Won't work on my family's galaxy 3s. Would like a refund, but I don't see that happening."
Overall, the app has a rating of 3.8 and is recommended by over 355 users.
Alice Jones tweeted, "Wow. Mixed feelings on this one http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/ignore-no-more-app ..."
Lady Gah Gah asked, "What. The. Hell. Is. Ignore no more. Mummah is going Gah Gah over it."
Quoting an apt proverb Indu Prasad tweeted, "Necessity is the mother of... http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/08/15/frustrated-mom-creates-ignore-no-more-app-to-get-teen-kids-to-return-calls/ ..."
To know more about the app, click here and to buy it click here.
