Halloweens new digital leash: Tech firms let parents track trick-or-treaters and warn of nearby crime

Parents worried about sending their kids trick-or-treating alone this Halloween can now use technology that not only tracks their every move — but warns them when their children are near a reported crime or other dangerous incident.A growing assortment of apps and gadgets from companies including family safety app Life360, Verizon, Apple and TickTalk lets parents monitor their children’s locations, establish virtual boundaries, receive alerts about nearby crimes and even find out when a child removes a GPS-equipped smartwatch.Wireless giant Verizon is promoting its Gizmo Watch 4, a children’s smartwatch introduced in July that allows parents to monitor their kids’ locations and establish virtual boundaries.The device can even notify parents when a child removes the watch from their wrist.Verizon is touting the gadget’s GPS location sharing, boundary alerts and parent-approved contacts as tools to help children venture out with greater independence.The watch, which also supports video calls, connects to the Verizon Family app, allowing parents to manage its tracking and safety features.Apple is also competing for parents seeking to monitor their children without handing them smartphones.Its Apple Watch For Your Kids feature lets parents use the Find My app to check their children’s whereabouts and receive notifications when they arrive at or leave designated locations.The watches can be configured through a parent’s iPhone, allowing children to make calls and send messages without owning an iPhone themselves.Another competitor, TickTalk, unveiled its TickTalk 6 smartwatch earlier this month, targeting children ages 3 to 12.The $169.99 device offers GPS tracking, calling, messaging and emergency SOS capabilities without giving children access to social media or the open internet.Parents can also review their children’s recent routes through the companion app.TickTalk, which requires a separate wireless subscription starting at $9.99 a month, has been m...