This dad from Britain invented an app that locks the phones of children until they respond to the texts by their parents.
The 47-year-old Nick Herbert was very frustrated with his 15-year-old son Ben who was constantly ignoring his messages so he decided to take things into his own hands.
A project manager, Herbert successfully created an app that ‘hijacks’ the phone of his son by locking his screen and thus, he can’t do anything until he reads what his dad wrote him.
Dad Makes an App to Ensure His Son Responds to His Texts
The app he created also sounds an alarm until the kid reads the message; even if the phone is on silent mode. Then, it informs Herbert that the child has read his message.
Moreover, the app doesn’t just ensure the kids reads what his parent is telling him, but also enables the kid to send urgent messages if necessary.
The divorced dad-of-one who resides in Bromley, London named the app RespondASAP and made it available for other parents too.
The app was downloaded 2500 times in 2019. Herbert explains that he came up with the idea for this app when Ben started secondary school.
What Was the Motivation for Creating an App of this Type?
He felt nervous when Ben didn’t text him back-he would swipe off his messages on the side and kept playing games or watching videos. Or, he would put his phone on silent.
He also found on some occasions that he was ignoring him when he’s out with friends.
These were the moments that made this worried dad build an app that would help him have more control over the phone of his teen.
But, the app works only if both phones have installed it.
Although the initial idea was to only allow him to ‘hijack’ the child’s phone, upon some talks with Ben, he also added the urgent messages option.
Ben actually asked him about situations when he might need to get to him instantly.
This is why the app has a two-way system; the parent and child agree that they’ll both be able to send urgent texts, without anyone abusing the privilege.
Ben initially agreed because he didn’t imagine his father would go through with the app. But, he did and it worked pretty well.
When Ben got a smartphone in 2017, his dad launched the app.
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