The hard drive ended up in the parents' possession when they packed up their son's apartment, and the mother had thought the device was a small speaker for a computer, she said.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

"After a frightening personal experience where I briefly lost my young son, Filip, in a mall, I realized that a communications and location device for children was not a nice-to-have but a must-have, " said Sten Kirkbak, founder and CEO of Evado Filip.

ENGADGET: VivoPlay packs WiFi, GPS and a GSM connection for tracking, calling your kids (video)