But with today's cheap--or free--handsets and low-cost calling plans, many parents are handing their kids phones in an effort to stay in touch and keep trackof their whereabouts.
The device won't let you make voice calls or surf the Web, but it does offer a host of safety features: It can map a bread-crumb trail of your coordinates so that people back home can track your whereabouts from any Web browser.
But in this case the police were able to track the phones to an apartment complex nearby, thanks to the ability of the phones to signal their whereabouts.