Silence your mother's calls at your peril

Silence your mother's calls at your peril with new 'Ignore No More App'

Don't ignore your mother. Particularly when your mother is Sharon Standifird. She's no slouch on setting her mind to something having served in the Gulf War and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. That should have been a bit of a heads up to son Bradley who, after ignoring his mothers calls and texts, inspired his Texan mother to develop the 'Ignore No More' app.

Mummy tries to call little Johnny to say, 'I have just driven past the domain and I can see you and your mates smoking cigarettes, get home RIGHT NOW.' Little Johnny has no desire to cough down the phone whist being berated, refuses to answer phone calls and texts, puts his phone on silent and shoves it in his pocket while he finishes his Marlboro Light. When he gets his phone out to indulge in some Minecraft, he discovers Mummy has locked it. The only two functions available on the device are to call emergency services or his mother.

Ignore No More is a result of months of development. If the child ignores a parent's texts and calls, the parent can disable the child's phone remotely. The only way for the child to unlock the device is to call the parent and get a 4 digit code to reactivate the phone. Until then the phone is rendered completely useless. No texting, no games, no internet, nothing. It's also incredibly hard for the little rascals to uninstall. The only other option is to call the emergency services.

Reading through the reviews on Google Play, where the app is available for use on Android apps, is a mixed bag. There are the predictable rants from right-on advocates who think controlling a child's phone use by locking it is detrimental to the child's development of independence, such as this one from Brian Paquette: 'Now, you can inhibit their freedom, delay their "coming of age" by a couple of years and ensure they get their scheduled mommy-time every day without even needing to get into your helicopter. Worried that your kids might be socializing and enjoying time with friends? Put an end to that right now by forcing them to talk to you before they can speak to their friends and other family again! All your worries will be gone once you can force your children to talk to you. They love that. Worried that they might be into drugs? Force them to call you back!'

Granted he says it in an amusing way but it misses the point slightly. All comments are responded to by the developers and there is some good improvement advice from some of those parents who appear to have a shady background in hacking.

Everyone loves an opportunity to have a go at someone else's parenting which clearly Brian and a few others have taken the opportunity to do. As a mother with 3 children who are coming up to the smart phone owning stage, I would have absolutely no hesitation at imposing my will to ensure they answer my calls. I have enough trouble getting them to answer me when I'm standing right in front of them. Surely Sharon Standifird's app is a natural lead-on from this tactic by another frustrated mum:

The best feedback goes to Standifird's son, Bradley, who was asked what he thought of his mother's idea: 'Umm, well I thought it was a good idea, but for other people, not for me.'

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