During our trip to Disney we were given the opportunity to test out and use the SecuraTrac SecuraPAL Guardian. This device is a GPS device that your child can carry with them and it tracks where they are by using “fences”. When the child leaves those “fences” you can be alerted on your cellular phone as to where the child is. You can also be alerted when the child pushes the SOS button and when the device has a low battery.

I think the concept is really very cool and when I heard about it I specifically asked to test it out. We were heading to Disney and I figured it would be a great place to test this out. You hate to think about abduction but that can happen and to have something that can alert you silently to their whereabouts is a good idea.

When we first took Eva to the park years ago we figured that we should have something on her that identifies her if she wandered away from us. We could not find anything so we got a leather string and went to Petsmart and created cute small dog tag with her name, Allison’s name and phone number. This is something that has worked well for us and Eva wears it as a necklace each time we go to any theme parks.

When we went to try and use the SecuraPAL Guardian with Eva we found that it was too big for her to carry. She is too little to wear clothing with a belt and she doesn’t use pockets. The device is really much more useful for children who are older. I would love to see a SecuraTrac device that can be worn like a necklace, something that didn’t look like a GPS device. Very discrete.

However, even though we did not find a way to use it in the part we did get to test out the device. I got the device, charged it and then brought it outside to get the satellites to get the position. I then set up the personal website and created fences. I carried the device with me and got messages as I left the fences. The messages came right to my phone and said that the device was now near a specific location. SOS messages came very quickly and low battery messages came to me quickly as well. I was impressed at the speed of the notifications as well as the accuracy of the location.

I think this device would be better for older children, say from 5 and up because then they could carry the device in their pocket, they can understand what the SOS button was and how to use it. Also an older child is more free and mobile in a park like Disney. Eva is nearly 3 years old, and we spent much of the time either carrying her, holding her hand or pushing her in the stroller. She was never out of our sight and at 3 years old and not having that great a mobility factor made the device a little bit of overkill for us.

I can see how this is great for older kids, especially if they end up in a situation that they would like to get away from but are embarrassed to look uncool. They can quickly push the SOS button and alert parents to come pick them up. The device does what it says and has some very cool features I just don’t think it was something for us because of the size of it compared to the size of Eva.

Disclosure: I was given a device to test out and send back. I am an affiliate of the device and if you go and buy one or rent one I do get some money from that. Opinions of the device are 100% mine.