Never underestimate your mom, kids — especially if she learns how to code. Sharon Standifird’s son knows this all too well. He didn’t always answer his mother’s calls as quickly as she might have liked, so she figured out a way to make sure he called her back ASAP when he missed a call. Standifird created her own Android app called Ignore No More, which gives your mom or dad the power to literally shut down every function on your phone — except the ability to call the parental unit back or 911 — until you cave and call them back.
Many teenagers can withstand 10 missed calls from mom without batting an eyelash, but when you take away Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and everything else in one fell swoop, most won’t last five minutes without calling dear old mom and dad to beg for their freedom back. Ignore No More does just that.
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All parents have to do is set up an account, add their kids, and make sure the app is installed on each child’s device, so that they can remotely control their kids’ smartphones whenever the youngsters don’t answer their calls or messages. To shut down a kid’s phone, mom or dad just need to tap on their son or daughter’s name, enter an unlock code twice, and voila — the unresponsive kid’s phone goes dark. In order to unlock their device, the teen must call one of the people listed on the approved contacts list, which may include anyone the parent chooses.
The only difficult part is getting Ignore No More onto a kid’s phone. Assuming they’ve got a passcode, parents won’t even be able to unlock their kids’ phone, let alone install the app. Even if the kid’s phone is unsecured, parents still have to know the code for purchasing apps on the device to install Ignore No More on the device. This may be easy enough for parents whose kids are still in the house, but those with grown kids or ones in college may have a harder time of it.
Of course, sneaky and clever parents could just stick Ignore No More onto a brand new smartphone, so as to trick their unsuspecting kids into thinking the Trojan horse is a great present.
Ignore No More is available for download on the Google Play Store, but it will cost you $2 for each device you install it on. Standifird says she’s already working on an iOS version of the app, so don’t fret iPhone parents!
