The trend of keeping tabs on your kids on holiday with GPS trackers

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Over 340,500 US kids go missing from parents for over an hour annually
There are now over 290 different GPS devices for children on Amazon
Signals allow parents to pin-point their kids' exact locations on maps
The devices are particularly popular with families who have autistic kids

Published: 12:28 EST, 24 June 2015 | Updated: 12:57 EST, 24 June 2015

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The fear of a child disappearing is a huge fear for parents on holiday.

The US Department of Justice estimates that annually 340,500 children get separated from an adult for at least an hour and the market for GPS trackers for kids is expanding.

But is this prudent or paranoid parenting?

The market for GPS trackers is expanding for kids, with over 290 models being featured on Amazon alone

The industry for GPS trackers has boomed in recent years with over 290 models available to buy on Amazon alone.

The demand reflects a growing need for increased protection for children who find themselves separated from their parents or guardians.

In 2014, there were a staggering 466,949 entries for missing children under the age of 18 into the FBI's National Crime Information Center, with many more incidences going unreported.

Todd Morris, founder of Brickhouse Security, told Yahoo that GPS devices are particularly useful for international travel.

'Travelling with multiple children in strange areas can be a high anxiety situation,' he says. 'Sometimes just knowing there's a safety net can help parents enjoy their vacation a bit more.'

One of the trackers set to hit the market is the Tinitell watch which allows children to phone their parents through a colourful watch

Loc8tor For Kids provides two types of tracker for parents to look after their children's safety.

One, the Wander Alert, sends a notification to a handset when a child strays 600ft away from the sensor, while the other, a tiny GPS portable device that can fit into a pocket or in an arm strap, lets them view their child's location on a map on a laptop, tablet or phone.

The latter is available for £99.98 and is accurate up to 16ft. It also comes with an in-built panic feature for emergencies.

Parents should be aware that on top of the cost of the 60g device, a pay-as-you-go plan is required to stream the GPS data.

Parents who pre-order the Tinitell watch will be able to see the location of their children on a map as the watch has built-in GPS

The success of similar devices can be seen with Project Lifesaver, a nonprofit group that supports personal locator units for at-risk children, as well as adults prone to potentially life-threatening wandering.

There have been 3,000 successful rescues in the past 16 years, with trained professionals reacting to the Wander Alert.

The GPS trackers can be vital in helping protect children with a developmental disorder like autism, and even for adults suffering with dementia.

GPS watches are available to help keep children safe, including the Zele's kids smart watch (left) for £38.50 and the Blueskysea GPS watch (right) for £46.21

The importance of the product was demonstrated by a high-tech GPS bracelet which helped track down a boy with autism when he wandered away from his school in Spokane in Washington.

KXLY reported that mother Stephanie Lund bought the device for her nine-year-old son, Jakob who has Asperger's Syndrome.

'He wanted to go to a friends house on Friday before checking in with mum and dad,' Stephanie told the news site.

'And, unfortunately the friend said no you can't come over so he just continued walking rather than returning to the school,' said Samantha Lund.

The worried mum called 911 and then dispatchers who activated the bracelet pinpointed Jakob's exact location, 15 block away from his school.

In an era when lost phones can be instantly located by an app, it should follow security should be even tighter for protecting children - but is this prudent or paranoid parenting?

Another product which aims to help keep children protected is Skynanny, a device carried on the child and which links to the Skynanny.net app, which can be downloaded to any iPhone or Android smartphone.

Skynanny.net inventor Jason Petch, abducted as a six year old, said he was inspired to create the device after he lost his daughter Lucy at the beach when she was two.

'I couldn't find her for five minutes and sheer panic, absolute raw emotion goes through your body,' Mr Petch said.

Skynanny.net inventor Jason Petch (pictured), who was abducted as a six year old, said he was inspired to create the device after he lost his daughter Lucy (pictured) at the beach when she was two

Skynanny (pictured) is carried on the child and links to the Skynanny.net app, which can be downloaded to any iPhone or Android smartphone. It provides distance and direction information for users to quickly locate their child, and it alerts the user if a child moves outside of their designated boundary

The experience brought back old memories for Mr Petch, from when he and a friend were abducted and held for 24 hours by an elderly lady in nearby street.

'She invited me across the road to eat some mandarins,' Mr Petch said.

'She locked one of us in the cupboard while she played with other, and threatened to hurt the one in the cupboard if the other one ran away.'

Worried about his own children, Mr Petch couldn't find a device that suited him, so he decided to invent one himself.

The introduction of the product came at a similar time to research revealing that two-thirds of Australian fathers would think twice before approaching a child in distress in public over fears they would be labelled a predator.

PRE-ORDER YOUR OW TINITELL KIDS WATCH WITH INBUILT GPS

Parents will be able to track the location of their children using an app as the watch has built-in GPS

One of the trackers set to hit the market is the Tinitell watch which allows children to phone their parents through a colourful watch.

From the click of a large button, or by using voice recognition, children can quickly and easily communicate to their parents.

If a child were to say 'mum' the watch will call the assigned number linked to a pre-recorded voice label.

Children will be able to search for contacts manually using volume keys to access other numbers when it goes on sale.

More advanced features will be controlled by parents via an accompanying smartphone app, which they will be able to use to see the location of their children on a map as the watch has built-in GPS.

It is available to pre-order on Kickstarter for an early bird price of $99 (£52) and is set to be available in August 2015.

Not everyone is a fan of the device. While some call it paranoid parenting, others have concerns for more serious reasons.

ABC Action News reported how there are new Florida laws which make it a misdemeanor crime to use tracking devices without the other person's consent.

Using a tracker without consent can currently land you in jail for up to six months, although there are exceptions in this instance for law enforcement, parents and legal guardians of seniors and disabled people.