I try my best not to be a helicopter parent, but my oldest daughter is heading to her first year of college at a university 1000 miles away and while I trust her and am confident in her judgment and caution, I’m anxious nonetheless. It’s not even that I think colleges are full of dangerous boys, but rather that when you’re not paying full and complete attention it’s easy to find yourself in a difficult or untenable situation.
Modern college students are almost never without their cellphones — indeed, at times it appears that they’ve been born with the device in their hand — but in a worst case scenario a phone can be taken away or otherwise not easily accessible.
That’s where the tiny little Wearsafe device proves to be a great little gizmo for my daughter, a sort of campus safety insurance policy. It’s really a key fob that anyone on campus could quite easily tote without anyone being the wiser, and it’s only a bit bigger than a quarter, as you can see in the photo.
Powered off a single watch battery, the unit is basically a panic button, paired via low power bluetooth to a smartphone (Android or iPhone).
You can use it as a modest clip-on or, with another of the included attachments, an actual key fob, either with a bunch of keys or cunningly hidden on a purse, computer bag, or backpack.
Kind of like this:
I bet you had to look closely to even notice the Wearsafe on the strap of this cute polka-dot book bag. Which makes it ideal for personal security because the more unobtrusive it is, the better.
But don’t let the small size fool you: the Wearsafe includes GPS tracking, an audio monitoring system and subtle vibrations (not an audible beep) to give feedback to the user when they are in an unexpected, potentially dangerous situation.
Meanwhile, on the smartphone paired with the device (that can be up to 200 feet away when triggered), the alarm triggers a notification to a group of people, as specified by the user, and creates a group chat room where they can share notes and updates if the situation does turn out to be more than just a false alarm.
Technology for the win, right? Well, sort of. I actually think my college freshman daughter is savvy and will be able to avoid getting into dangerous situations, will skip hanging around with boys or girls who might be of dubious reputation or even friends of friends.
The underlying problem that bugs me, just a tiny bit, is that no-one is ever in complete control of everything, particularly in college and particularly when surrounded by other freshmen, boys and girls both who are reveling in their first real taste of freedom. No parents, no bed time, no rules, and not a whole lot of supervision. And so like any other insurance, the Wearsafe is a worst-case-scenario device, a little gizmo my daughter can hook to her pants loop or even shoelace and know that if the worst happens, she’s a completely unobtrusive button push away from me being alerted and being able to identify where she is and call 911.
Do I expect it to happen? Absolutely not. But what if… ?
So my recommendation to you about the Wearsafe? Why not Try it free?