Best GPS trackers for kids tried and tested

Offering all-day monitoring and Advanced Safeguard GPS for accurate location, the AngelSense GPS tracker also allows you to talk and listen to your child. Another handy feature is the SOS call button if your child urgently needs to get hold of you. Included with your purchase is a soft, sensory-friendly sleeve and non-removable pins that allow you to attach the device anywhere that is comfortable. AngelSense also lets you see a detailed location history of your youngster's whereabouts for each day.

The AngelSense tracker was tested by Mother&Baby's Laura Healy who rated it highly overall at 4*. "I tested it with my 8-year-old daughter, who is not old enough to go anywhere alone, but I was able to track her on a family day out when she was with other family members, and the device was accurate, even working within buildings if it can pick up a WiFi signal," she said. She felt it was accurate and provided reassurance, "It seems to be incredibly accurate and lets you see where your child is with regular updates to your phone (although you can reduce these in settings to save the battery). I like that despite it being GPS, you can also track indoors because it searches for WiFi signals."

Laura found it easy to set up and noted the AngelSense service was excellent. "The App is quite self-explanatory and AngelSense is incredibly helpful and provides excellent customer service if you have any questions. They also have lots of useful ‘how-to’ videos for you to follow. My daughter is only 8, and she understands how it works." AngelSense points out that their customer service is staffed with parents to children with special needs, so they understand the significance of choosing the right help for your loved one.

Like the Weenect, it has an 'SOS button to allow your child to call you if needed. "It has some great functions such as 2-way voice call so my daughter can press an easy-to-reach button in the centre, which (perhaps alarmingly) is called the SOS button, and it triggers a call to my phone so she can speak to me immediately. There is also an option for parents to trigger a 1-way call, which activates the device so you can hear where your child is and what is happening around them, but they will be unaware you can hear," said Laura. She noted that you can make it suitable for times they don't need to be disturbed, saying "I liked that you can set a schedule to disable voice calls during certain hours, like during school, so it won’t disturb lessons with any unexpected alarms."

She found the battery life was one downside as it needed charging after 24 hours, saying, "The battery does drain quite quickly if you use all the functions; however, because we have not used it for long journeys and we haven’t needed the voice calls, the tracker lasts 24 hours. This is good, but inconvenient if you need to charge it daily. I like that you can set a reminder for each evening that will notify your phone to remind you to charge it when your child is in bed."

Read our full AngelSense GPS Tracker review

This compact, no-frills GPS tracker is a simple-to-use gadget that our mum tester, Mother&Baby's Digital Writer, Rebecca, found offered peace of mind. It allows you to track your child's location from your phone and our tester found that this placed them swiftly and accurately. You can see where your child has been during a time period of 1, 3, 6 or 12 hours, or set a customised time period. Rebecca was also impressed with the 'Superlive' setting, which "lets you see where your child is going and has been in real-time with a series of dots."

Our mum tester, Rebecca, said: "It's easy to set up - you just set up an account with your email address and choose your subscription. It took a little while for my phone to locate the tracker for the first time, but this is just a case of leaving the phone and tracker next to each other." The SIM card is included, so there's no need to buy this separately, which makes setting up the tracker even easier. The subscription choices are €9.99 a month or €69.99 a year, which are lower than some of the other subscription services we tested.

Rebecca felt it could be improved by the ability to turn on the Weenect GPS tracker remotely. For instance, if her son managed to turn it off while out and about, there's no way of turning it back on or tracking them. Rebecca thought the battery life and general design of the GPS tracker were good, saying, "It feels exceptionally sturdy, and I loved the little padded pouch with a clip which allows you to pop it onto their bag or belt strap." Rebecca also thought there was potential to use this for a longer period, noting, "I could see myself using this with elderly relatives in a few years time or once my son is older and I'm more confident about him being out and about."

In the event of a problem, your child can alert you by pressing the SOS panic button on their tracker. Rebecca found the battery life to be good. With average use, it lasted a few days before it needed charging.

The Weenect tracker works on a 2G network but this is due to be phased out in 2033, so it's arguable that the Weenect in its current guise has a time limit, but Rebecca felt it still provided value for money for this period of time and is a reasonably priced product.

Read our full Weenect GPS Tracker review

Although it's not specifically designed to be a GPS tracker, the Apple Watch has some easy-to-use tracking features. It's more suited to older children due to the other features and settings that can be accessed, although you can use Apple's Family Setup feature to remotely control the device for someone else.

Our reviewer, Mother&Baby's Rebecca, found this watch to be ideal for her older son. "While it needs to be paired with an iPhone for full capability, it can easily be used as a GPS tracker and allows him to track his activity/steps, etc, without having access to social media or any other features of a smartphone." By simply having the Apple Watch app on your phone, you can easily and accurately use 'Find my Watch' to locate it and the child.

If you need to call or send messages, the Apple Watch SE (2023) GPS + Cellular might be a better option, but this will require a monthly charge.

Of course, Apple products aren't renowned for their long battery life, and the Apple Watch SE is no exception. "I had to charge this every other night but as long as you get into the routine of charging it, you shouldn't find it dies when your child is out and about", said our tester, Rebecca.

"While it's undoubtedly an expensive product for a child, for older children and teens, it's an understated and subtle way of being able to locate them if needed, without making it obvious that this is the intention."

Rebecca tested it on her 10-year-old and felt that the 40mm watch and S/M strap are fine for an older child, though it would be quite large on a younger child's wrist.

Read our full Apple Watch SE review

The KiDSnav Smartwatch combines the fun and interactivity of a smartwatch while also providing peace of mind for parents. It's packed with advanced features to keep you connected with your child and informed about their well-being. There is a range of styles available for ages 5+ and 8+, and our tester, Rebecca, tested it with her 10-year-old son. "He loved feeling like he'd got his own smartwatch, especially as the KiDSnav Lucid looks quite similar to an Apple Watch!"

The watch comes with a SIM card on the EE network preloaded with £1 of credit, which should be enough for around a month of average use. After this point, our tester found it easy to top up. This capability allows you to call your child or send messages while the GPS tracker feature allows you to view real-time GPS coordinates on your phone, so you always know your child's location.

It's worth bearing in mind that there's a built-in microphone which lets you discreetly listen to the child's surroundings. While some parents might find this brings peace of mind, others may prefer to let their child have more privacy.

The smartwatch includes a Class Mode to prevent distractions during school hours, while the Monitoring Activity feature tracks your child's daily steps to encourage a healthy lifestyle. Sleep Monitoring provides insights into your child's sleep patterns by showing how many times they roll over at night.

As with other trackers, you can set up geo-fencing locations with the Security Zone feature to alert you when your child leaves a pre-defined safe area, ensuring they stay within safe boundaries. In case of emergencies, the SOS Button allows your child to discreetly alert you with a single press, triggering an immediate call to your phone.

Our tester found it needed charging regularly, saying, "The battery life isn't as good as the Weenect, which isn't surprising when you consider how many extra features it packs in, but I had to charge it once a day. As with the Apple watch, this is fine once you've got into the routine of charging it before bed."

Rebecca appreciated that you can turn off and restart the watch remotely and use night power saving mode to disconnect from the network between 10pm - 6am.

Rebecca's son loved being able to take photos with the phone, saying, "While they're not great quality, it's been good practice for him lining up shots and thinking about what part of a day out he might want to photograph." It's also possible to send 'reward' points through the phone to the watch, which comes up as 'hearts' on the Home Screen. The calendar, alarm, and stopwatch are also fun features.

Overall, Rebecca found this was great as a first Smartwatch, saying, "Though the graphics and general capability of the watch are fairly basic, my son enjoyed the fact that he had a smartwatch." It's great that you can set reward points and also put appointments and reminders in the calendar which gives him a little more freedom and responsibility."

While Apple doesn't recommend this product for tracking children, it is ideal for keeping track of their possessions, which we all know have a tendency to go missing regularly! They work with Bluetooth rather than GPS, so they can only provide a more limited search capacity, bouncing off other Bluetooth users in the vicinity to pinpoint the location of the AirTag.

Using Apple's 'Find My' App, you can keep track of the AirTag, allowing you to see its location. You can set it to notify you if it leaves a known location, and if your child's bag or possessions are lost, you can put it in Lost Mode on the app. This starts tracking its location and sends you a notification when it pings the network. Our dad tester, Matt found it reassuring to know that he could track his son's bag if he left it anywhere. "My son, like most children, is easily distracted, and I generally have to remind him to get his bag if we're leaving for the park, for instance. Now he's getting a bit older and will be heading out on his own soon, I find it reassuring to know that I can put this tag on his bag and will be able to find it if he leaves it anywhere."

The AirTag runs on a button battery, so it would need to be kept away from small children. The battery should last a year with moderate use, and our tester found it easy enough to remove the battery but then found that it lost connection with his phone and needed to be reset. Our tester did point out that the small size makes it easy to lose, saying, "The AirTag is very compact, so it would be easy to misplace, especially for a child." He goes on to note that this is easily solved by using one of the many AirTag accessories, including keyrings and pouches that keep it safe.

There's no subscription needed, but as this is an Apple product, it requires you to have an iPhone SE, iPhone 6s or later, or iPod touch (7th generation) with iOS 14.5 or later, or iPad Pro, iPad (5th generation or later), iPad Air 2 or later, or iPad mini 4 or later with iPadOS 14.5 or later.