• About Us
    • — About Digitized House
    • — Editorial Guidelines
  • Policies
    • — Ad Policy
    • — Privacy Policy
    • — Cookie Policy (US)
Thursday, May 8, 2025
  • Login
Digitized House Reviews
  • Alexa
  • Apple HomeKit
  • Google Home
  • SmartThings
  • Smart Components
    • Security Cameras
    • Security Systems
    • Smart Displays
    • Smart Door Locks
    • Smart Lighting
    • Smart Plugs
    • Smart Product Round-ups
    • Smart Shades
    • Smart Speakers
    • Smart Thermostats
    • Smart Water
    • Smoke + CO Detectors
    • Solar Photovoltaics
  • About + Policy
    • About Us
    • Copyright Notice
    • Privacy Policy
    • Advertising, Affiliate Link, and Sponsorship Policy
No Result
View All Result
  • Alexa
  • Apple HomeKit
  • Google Home
  • SmartThings
  • Smart Components
    • Security Cameras
    • Security Systems
    • Smart Displays
    • Smart Door Locks
    • Smart Lighting
    • Smart Plugs
    • Smart Product Round-ups
    • Smart Shades
    • Smart Speakers
    • Smart Thermostats
    • Smart Water
    • Smoke + CO Detectors
    • Solar Photovoltaics
  • About + Policy
    • About Us
    • Copyright Notice
    • Privacy Policy
    • Advertising, Affiliate Link, and Sponsorship Policy
No Result
View All Result
Digitized House Reviews
No Result
View All Result
Home Gadgets

6 Ways to Keep Tabs on Your Family Using Smart Home Technology

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
10 November 2018
in Gadgets, Privacy & Safety, Secure Home, Security Cameras, Security Systems, Smart Door Locks, Smart Homes
Reading Time: 5 mins read
Smart cameras inside your home can alert you when your child arrives or leaves. Image: Xfinity Home.

Smart cameras inside your home can alert you when your child arrives or leaves. Image: Xfinity Home.

Table of contents
  1. Smart Speaker
  2. Wi-Fi-Enabled Camera
  3. Video Doorbell
  4. Smart Door Lock
  5. Security Tabs and Motion Sensors
  6. GPS Tracker

One of the many benefits of smart home technology is the ability to keep tabs on your home when you can’t be there. Forgot to turn off the lights? Do it remotely. Not sure if you shut the garage door? Check on your smartphone and close it. But did you realize you can also use smart home devices to monitor the people in your home? More specifically and most importantly, you can use smart home devices to keep tabs on your children.

The first thing that comes to mind when we talk about using technology to monitor the safety of our kids is a smartphone. These devices let you enable GPS tracking, so you can see where they are, as well as stay in touch with them via phone calls and text messages. But having a smart home can let you delay giving one of these controversial devices to your child for a little bit longer. Use smart home devices to talk to your children and send them messages in the house, as well as know when they’re home and when they’ve left. 

Where is your child right now? Smart home technology can help alleviate concerns. Image: Mariusz Slonski on Unsplash.
Where is your child right now? Smart home technology can help alleviate concerns. Image: Mariusz Slonski on Unsplash.

Here is a look at 6 smart home devices that can help you connect with your family:

Smart Speaker

A smart speaker lets you call home to check in on your kids (who has a landline anymore?). The feature, called a Drop In on some devices, allows you to automatically Drop In, meaning the kids don’t have to actually answer the call (so they can’t ignore you). Some also have a camera and video screen, you can also see them and have a video call with them.

Wi-Fi-Enabled Camera

In the same vein, with a connected, Wi-Fi-enabled camera, you can pop in on your home using the device’s app on your smartphone. You can see what the kids are doing and even get notifications for certain activities. Set up motion and noise alerts through the camera’s smartphone app and get a notification when someone’s in the house.

Video Doorbell

If you’re not that comfortable having a camera in your home, a video doorbell is a good compromise, as it only records activity outside your home. Some options even include facial recognition, so you can set it up to receive a notification that “Peter is at the front door.” 

Your child doesn’t even have to ring the doorbell to trigger the notification, just motion at the front door will set the camera to record. You can also rewind footage from the doorbell camera, so you can look back and see when someone arrived home. 

Smart Door Lock

If you just don’t want a camera at all, a smart door lock can give you the peace of mind that your child made it home from school or soccer safely. Smart door locks can identify who has unlocked them. Choose one that offers personalized entry codes, so when your child enters theirs on the keypad you get an alert on your smartphone. You can also look in the app’s history to see who unlocked the door, and if for some reason they can’t get in, some smart door locks can be operated remotely so you can unlock it for them. 

Security Tabs and Motion Sensors

Security tabs can be an effective way to help track the comings and goings of your children. The Samsung SmartThings Activity Sensor (center) can be clipped to a backpack. Image: Digitized House Media.
Security tabs can be an effective way to help track the comings and goings of your children. The Samsung SmartThings Activity Sensor (center) can be clipped to a backpack. Image: Digitized House Media.

Attach a motion sensor to a wall or on the floor near a front and/or back door and receive an alert when motion is detected. If you have pets, however, you’ll want to place it up high, so it doesn’t capture their motion, but low enough that your child will still be detected.  

A security tab (often referred to as a presence or arrival sensor) is a small device you can attach to a backpack, keychain, or bracelet, and when it enters the home, or is used to de-active a security system, you receive a notification on your smartphone.

Also, if you have a smart home security system installed—with or without personalized tabs—it will come with contact sensors you place on your doors. You can set notifications in the app to be alerted every time the door opens or closes—which may be all you need to have the peace of mind that your child has made it home. 

GPS Tracker

There are a variety of smart band-style GPS trackers you can put on your kid’s wrists, but the newest models can even connect your child to your smart home. Simply attach it to your child’s backpack or jacket, letting you know where your child is at all times. When the tracker comes home it can trigger smart home routines, such as unlocking the front door, turning the lights on, and sending you an alert. Your child doesn’t have to do anything, and you have peace of mind. 

Tags: non-affiliateParentingsecurityXfinity Home
Previous Post

Infographic: 43 Smart Home Facts and Stats

Next Post

Smart Home Music Streaming Made Simple

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy is a freelance writer and editor covering the intersection of sustainability and technology for xfinity.com. She writes about the smart home, mobile phone technology, consumer tech, small businesses, and green living for a variety of newspapers, magazines and online publications.

Next Post
Sonos One smart speaker. Image: Sonos.

Smart Home Music Streaming Made Simple

Put your mind at ease while on vacation by gearing up with the right smart home tech. Image: Vinicius Amano on Unsplash.

7 Connected Home Gadgets for a Stress-Free Vacation

Image: Bosch.

Home Appliances Are Getting Smarter and so Should You

Amazon Disclosure

To help defray the cost of publishing, Digitized House is a participant in the Amazon Associate program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made from ads, buttons, or text links to Amazon placed on our website. These links may appear within editorial content, headers, footers, and sidebars. Purchasing from one of these Amazon Associate links does not increase the amount you pay, but does help keep us publishing the content you need to stay informed.

About Digitized House

We are the Guide to the Connected Home and help global consumers make their 
Connected Homes smarter, healthier, and safer through streams of original content. You can see our story here.

Like what you see on this website? You can also read us on our Apple News App Channel.

Recent Content

© 2015-2022 Digitized House Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Connect Your Home
    • Deals
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Security Cameras
    • Security Systems
    • Smart Displays
    • Smart Door Locks
    • Smart Lighting
    • Smart Plugs
    • Smart Product Round-ups
    • Smart Speakers
    • Smart Thermostats
    • Smart Water
    • Smoke + CO Detectors
    • Solar Photovoltaics
    • Smart Shades
  • Ecosystems
    • Amazon Alexa
    • Apple HomeKit
    • Google Home
    • Open Systems
  • Design Your Home
    • Architecture
    • Healthy Home
    • Home Design
    • How-To
    • Green Building
    • Real Estate
    • Sustainable Home
  • About Us + Policies
    • About Us
    • Advertising, Affiliate Link, and Sponsorship Policy
    • Privacy Policy

© 2015-2022 Digitized House Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.