Alarm.com Offers 10 Ways for Working Parents to Ensure Their Kids' Safety
Vienna, Virginia - October 14, 2010 -With the school year kicking into full gear,
parents are in search of creative new ways to ensure their children's safety when
they return home after school. Working parents in particular wonder, "What are my
kids up to when I'm not around?" Did they get home on time? Are they doing their
homework, or playing video games? Did they turn off all the lights if they left?
The good news for parents with daily work obligations and other commitments is the
availability of innovative, easy-to-use and affordable home security systems and
monitoring technologies to keep track of kids remotely when parents are not around.
Below are 10 tech tips for you to safeguard your kids when they are home alone after
school:
- Install a security system integrated with remote monitoring technology.
Not every activity that happens at home when you are not around requires police
or fire response—but that doesn't mean you wouldn't want to know about them. Use
strategically placed motion-triggered sensors in your home to find out when the
kids get home from school, the housekeeper or contractor arrives or leaves, if the
liquor or medicine cabinet is opened, and more.
- Utilize cameras (connected to your security system) to look in at any time.
Using IP security cameras integrated with advanced interactive technology will truly
change the way you'll see your home. Security cameras and video monitoring technology
give you the ability to view live streaming video, receive motion-triggered video
clips and control cameras remotely from your smartphone (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android)
or computer.
- Take security with you.
You are asking for mobile phones to do more, and home security and monitoring providers
have responded. Check with your security provider about the availability of free
home security mobile apps that let you easily monitor and control your security
system while you're on the go. Whether it's an iPhone app, BlackBerry app or Android
app, you can check current system status, see recent events, view live video and
update your security system settings from anywhere, at any time.
- Don't rely on the phone line or internet to power your system.
Many security systems today unfortunately still depend on unreliable telephone lines
that can easily be cut by a burglar, or internet that can go down at any time. Try
to find a security system that works on a wireless network, such as GSM. By using
a wireless home security system, a signal can be sent to the central monitoring
station faster and more efficiently for an immediate emergency response.
- Set up real-time notifications via email or text message.
Choose a security system that offers real-time email and text message notifications
to be sent to you about events that matter most so you are always in the know.
- Have more insight and control with home automation.
Home energy management systems will give you the ability to make smarter energy
decisions more conveniently, so you can stay up-to-date on what's happening at home
when you are not there. With these home automation solutions, you can, from your
computer or mobile phone, remotely monitor and control temperature, lights and door
locks.
- Set up schedules and automatic reminders for your security system.
Today's home security systems don't just allow you to set customized alerts when
an activity does occur, but also when an expected event does not occur. You can
now set up "no-show" alerts so that if a child does not arrive home from school
within the expected time window you will receive an instant notification.
- Be prepared and stay protected.
Seek security systems that provide a higher level of protection. The best protection
ensures that even if an intruder enters a home and quickly smashes your security
control panel, a signal will still be sent to the central monitoring station for
help.
- Manage all security system users.
It's not just the head of the household that's arming and disarming your home security
system. What about the babysitter, the contractor, a cleaning crew or a petsitter?
Make sure to use a security system that allows you to set up multiple users and
customize settings for each one.
- Regularly review event/activity history.
It's important to install a security system that allows you to have remote monitoring
and system control with interactive services and also makes sure you can view and
save your event history. Why? To ensure your family's safety, you should regularly
access a searchable security event history and look for any unusual patterns. This
will also allow you to look back at that history in case of a security breach and
pull any information you may want or need to report to authorities.
About Alarm.com Alarm.com Incorporated provides wireless and web-enabled
security and activity monitoring technology to hundreds of thousands of residential
and commercial customers throughout the United States and Canada. Alarm.com products
and services are offered exclusively through a network of over 1000 licensed and
authorized Security Dealers. The company is headquartered in Tysons Corner, VA,
just outside of Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.alarm.com.
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