2018 4th International Conference on Computing Communication and Automation (ICCCA)

Location Based Parental Control-Child Tracking

App using Android Mobile Operating System
Priyanka Kumar Raghul M
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore, Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India.
k_priyanka@cb.amrita.edu cb.en.u4cse15144@cb.students.amrita.edu

Abstract— In modern era Location based services (LBS) Components of LBS

are emerging applications in mobile data services due to the
rapid growth in wireless communication and location based The different components of location-based service are
positioning technologies. Now a days, mobile phone has become maps, Geographic Information System (GIS) information
a powerful platform and necessary part of day-today life for [1], location based services and LBS application-specific
communication among people. These emerging applications subcomponents [3] [9]. The architecture diagram of
are helpful in emergency case and location tracking. For location-based service is depicted in Figure 1.
example, sometimes parents worry about child crimes like
kidnapping or they get lost in the street. The child may put in
the situation where they unable to call their parents even when
their phone is too near to them. In this paper we have
considered these scenario and proposed a Location Based
Parental Control-Child Tracking App which is able to get
child’s SIM details. In this proposed solution parents can get
primary SIM details that currently active in their phone and
able to send a SMS command to their child phone.

Keywords— Location based services, parental control, google

map API, child tracking, Android OS.

I. INTRODUCTION
A Location-based service (LBS) is a mobile application
that is dependent on the location of a mobile phone [3]. Due
to rapid growth and enhancement of location based
positioning technologies users find LBS services in a variety
of contexts, such as health, work, and personal life, to find
the nearest shopping mall, nearest bus stop and nearest
hospitals etc. at any place, anytime. It also include services Fig. 1: Components of LBS [9]
to identify the location of a person or object, such as A. Location and Map [7]
discovering the nearest banking cash machine or the where
about of a friend or employee [3]. Parcel tracking and
vehicle tracking are also examples of LBS services [3]. It Location and Map are two important services of Android.
consists of two major components. First, it find the location We use android location package and the Google Maps
of a user. Second, it utilize this information to provide a Android API classes to build Location and maps-based app
service [13]. In this paper, our proposed App named as [16].
Parental Control-Child Tracking App is also based on
location-based service. Also the basic assumptions for this Location Services: We have used android location package
App are: First, Child’s mobile should be ON and the child for child tracking part which gives our applications access to
App should be installed and Second, GPS should be the location services supported by the child’s cell phone
enabled. Recently, all smart phones (Android and iPhone) Android device through classes in the android location
are furnished with GPS technology [14] which provides the package [16]. LocationManager system service is the
spatial coordinates of the user location with the combination central component of the location framework which
of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites data with provides APIs to determine location of the object [17][19].
support from cellular network and it works indoor and
outdoor, responds faster, and uses less battery power We do not instantiate a LocationManage directly in our App
[1][2][15]. like other system services. But we can call
getSystemService(Context LOCATION SERVICE) method

978-1-5386-6947-1/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 1

through an instance from the system in our App which will
returns a new LocationManager instance [5].

Google Maps Android API: To integrate Google Maps into

our app, we have installed the Google Play services libraries
for our Android SDK which used the Google Play services
APIs based on Google Maps which displays a map with data
obtained from the Google Maps service [10]. The Google
Maps Android APIs are not included in the Android
platform, but these features are available on any Android 2.2
or higher version device with the Google Play Store running
through Google Play services [4] [16].
B. TelephonyManager [4]

Public class TelephonyManager extends

Object [4]
Java.lang.object
ս android.telephony.TelephonyManager

We have also used TelephonyManager service which

Fig. 2: Telephony Manager Information
provides information access about the telephony services on
the child device which will return TelephonyManager will We can also simulate phone calls and send/receive SMS
use the default subscription for all parent calls [4]. To call messages to/from the emulator [17]. In the literature, in
an API for a specific subscription, use some of the applications the existing functionality of App
createForSubscriptionId(int) [4].e.g. have been enhanced with SMS sending feature. In the below
figure, it has been clearly depicted to complete SMS test
telephonyManager=defaultSubTelephonyMana functionality with a pending intent and two Emulator
ger instances are 5554 and 5556 [6][17]. This number is also act
as the port number and the emulator can be called at this
createForSubscriptionId(subId); [4]
number [17]. The same technique we have used to develop
ours App.
II. BACKGROUND
We have used TelephonyManager class in our App to
retrieve metadata about the SIM card, the physical device
and the network provider [17]. We have also attached a
listener, called honeStateListener to the
TelephonyManager which can change the state of
the phone call or service, in this App [7] [6].

But information retrieval via TelephonyManager is

permission-protected in this App [16]. We have set
android.permission.READ_PHONE_STA
TE permission in the app’s manifest.xml to access
this information for the application. Some metrics retrieved
using TelephonyManager are shown below [7].

Fig. 3: SMS test functionality with a pending intent and two Emulator
instances are 5554 and 555

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 III. OUR CONTRIBUTION

Parental Control App

The parent registered number can control child’s phone
via SMS. It can also monitor each child’s received SMS.
Also it retrieve child’s sim no, subscription id, sim location
whether the sim is in roaming or not. It is accomplished by
using Telephony manager in Android. The app is tested and
working fine in device Nexus 5 API23. Tools and
technology used for this App are Android platform, google
maps API and Java. This can be useful in the following
purposes:-

- Parent can make their child phone to call back to parents or

ring Via SMS from parents registered phone number.
- Parents can make child phone to ring continuously via a
SMS from parents registered phone number.
- Parents can track child phone as timeline in parent app.

Now a days parents worried about child crimes like

kidnapping or they get lost in the street. The child may put
in the situation where they unable to call their parents even
when their phone is too near to them. So we bring out a
solution to it where parents can get primary SIM details that
currently active in their phone also they able to send a SMS
command to their child phone. That command trigger child
phone to contact their registered parent’s number. The child
phone automatically keeps calling when they receive
command from registered parent’s number. The call can be
stopped only when the registered parents phone number
send STOP command to the child phone. Also registered
parents number can send RING command via SMS to child
phone if the child is lost in the street. When the RING
command received by child phone via SMS from parents
registered phone number our app calls make phone to keep
ringing until the parent send STOP command to it. Even if
our app is closed the phone never stop ringing if the stop is
never received from the parents registered number. SMS can
be sent by parents from their basic default messaging app
available in their phone. Also the parent can track their child
in parent app with timeline location. So this is a parent
monitoring app via SMS.
A. Check on parent mobile number and proper Fig. 4: Check on parent mobile number and proper command:
command:
B. Retrieval of child’s SIM details using Telephony
Our app will accept the command only if it receives the
Manager Services: (Tracking child location):
command from the parent’s mobile number. If other
unauthorized number send command to child phone via We are able to retrieve phone network type{GSM,CDMA},
IMEI NUMBER,SUBSCRIBERID, SIM SERIAL NUMBER,
SMS, our app will not execute any action. We made a check NETWORK COUNTRY ISO, VOICEMAIL NUMBER, SIM
module to find authorized parent’s number and then only OPERATOR NAME, IN ROMING{TRUE OR FALSE} and send
command with proper suitable action will be executed by the information back to parents registered phone via SMS
our app. automatically. Also child can prefer to send the detail via
any other options but child cannot prevent sending SMS to
parent.
if((Number.compareTo(PARENT_NO)+body.compareTo("C
ALL")) == 0) {
private void MyTelephonyManager() {
TelephonyManager manager =
(TelephonyManager)
Intent i = new Intent("ml.raghul.imhere.Phonecall"); getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
startActivity(i);

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 using all the smart phones (Android and iPhone) for web
browser and GPS services. In other way, we can say that
Android and iPhone have completely changed the people
requirements and made the life easy. Now a days, a user can
have direct access of android based open source mobile
phone and lot of customized applications with Web and
GPS enabled services are already available in the market. It
can help user to keep track of their child, to track the people,
to find nearest hospitals in emergency cases and to find the
nearest ATM machine requested by the user within certain
range.
This Paper has proposed a Location Based Parental
Control-Child Tracking App which is able to get child’s
SIM details especially in emergency cases. This App have
been tested as well and it works fine with the assumption of
GPS is ON. Now we are planning to extend the functionality
of this Parental Control-Child Tracking App and to make it
more efficient.

REFERENCES
[1] D'Roza, T., and Bilchev, G. An overview of location-based services.
Journal 21, (2003), 20-27.
[2] Schwinger, W., Grin, C., and Retschitzegger W., A light-weight
framework for location-based services. Springer, (Berlin, 2005), pp.
206-210.
[3] www.ijaet.org
[4] developer.android.com
[5] Davide Chiara, "LINK2U: Connecting Social Network Users through
Mobile Interfaces", Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2010.
[6] www.designerandroid.com
Fig. 5: Retrieval of child’s SIM details using Telephony Manager Services: [7] http://opensourceforu.com/2011/02/android telephony-api-gsm/
(Tracking child location) [8] https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/location/index.html
[9] Amit Kushwaha, Vineet Kushwaha, “Location Based Services using
IV. TESTING OF PARENTAL CONTROL APP Android Mobile Operating System”, IJAET, Vol. 1,Issue 1,pp.14-20,
Mar. 2011.
We have tested this App in our Amrita University, Ettimadai, [10] Prof. Seema Vanjire, Unmesh Kanchan, Ganesh Shitole, Pradnyesh
Coimbatore campus and it works well. We have installed the Patil,”Location Based Services on Smart Phone through the Android
Parent App in one Android phone and Child App in another Application”, IJARCCE, Vol. 3, Issue 1, Jan. 2014.
[11] [Online]:file:///F:/gps/GPS Accuracy Levels.htm.
Android phone and we executed this App and finally we [12] Manav Singhal, Anupam Shukla, ”Implementation of Location Based
were successfully tracked the Child’s location by Child App Services in Android using GPS and Web services”, IJCSI, Vol. 9,
installed in his/her Android phone. Issue 1, No 2, Jan. 2012.
[13] Charan K.V, S. P Sharmila, A.S Manjunath. "Customizing AOSP for
different embedded devices", 2014 International Conference on
Computing for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom), 2014.
[14] Zeimpekis, V., Giaglis, G., and Lekakos, G. “A taxonomy of indoor
and outdoor positioning techniques for mobile location services"
SIGecom Exch. 3, 4 (2003), 19-27.
[15] Sruthy Chandran, Soniya Sanu, Rekha Narayanan, Anju Saji, Divya
Madhu. "Omalista: An approach for user assistance to rack up the
tagged wish cart", 2017 International Conference on Intelligent
Computing and Control Systems (ICICCS), 2017.
[16] android.toolib.net
[17] opensourceforu.com
[18] Marins, Diego R., Marcelo de O. D. Justo, Geraldo B. Xexeo,
Bernardo de A. M. Chaves, and Cl'udio DIpolitto. "SmartRabbit: A
Mobile Exergame Using Geolocation", 2011 Brazilian Symposium on
Games and Digital Entertainment, 2011.

Fig. 6: Testing of Parental Control Child Tracking App

V. CONCLUSION
In earlier days, people used mobile phones only for voice
communication but now a days the scenario has completely
changed. It is not used only for voice communication but
there are other major focus of interest. Mostly people are