Keep track of trick-or-treating kids with Find My Phone

Find My iPhone is part of Apple’s iCloud service, and it’s an easy way to find your devices as long as they have power and an available internet connection. It’s similar to Find My Friends, another Apple app that lets friends chose to privately share their location. Find My iPhone’s name is a little misleading, though, since it can also find your iPad, iPod touch, and Mac. But an iPhone is much easier to fit into or hide under your child’s costume, so let’s start there.

To setup Find My iPhone to track your kids this Halloween, grab an iPhone with an active service plan and go to Settings > iCloud. Make sure there’s an Apple ID here that you manage, whether it’s your kid’s or one you created for this purpose. Next, scroll to the bottom of iCloud’s options and enable Find My iPhone—this tells Apple’s servers to start watching where that iPhone goes. Make sure your child keeps the iPhone tucked away, and they’re ready to head out.

Now, while doing quality assurance on your own Halloween candy at home, download Apple’s free Find My iPhone app for your iPhone or iPad. You can also visit iCloud.com on a Mac or PC. Either way, sign in with the Apple ID you used earlier, and you can track your child in real-time. Plus, Find My iPhone has some other features that could be useful.

For starters, once your child’s journey is complete, Find My iPhone can easily get directions to the device’s location. You can also display a message on the device’s lockscreen to tell your kids to call you, or play a sound to catch their attention, even if the device is set to silent.

Find My iPhone is an easy way to keep an eye on your kids this Halloween, though not necessarily any of their Halloween shenanigans. Maybe Apple will release an update next year to track those.