New app lets parents freeze child's cellphone -- until they respond

Aug. 23 (UPI) -- A British man has created a new cellphone app parents will love -- because it gives them the power to freeze their children's phone until they acknowledge a call or text message.

ReplyASAP was recently launched on Android devices in the United States by inventor Nick Herbert, himself the father of a teenage son. His invention freezes a child's cellphone screen and sounds an alarm until they reply.

Herbert said he assumed his son's phone would make communicating with him easier. Instead, he learned that sometimes that was not the case.

"When I try and contact him he rarely answers, either because he doesn't hear the phone, or because ... he may be embarrassed to speak to his Dad in front of his friends," he said. "There are times that I need to get a message to him and he has no way of knowing that the call or text he ignores/doesn't see is important or not."

Herbert then got the idea for ReplyASAP.

ReplyASAP is currently available only to Android users, but Herbert said he plans to release an iPhone version of the app soon.