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The device has been developed by GPS tracking solutions company Lok8u, and the idea was conceived by chief executive Steve Salmon. He said that there were two factors to consider when developing the product: for parents to want the solution and for children to want to wear the solution.

"Our view was that if we could actually deliver a solution that was just a watch, but hidden inside it was a child locating product, then that actually suited both those ideals."

Using num8, there are two ways in which a parent can find out where their child is. They can use the internet from their PC, and simply sign in to the num8 web portal. From that, they can do three things: click a 'where are you' request and Lok8u will then send a notification showing the child's location on Google Maps. Parents can also set a 'safe zone' - an area in which they're comfortable for their child to play in, and if the child strays outside of that area, Lok8u will send an alert through email and text, together with the street name and postcode. The third method allows parents to monitor the movement of their child by viewing a live track, with a 'breadcrumb trail' displayed on screen.

Parents can also manage the device using text messaging, by sending a 'where are you' (wru) message, and receiving the exact location with a link to a Google Map, or they can set a safe zone by specifying a number of metres radius in which their child can wander.

The

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strap has got a steel woven cable, much like what you would get on a bicycle brake. Cutting the cable would be extremely difficult, and when the strap is adjusted to the child's wrist, you can click the strap into the housing. That then puts num8 into an alarm status.

"If at any time whilst the child is wearing num8, the strap is released without the parents switching the device off, then that's the highest security risk, because at that point, we don't know that num8 is with your child, so we will then send an update to the parent with the child's exact location," explained Salmon.

Salmon, whose background experience was in mobile telephony and the satellite navigation market, said he developed the product after an incident abroad, when he feared for the safety of his own daughter.

"I was out to Sunday lunch with my wife and daughter, and my daughter popped off to the toilet and was gone a little longer than I thought she should be," he explained.

"And I got worried; she was only eight years old. I spent the next 20 minutes running around the restaurant like a headless chicken, and found her in the end, in a field next to the restaurant feeding a pony. It just occurred to me at the time, can't I take my experience with GSM and Sat-Nav and develop a solution that parents could trust, and remove that fearful emotion?"

He also said that the device could help solve a dilemma for parents, where enforcing stern boundaries in order to safeguard their children from the dangers in society may be causing problems with peer to peer interaction, and is one of the contributory factors to child obesity.

"What I wanted to do is give parents some more tools to allow them to feel a bit better when their kids go out to play.

"We're not trying to replace good parenting, we're just looking to supplement it. If we can just make the life of one child a little easier, and they can go out and enjoy the freedom that I enjoyed as a child, then that has got to be a good thing."