JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
> My kid and two friends are going on a 3 week backpacking trip, and all their
> phones have a GPS feature. (My son's phone is a Samsung SCH-A950). Assuming
> the GPS feature has not been switched to "911 emergency only", and assuming
> the phone is in an active zone for the carrier in question, is it possible
> for the carrier to ping a phone and get an approximate location? I'm
> assuming no input from the phone user, other than the fact that the phone is
> turned ON.
>
>
Sure, no "ping" is involved. But do you have a question like "can I call
them and ask where juniors relative position is"?

Law enforcement can but don't know if you can.

VZW actually has a subscription product called "chaperone" for end users:

http://products.vzw.com/index.aspx?id=fnd_chaperone