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Health & Fitness

Use Your Smartphone to Keep Your Kids Safe this Halloween

With Halloween only weeks away, our little ghosts and goblins are ready to hit the streets for trick-or-treats. And while certainly some of the costumes will be scary, it can also be a little spooky for parents as the kids head out on their own.

That’s why AT&T has compiled a list of important family safety tips and some apps to make this Halloween as sweet as the treats.

1. Make sure wireless phones are fully charged and operational.

2. Pre-program contact information of parents, neighbors and emergency services into your child's speed dial, and be sure they know how to access these numbers with ease.

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3. Light up the night with the iHandy Flashlight app. The flashlight is bright enough to light the way making sure your little pumpkins can see uneven sidewalks and puddles and more importantly that traffic can see them. Free for iOS.

4. Track your trick-or-treaters by using AT&T Family Map. Make sure your children are safe – and where they said they’d be – with this app. (Monthly fee.) Or use the Trick or treating navigation app. Using GPS coordinates, you can bookmark important addresses. The app is $0.99 for iOS.

Find out what's happening in Plum-Oakmontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

5. Set up periodic alarms with Halloween-themed tones from Free Scary Halloween Ringtones as a reminder for trick-or-treaters to text or call home between candy collecting stops. Free for android.

6. Finally, make sure you have the Patch app so that you know what is happening in your community before the kids take off. You can get updates on the latest news by entering your town.

Have a safe, fun and Happy Halloween from AT&T!

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