Following the introduction of Disney’s child-tracking service last week, Sprint launched its GPS-based kid locator service on Thursday, signaling wireless carriers have calmed their fears over such services.

While wireless carriers have had the ability to do location-based services like child-tracking for years, many carriers have been hesitant to launch services because of privacy and security concerns.

A child-tracking service that falls into the wrong hands could be a public relations nightmare.

But after Disney launched its Disney Mobile service with child-tracking last week at a wireless convention in Las Vegas, other carriers like Sprint are following suit.

Verizon Wireless is expected to launch a service this summer, and in Japan and South Korea carriers have already launched similar services (see Verizon to Help Track Kids).

Sprint’s service is called “Family Locator” and will be run by location startup WaveMarket (see LBS Startups to Watch).

High on Sprint’s list of features is “a host of privacy and security features.”

Sprint said parents can create a “safety word” that the parent and child both use only during the registration process to ensure permissions have been given on both ends.

When the parent tracks the location of the child, the child will be notified by a text message “to ensure open communication,” Sprint said in a statement.

The parent can also set alerts to notify them when a child arrives at a designated location.

“We encourage parents and guardians to maintain open and frequent communication with their children,” Nancy A. McBride, national safety director for the NationalCenter for Missing & Exploited Children, said in a statement.

Monthly Fee

Sprint said its service is available for download on 17 phone models and can be used to locate 30 GPS-enabled phones over Sprint and Nextel’s networks.

The service will cost $10 per month, for four registered phones, and users will be able to access unlimited location requests.

The combined Sprint Nextel was the first company to move into location-based services (LBS) for businesses, and has started to move into the location-based consumer market.

In a previous interview, Nextel’s director of location-based services, Mary Foltz, said the company decided to differentiate itself with LBS by launching services in 2002 (see The Promise of LBS).

ABI Research estimates the global location-based market will grow to $8 billion in 2010, up from $981 million in 2005.The Asia-Pacific region currently accounts for 55 percent of the world’s subscribers, compared to North America’s 5 percent.