A father has designed his own mobile phone app which forces his son to reply to his text messages.

Mobile phone

Mobile phone

Nick Herbert, of West Wickham, London, was fed up of his 13-year-old son Ben ignoring his messages so much that he designed an app called ReplyASAP.

According to The Sun newspaper, the app takes control of his son's mobile phone home-screen and sounds an alarm that doesn't stop until he has replied to the message.

Nick said: ''I'm hoping the app will make our relationship better. It will alleviate the stress when I can't get hold of him as I will know that he has seen my message.''

If the message is read, it alerts the parents but they also get a message if the phone has been switched off, which notifies them that the message is pending.

At the moment, the app is only available on Android phones but it's expected to be rolled out onto iPhones.

The app costs 99p to snoop on one person, £2.49 to track four people, £6.99 for ten people and £12.99 for platinum, which connects with 20 numbers.