Keeping Tabs On Campers

By Jeninne Lee-St. John, Time

Used to be, you packed your kids off to summer camp, mailed them a care package and waited to get a couple of obligatory letters in reply. While camps still try to get kids back to basics, by banning iPods and e-mail, parents are using technology to stay in close touch--maybe too close.

More than 200 camps this summer are using Bunk Replies, a new service by Bunk1.com that zaps faxes of kids' handwritten letters into their parents' e-mail In boxes. Angela Williams, of San Angelo, Texas, says she relishes the "instant gratification" of getting e-letters from her son Harvey, 13. Hundreds of camps also post video, newsletters and as many as 500 photos online each day for Mom and Dad to peruse--or buy.

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