Methods for authenticating access and proving positional awareness using mobile phones. Embodiments for authenticating access include receiving identification indicia from a person seeking access, sending a message to a person having authority for access, and receiving either a second message indicating that the person has taken an affirmative action to indicate authorization, or a password that was provided in the first message. Access may be computer access or physical access, as examples. Methods of providing positional awareness include obtaining or storing location coordinates, monitoring the location of a mobile phone, and providing an alarm, for example, through a second mobile phone. In a number of embodiments, location coordinates are automatically obtained from Internet websites. In some embodiments, parents can monitor the location of their children to make sure they do not get too close to a reported residence of a registered sex offender, for instance.