I’ve long suspected that tracking apps like “Life 360” aren’t healthy. Though I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why they bothered me, tracking teens and young adults always struck me as an odd thing to do.
Certainly, there are benefits to using tracking apps — including several incidents where children’s phones have been lost (and then found) and a few critically important cases where kids, teens, or young adults have been abducted or involved in an accident and these apps indeed helped lead to rescue.
There are important downsides to tracking that should be considered.
Privacy invasion — One of the major downsides is lack of privacy. Even small children deserve privacy, agency, and autonomy.
It’s important for children and teens to form their own identity and learn from mistakes in order to grow into independent, confident beings. Tracking them and constantly monitoring their whereabouts may be helpful to the parent but it can be potentially damaging to the child.
False sense of safety — Do apps PROTECT children from harm? Not really. They may provide important data after or during an abduction but, most likely, cannot stop it from happening. As parents, we may worry about the unthinkable - and the unthinkable does of course happen - but technology itself cannot save us from every predator, bully or emergency.
A 2021 BBC article echos this thought process: “…Sonia Livingstone, a professor in the department of media and communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, believes there is in fact ‘zero evidence that any of these apps keep children safer; I’ve never seen any and I look at all the evidence,’ she says.”
The criminal element — Another thing to consider (and I had forgotten about this aspect until I started doing reseach for this article) is the amount of data tracking apps collect from both you and your child when you’re using them. This in itself can be harmful to your child.
In fact, University of Adelphi psychology major Ryan Mijumbi said the following: “We have situations where being able to track one's phone allows for [the device] or the whereabouts of a kidnapped individual to be found. On the other hand, tracking technology allows for people to locate individuals without their knowledge, and this information can be used for unethical and criminal purposes. In terms of apps, the same cost/benefit analysis must be done.”
So,what should we do?
So, while technology continues to offer myriad choices to families, relying on tracking apps can provide a false sense of security, provide hackers with private information and, in some cases, lead our kids to lie to us (or manipulate the app) so that they can’t be tracked.
Ideally, we as parents and guardians will strive for an open mind and open dialogue where children feel free to share where they’re going and when they’ll be home. This is an ongoing conversation and children should continue to be respectful of their parents’ desires and concerns — without feeling that they have to ease their parents’ anxiety or lie about their whereabouts.
Yours in imperfect parenting,
Lisa