Photo: Life360
When I was 10 years old, I walked from my country home to the town centre, about 30 minutes or so away, with my best friend.
It was the first time I had been allowed to go so far by myself, and so my mum armed me with her mobile phone – a giant Nokia brick as was the fashion at the time – and I was under strict instruction to call the landline when I got to the high street and to call again when we were on our way home.
Of course, I was 10, and my Beanie Baby-obsessed brain forgot to call. When I got home, I was in a whole heap of trouble and got a good, admittedly well-deserved, telling off.
Fast forward eight years and not much had changed, I was an independent teenager always out and about without telling my parents exactly where I was.
They might have got a “I’ll be at Shoppo” or “at so-and-so’s house” if they were lucky – but when or for how long, well, that was anyone’s guess.
And passing my driving test at 18 didn’t, surprise surprise, change that. In fact, without the need of a lift it was highly unlikely I’d be in touch much at all.
In my case, I wasn’t up to no good; I was just hanging out with my friends at the shops or seeing a movie.
In those days, specifically here we’re talking about the late ’90s and 2000s, there wasn’t all that much mums and dads could do about it. Sure, you could give the kid a phone and tell them to call, but as we’ve heard, there’s no guarantee they would.
Today, things are different, and there are myriad ways to track our kids, which we’re going to take a look at here.
But the big question is, should we be doing it?
Simply have a quick Google and it’s the question everyone is asking.
Should I put a tracker on my kid's car? Can I use AirTag to track my kid's car? What is the best GPS tracker for kids? Is it wrong to track your child?
As a mum now, I do look at things differently. The thought of my children being out somewhere without me having any idea where they are or when they will be home fills me with dread. But then they are still small and more vulnerable than a teenager or young adult.
A few years ago, a friend of mine had a family member go missing and to this day they’ve not been found. That same thing happening to my family is unthinkable, yet of course it could.
So I understand that, as parents, we will do anything to protect our children, and for some, tracking their every movement seems like a necessary evil.
Yet I still can’t help but feel that all the methods we now have at our fingertips are just taking it a step too far.
There are devices such as Apple AirTags – physical trackers you can attach to your car – to find out where they are going that people use to keep a close eye on their offspring.
Not that this is what these devices were intended for. The AirTag is supposed to act as a key finder, to help people locate objects such as keys (duh), bags, small electronic items or yes, cars, if they become lost or stolen.
AirTags, and similar products, of which there are several, are not satellite navigation devices in themselves, rather they can be tracked by using a connected app – in this case Find My – and bluetooth.
GPS tracking apps and connected services
There are GPS tracker apps too, which is probably the method most used by nervous parents as they can provide real-time location updates.
They also offer features such as ‘geo fencing’ – which can tell parents if their child has left a defined area – or driving behaviour analysis, which can alert them if the car has gone over the speed limit or been driven dangerously.
One of these is called Life 360, which broadcasts the speed a car is going, any rapid acceleration, if the driver uses their phone, hard braking and more.
It also notifies you when the driver arrives at a set location, such as school or work.
Setting it up involves creating a family group that has to be accepted by all parties, and it can’t be secretly installed on someone’s phone.
You can also turn it off, but as with many in-car driver assistance safety features we see as road testers, if you need to turn it off why bother having it in the first place?
It’s easier than ever to find out where your child has gone in the car, with many car makers now also offering GPS tracking through their connected services apps.
Among them are high-end brands such as BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar Land Rover, but also more mainstream manufacturers like Ford and Hyundai as well.
Generally speaking, GPS tracking devices are legal in Australia, as long as they comply with privacy laws and the person being tracked has given their consent – which is worth taking into account as well. If you’re tracking a person over the age of 18 without their permission, that could be illegal.
Dash cams can be used to watch kids too
Then there are dash cams – not just forward-facing ones that can be used for evidence in the event of a crash but internal-looking ones to watch the inside of the car too.
In effect these are just baby monitors for older children, who in reality aren’t children at all. Big brother – or rather Big mum or dad – is always watching.
And this is what it comes down to for me. This is not about keeping a toddler within arm’s reach near water, or holding the hand of a five-year-old crossing the road to school.
If you can drive in Australia you are at least 17 years-old, or older depending on where you live, and at this point we should be able to trust them to make good choices about where and how they drive.
And if they don’t well life is about learning isn’t it? We all learn from our mistakes.
In this previous article by Drive, one parent said of the app, "We use the Life360 app to monitor if our two sons are speeding and using their phones. Our sons are required to keep the app on at all times; otherwise they are unable to drive our cars/or will be required to pay for their own mobile phones.”
To me that’s blackmail and not being safety-conscious. A younger me would have been absolutely horrified if my parents were all over my life like this.
To track or not to track?
And I’m not alone, other Drive parents think tracking kids is not okay.
“We raise our kids to be independent, who have agency over their own lives. We also raise them to make good decisions, and instill in them the twin values of trust and responsibility.
“Tracking adult- (or near-adult) aged kids via a tracking app will only diminish the trust we have placed in them and the faith we have placed in them. It's a fast-track to years of psychotherapy - ‘my parents didn't trust me’ or ‘my parents have no faith in my decision-making abilities’.
“Tracking an adult-aged child is a massive invasion of privacy. If they do end up making some poor choices, as, let's be honest, they inevitably will, then the lesson in taking responsibility for oneself is an invaluable one.”
It’s also a view shared by New York Times bestselling author Julie Lythcott-Haims, who penned How to Raise an Adult and told the publication, “Our job is to put ourselves out of a job, if we always swoop in, we’re depriving our kid of being the problem solver in their life.”
Experts also warn that constant surveillance can harm your relationship with your child, triggering anxiety, leading to a lack of trust and secrecy.
Do teenagers care about being tracked?
Another view to consider, however, is whether the young people of today mind that they are being watched all the time.
Our kids are online now, they have their own phones, tablets, computers, social media accounts from a young age.
Everything is about being seen, and if you’re being seen, you’re sure as hell being tracked – so why not let your parents know what you’re doing in the car and where you’re going?
Teenage me lived in another world, one where MSN Messenger and MySpace were king and the world of social media was really just finding its feet.
You could argue it was less safe, indeed, because no-one was policing these mediums, or the likes of online forums, as well as they are today.
This is just my view, you don’t have to agree with me. But I believe there has to be a balance between Luddite and bleeding-edge technologist. We can teach our kids to be safe and take action to protect them, but watching their every move isn't doing that – it's an invasion of privacy.
Will I change my mind when my kids grow older? Maybe, we'll see.
What do you think? Vote in our poll below.
A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.
