Your child is older now. They walk to school, visit friends, and want more freedom. Then one evening, they do not answer a call right away, and you wonder whether checking their location would help keep them safe or make them feel watched.
Location tracking can be useful in some situations, but it should be used openly, with clear rules, and not as a substitute for trust.
Key takeaways:
- Location tools can offer peace of mind during travel, emergencies, or changes to normal plans. They work best when everyone understands when and why they are used.
- Older children need growing privacy and independence. Regular tracking without discussion can harm trust and make them less likely to share problems openly.
- Agree on clear times for location sharing, such as trips, late outings, or unfamiliar places. Avoid making tracking the default for every moment of the day.
- Talk about safety plans beyond an app, including calling a trusted adult, sharing plans, and knowing what to do if their phone battery dies.
Who this guide is for:
This guide is for parents deciding whether location sharing is still appropriate as their child becomes more independent.
Do parents really need to know where their kids are?
This is a very common dilemma for many parents of teenagers: whether to probe them to let you know where they are or whether to trust them? Some families use location sharing daily and others never use it. Nothing can be said for certain as family situations, location, age and maturity all influence what makes sense.
- Some families have a habit of sharing their location on a regular basis, and some don’t do it at all.
- Family context, location, age and maturity all have an impact.
- The key is to strike a balance between keeping your child safe and offering him/her space to develop.
Interestingly, this isn’t only a parent-driven trend. A Wall Street Journal report found that many teens now request location sharing themselves, seeking reassurance in an anxious world, and downloads of the family safety app Life360 doubled in the United States between 2021 and 2024.
Why some parents choose not to track their kids
Not every family sees “location tracking” as necessary. Some parents lean on trust and open communication instead of GPS apps.
They trust their kids
Tracking children’s location is not required if they communicate responsibly on their own. Most parents would prefer to teach children to make good decisions rather than observe all of their actions.
They want to respect privacy
Older teens reasonably expect more personal space as they mature. Knowing where someone is doesn’t tell you whether they’re making good decisions once they get there.
They have other safety rules
These families don’t use “location tracking” but instead use habits to foster responsibility:
- Educational reminders via text messages at designated times.
- Pre-planning outings together.
- If plans change, call.
- Keeping a list of emergency contacts.
Why other parents prefer location sharing
Other parents feel more at ease when they can check in with a tap. For them, “location sharing” offers reassurance that a call or text can’t always provide.
Peace of mind
Parents can easily determine that their child has arrived at a safe location. This can be helpful when children begin to travel independently.
Practical safety
When teens are driving, taking public transportation or going to an unfamiliar place, “location sharing” becomes practical. Also, if a child does not answer calls or text immediately it is pretty helpful.
Different geography, different needs
It may be necessary to consider that a child living in a small, familiar town requires less supervision than one in a big city. Many parents are finding that it is more useful to check their child’s location through a tracking app as they move farther from the home.
Should you treat a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old the same?
A 15-year-old and an 18-year-old don’t need the same level of oversight. Age alone shouldn’t decide the rules, but it’s a useful starting point.
Tracking a 15-year-old
At this age parents can make reasonable decisions about safety. Think of the adolescent’s level of development and his/her usual destination. It is best to present “location sharing” as a safety measure, not a form of surveillance, as this approach is more effective than a rule.
Tracking an 18-year-old
In most parts of the world, an 18 year old is viewed as an adult. At this stage privacy and autonomy are much more important. Location sharing is not assumed and should be done only if the individual(s) involved want to share their location.
Age isn’t the only factor
Age is only a part of the equation when it comes to a teen. Also weigh:
- Maturity level.
- Reliability with commitments.
- Communication habits.
- Use of transportation and self-reliance.
- Any previous safety issues should be addressed.
- The family’s expectations from one another.
Location tracking vs. Check-ins: What’s the difference?
If you want to look at “location tracking” in a different light, you can do that by comparing it with a normal check-in, which provides you with a useful new angle instead. There are pros and cons to each method, depending on your family’s needs on a day-to-day basis.
Location tracking
This method is pretty rigid and only suitable for people living in risky neighborhoods or dealing with troublesome teens.
- It is pretty passive and doesn’t involve much input from the child.
- Parents can check a child’s location multiple times without calling or texting them.
- Helpful in crisis situations when information is essential.
- May become intrusive if monitoring is done too often or if no reason is given.
Check-ins
This is a better method of developing responsibility over time, as it considers your child’s initiative. This method:
- Needs a child to interact with her/him.
- Takes initiative and accountability.
- Provides children with more choice about what to share, and When.
- May be disappointed if a child forgets or is slow to respond.
A Combination may work best
Typically, most families will discover it covers more ground to use a mix of both strategies.
- Allow the child to express their plans verbally in their own words.
- Don’t use location sharing as a parenting tool – it’s a last line of defence.
- Record gps for specific (risky) plans; use check-ins for regular plans.
- In this way, these tools don’t have to be your sole means of keeping your child safe.
When location sharing makes more sense
In some circumstances, families need more assurance:
- Long-distance travel.
- Late-night outings.
- Learning to drive.
- Ventures to new places.
- Concentrated gatherings or places that are overcrowded.
- When parents just want to know that their child has made it safely to the school/college, etc.
- Any situation where both parent and child are comfortable with it.
When you may not need location sharing
Some families are not convinced that tracking is beneficial when:
- Your child is able to consistently convey their plans.
- They are dependable with their obligations.
- They generally remain in familiar places.
- There is no specific safety issue that has motivated the decision.
- The primary reason would be not safety but to satisfy the curiosity of parents.
How to set healthy location-sharing boundaries?
Once you decide to use location sharing, how you introduce it matters as much as the decision itself. These guidelines help keep it a safety tool rather than a source of conflict.
Make it mutual and transparent
Never include tracking devices without telling the children. Be clear about the information that is shared and who can access it.
Agree on when parents will check
Do not refresh the application on a regular basis. Rather, specify discrete contexts in which it may be appropriate to check.
Revisit the rules as kids get older
A system that works at 13 may not fit a 16-year-old, and it likely won’t fit an 18-year-old either. Gradually shift responsibility from parent monitoring toward the teen managing their own safety. Research summarized by the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health supports this approach, noting that autonomy-granting monitoring tends to produce better outcomes than controlling, restrictive monitoring.
Don’t make location sharing a test of trust
Children’s trustworthiness doesn’t automatically follow the sharing of a location. Similarly, not sharing does not mean they are hiding something.
What other parents can consider before deciding?
Follow this easy method to make your decision:
- Current age: What is your child’s age at this time?
- Responsibility: Are they able to take care of themselves with day-to-day tasks?
- Location: Where do they usually spend their time?
- Risk: Does there exist a particular safety concern in relation to the request?
- Communication: Do they listen when you talk to them?
- Independence: What independence do you desire to develop?
But parental use of “location tracking” devices is not widespread, according to Pew Research. In one nationwide survey, just over 16% of parents reported using monitoring devices to keep track of a teen’s location via cellphone, a number far surpassed by those who say they relied on conversations and informal check-ins.
How FlashGet Kids may help?
Parental controls apps like FlashGet Kids can help parents to make location sharing easier. FlashGet Kids features live location, Geofence and Location History. “Live Location” shows your kid’s location on a map and “Geofence” feature alerts if a teen enters or leaves a location that parents agree to, so parents don’t have to scroll the app constantly. “Location History” view allows parents to review a teen’s history of location, which can help support the emergency-only or check-in methods without creating the all-seeing-eye mentality.
FAQs
It can be a reasonable safety layer for new drivers, younger teens, or new situations. It is most effective when both parent and teen know and agree to it – not installed without discussion.
Yes. Many families rely on communication, check-ins, and trust instead of GPS apps, and research shows there’s no single “correct” approach that fits every household.
It may be useful to think of it as a safety device that applies to certain contexts (driving, late night out, etc.) rather than unwarranted monitoring.
Your child is legally an adult at 18 years of age, so location sharing should not be a parent-driven one-size-fits-all approach, but a shared decision between parent and child.
Not necessarily. Many families utilize it for its logistical and peace of mind aspects, apart from any concerns regarding trust. The introduction and discussion of the tool is more important than the tool itself.
There’s nothing that is definitely better or worse. Tracking a location gives passive reassurance, and check-in promotes communication skills. However, many families determine that a combination of both is more effective than either one method alone.
Although there is no fixed-age, most experts recommend that supervision gradually decrease as maturity and reliability grows, with location sharing becoming fully voluntary by the time a teen becomes a legal adult.
Many teens are doing it now. Nearly half of teen phone users have restricted location tracking features because of privacy concerns, especially among teen girls, according to Pew Research.
Be transparent: say what you’re tracking, discuss when you’ll check, and present sharing location as part of a safety strategy and not surveillance or punishment.
Start with a conversation about why the request came up in the first place. Common Sense Media proposes establishing ground rules as a joint effort with teens as they are more likely to follow rules they helped create than ones set in place for them.
