Children Have Quietly Fallen Under Parental Supervision, We Follow Them

An increasing number of parents around the world are turning to digital control by using applications to monitor online activities of children and their location through smartphones. Although some psychologists argue that this endangers their privacy, and research shows that children who have been digitally monitored by their parents later easily agree to share their location in romantic relationships, which can lead to violence against them, parents prioritize their safety above all else.

Monitoring software is a tool designed to help parents track online activities of children and device usage and to manage it. It can be installed on computers, smartphones, and tablets that children use to access the internet and online content.

Monitoring and Restricting

Digital monitoring allows parents or guardians to supervise and restrict content viewing, determine the time a child can spend online, and, in combination with privacy settings, can protect children from inappropriate content on the internet and online abuse.

According to research by Saffron Center Ltd., a center for victims of sexual violence in Canada, nine out of ten parents of children aged five to fifteen use parental control software and find it useful. Fifteen percent of teenagers believe that monitoring and restrictions should only be lifted once children reach adulthood, while as many as 65 percent of young people aged 11 to 16 support such monitoring. Parents choose to track their children’s location for safety reasons. It is good to know where the child is at all times, especially if they are going to school alone or anywhere outside the home.

For digital monitoring, parents use applications such as Google Maps and Apple’s Find My, as well as those specifically designed for families, such as Life360, Family Link, Qustodia, and others. These allow users to share their location in real-time with selected contacts. Most of these applications not only offer location tracking but also alerts when someone leaves a specific place.

Mutual Trust

Some studies have shown that children aged 10 to 15 find it important for their parents to know where they are. Although they rarely find themselves in dangerous situations, sharing their location provides them with a sense of security. If a child gets lost or finds themselves in a dangerous situation, location tracking will help parents find them quickly. However, children also have a right to privacy, and constant sharing of their location can feel like a violation of that privacy, which particularly bothers older children, who may feel restricted if parents always know where they are. This can lead to a loss of trust between parents and children. If a parent uses a location tracking application without the child’s consent, the child may feel that they are not trusted. Although location tracking applications are a useful way to protect a child, safety does not always mean complete control over everything.

Domestic Violence and Abuse

Moreover, location-sharing applications can facilitate domestic violence, and young people are often unaware of this danger, claims Australian scientist María Atiénzar-Prieto, a PhD candidate at the School of Health Sciences and Social Work, who, along with Leneen Forde, a professor of social work and head of the Department of Child and Family Research at Griffith University in Australia, conducted research on the risks of location sharing. According to the research, in addition to convenience and a sense of security, these applications can enable unwanted tracking and other forms of coercive control.

– Research on young people’s perceptions of technology-enabled abuse has shown that many of them are unaware of the dangers – stated Atiénzar-Prieto.

The study involved over a thousand respondents aged 16 to 25, and the question related to their perception of technology-assisted coercive control in relationships.

– Every young person who participated in the study used location-sharing applications in their own relationships or knew someone who did. Many participants underestimated the risks associated with this behavior. Most participants misunderstood tracking a partner using Snapchat, the Find My app, and Life360 as protective behavior and a sign of care and trust. Their first experiences with location tracking were often gained within the family. The results of the research show that widespread location sharing within families normalizes the acceptance of this practice outside the home – stated Atiénzar-Prieto.

Insufficiently Informed

The same research showed that one in ten Australians believes it is reasonable to expect to track a partner using location-sharing applications. However, there are risks that can occur in relationships outside the family due to location sharing, which parents do not discuss with their children because they are not sufficiently informed about it. In addition to learning how to digitally monitor a child online and outside the home, parents must learn all about the risks of location sharing outside the family and share this with them. A digital boundary must exist, and it can only be set by an informed and confident person.