Tracking Apps: The Pros And Cons Of ‘Spying’ On Your Children (2023)

FAQs

What are the negatives of tracking your child? ›

Relying on an app to find out where a child is or what they are looking at online, particularly without their knowledge, can seriously undermine that trust, she says, which might lead children to make riskier choices or get clever about evading detection.

Bottom line, if you are the legal guardian of a child under 18 you have the legal right to use a child tracker. For teens and adults with special needs or dementia, it is also legal as their guardian to use these devices that will help you know where they are and keep them safe.

Your child will know you're watching them and this does get into some privacy issues. Tracking apps will not only let you know where your child is, but you have the ability to monitor their messaging and phone activity. Using these apps doesn't allow a parent to learn to trust their child.

The downsides of location tracking

Just as GPS trackers allow users to share their location with friends and family, they also allow users to inadvertently share their whereabouts with stalkers. This is particularly dangerous for children, especially as some apps give almost anyone permission to track their location.

“Secret tracking is usually not a good idea,” she added. As for when to stop tracking your kids, Alphabet Inc.'s Google has a suggestion: age 13. At that point, a child who uses an Android phone synced to Google's Family Link can turn off location monitoring by their parents.

Yes, you can see everything on your child's phone without them knowing. You need to monitor their phone discreetly with a phone monitoring app. However, not all monitoring apps are discreet and invisible. Hence, you should use an app like AirDroid Parental Monitoring app that works in stealth mode.

Taking away a teen's phone interferes with their social life, which can drive a wedge between parent and teen. It's helpful to make the punishment related to the misbehavior, so taking away your teen's phone for a misbehavior like breaking curfew doesn't usually make sense.

Simply, if you can, you should. Though you want to give your child the freedom to be a kid, to make their own mistakes so they can learn from them, and even give them a better sense of self, the risks today are incredibly high.

Should parents install apps to monitor their children? ›

Parents should trust their children with making the right choices about their safety. Tracking their phones would only lead to mistrust between the two, kids may become more rebellious. If parents really don't want their kids to go to some dangerous or inappropriate some places, they should just tell them directly.

Instead of parents and children communicating to establish mutual trust, tracking apps cause parents to become reliant on what data they receive from the app, and teens worry over their right to privacy and parental trust.

Conclusions. For our survey respondents, using electronic monitoring to keep tabs on their children is normal, and monitoring children without their knowledge is common.

The phone plan is probably in your name and you probably bought the electronic devices. But even if not, you have every right and responsibility to check them if you've been given cause to do so because you have the right and obligation to keep your home safe, your child safe, and your other children safe.

When GPS is combined with other technologies, such as the Internet, social media, or mobile phone apps, commercial organizations can easily track someone's movements and use this information to collect data on their travel and shopping habits and target them with advertising based on their location.

In six states (California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Virginia) laws more broadly prohibit the use of electronic tracking devices, not just on vehicles, and not just in the context of stalking, but when they are used to determine the location or movement of a person without consent.

Should I monitor my 15 year olds phone? ›

Social media monitoring is an essential part of parenting in today's world. You can even set up notifications so that you are alerted anytime your teen posts something. This way, if your teen posts something inappropriate, you can address it, and have them remove it. Be sure you know what your teen is doing online.

It helps to keep them safe.

If you've already established the routine of spot checks, your kid should be expecting them. If not, make it clear it's for their safety and that keeping them safe is part of your job.

When you give a kid a device will determine how long a parent is going to be monitoring them, though not all parents agree on when they should give up control. As we showed in our previous survey coverage, parents tend to agree that they have to monitor kids up to about age 10.

Another way to view their text message is via parental control apps like AirDroid. AirDroid Parental Control app is an all-in-one app. It allows users to manage and monitor the target device remotely. It runs in stealth mode, so they wouldn't know you have it installed on their phone.

You can use third-party parental control or spy apps (like mSpy, Spyic, Spyera, etc.) to recover and read texts deleted by your child. You can find some of these apps above.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that children ages 6 to 18 had an 88 percent higher risk of not sleeping enough when devices were in the bedroom and a 53 percent higher risk of getting a bad night's sleep—and that's when devices were in the bedroom just three nights a week.

Taking the phone away for 24 hours can be a good starting place. What about safety issues? Letting your teen go to school without a phone in their pocket or allowing them to walk down the street without a phone isn't likely to cause them harm. After all, you likely grew up without access to a cell phone.

The answer to this question — should parents take away cell phones at night? — is much more definitive, say the experts. Yes, unless you are absolutely sure your teenager is able to put the phone away (and not pick it up) at bedtime. That's because screens and sleep do not mix.

Parents who use tracking apps to monitor their children's activity can help protect them from things like bullying, drugs and alcohol, sexting, smoking, and more. Trackers also allow you to get in touch with your child when necessary so they don't get themselves into trouble unknowingly.

Parental monitoring (parents' knowledge of where their child is when not at home or school and who their child's friends are) also affects risk behaviors. Youth who perceive less parental monitoring may be more likely to engage in a number of risk behaviors, including sexual risk taking and substance use.

What apps allow you to monitor your child's phone? ›

The main reasons for not monitoring your teens social media activities are privacy and trust. Kids don't want their parents looking through personal information, texts, and social media posts. Many kids consider their smartphones sacred property not to be viewed by their parents.

If you've got young children using the internet, parental controls of some sort are a necessity to ensure they are kept safe from threats online. These threats include predators, cybercriminals, cyberbullying and inappropriate content.

“Secret tracking is usually not a good idea,” she added. As for when to stop tracking your kids, Alphabet Inc.'s Google has a suggestion: age 13. At that point, a child who uses an Android phone synced to Google's Family Link can turn off location monitoring by their parents.

Even when tracking is based on the judgement of teachers, students, and/or parents, it rarely accounts for differences in family education or circumstances, past school experiences, and other factors. It fails to fully consider each student's strengths, weaknesses, and potential.

Adults tracking their kid's phones can also do more harm than good. It can cause the kids to become more distant with their parents or guardians, and feel like they can't communicate with their parents, leading them to lie about their whereabouts.

In fact, age 8 is so tough that the majority of the 2,000 parents who responded to the 2020 survey agreed that it was the hardest year, while age 6 was better than expected and age 7 produced the most intense tantrums.

One of the biggest complaints about web tracking is the sheer amount of personal information that is collected by these websites. Many people are uncomfortable with the thought of having personal information such as their name, birthday, and interests being shared with complete strangers.

In short, you don't need to worry. You're likely to collect more trackers the next time you use the internet, depending on which web browser you use and the privacy settings you've activated. Your two main concerns with trackers are your online privacy and the space these types of files can take up on your hard drive.

Are tracking apps an invasion of privacy? ›

Spend some time going through your app permissions and revoke any that aren't needed for the app, or limit them to only having access when the app is in use. Location tracking is a major invasion of privacy.

Underperforming students may be at a disadvantage with academic tracking, as their low performance may result in fewer opportunities to express their intellect, creativity, or unique skills. For example, they may be less likely to be selected for extracurricular events, such as the school quiz team or an art expo.

Another potential disadvantage of the tracking system is that by dividing students into a group by their academic ability, the educational system may cause those students to self-label themselves as inferior to upper track students.

Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in the assignment of students to schools or classes. It also prohibits discrimination in ability grouping or tracking students.

Reading your child's text messages is not that different than eavesdropping or reading their diary.” She advises parents to stay in their lane by steering clear of needless snooping, whether trying to find out what your kids are saying or who they are hanging out with.