The Case Against Tracking Your Kid’s Phone
Many parents seem happy to use their child’s first smartphone as a way to check their whereabouts. There are reasons to reconsider that.
Is everyone OK? Just checking.
Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images EuropeLast week the U.K. government brought new rules into force for online firms, aimed at safeguarding how children are profiled and tracked on the internet. And yet with millions of kids going back to school this month, their movements are frequently tracked by another party — parents.
The idea of digitally surveilling your kids is a tricky one, and keen parents seem largely oblivious to the institutional concerns about the practice. I recently raised the issue with about a dozen British parents sending their 11-year-olds to secondary school with phones. About three-quarters said they would monitor their child’s movements through an app of some sort, largely for safety reasons. Many said it gave them “peace of mind” to know where their children were.