Should you track your children using GPS gadgets or smartphone apps? Location tracking of your child is not a question if you could however. Technology allows us to do things like that. Kid trackers and pet trackers are not exactly cutting-edge tech and clearly affordable to a consumer nowadays. Even if your children aren’t using smartphones, it’s still possible to place a sort of GPS tracker in their toys, clothes, or backpacks.
Why and how to track your kids with technology?
The question here really is more on, is it okay to track your children? Is it okay ethically for you, for the child, and is it acceptable in our current age society? I was curious about that and asked the same question on a public poll. Certainly, this does not represent a sort of statistic since it has been filled out only by 50 voters, but nevertheless, it gives a good perspective into what people are thinking, and I’m thankful for all the people who did vote.
Is it okay to install a GPS tracker on your kid's phone or not? (or other GPS beacon in case there's no phone)
— Chris Isak (@ChristopherIsak) February 24, 2021
Based on the votes that came in, the majority of people, totaling 50% of all voters, thought that it’s fine to track their children for as long as the child is informed about that. The second most popular choice was a tie between “yes, for emergencies only” and “yes, for casual tracking,” both receiving 22% of the voters’ favor. Lastly, only 6% of all participating people thought that never, under no circumstances, it would be okay to track their children.
Based on that, it’s clear that most people, one way or another, would track their children, and in the best-case scenario, they also explain that to their kids and inform them about this. Next to simply finding children that got lost on their own, there are certain dangers in our world, and knowing that we could track kids in an emergency helps us and supports the police to find the kids.
Related article: Life360 – Know Where and What Your Family Is Doing
So if you track your kids, maybe think about telling them about it, explain to them that this isn’t just for fun and for you to spy on them. Let them know how this can help them as well and that you don’t care where they hang out, but that this helps to bring them back in case of an emergency. Maybe you can even include that as a requirement in letting them use a smartphone, to begin with. Whether you want to use software installed on your kids’ devices or dedicated tracking beacon hardware is up to you and what you think would work best for your family.
Time to find a solution for your family
I have no interest in telling you what product, maker, and solution is best for your child and family, but if this is relevant for you, you can start at checking products such as AngelSense, Jiobit, Gator, Weenect, Lil Tracker, or Find My Kids. You might also be making use of software that you are already using, like the real-time location sharing function of Google Maps, which lets you see the whole family’s location, even permanently, as long as the users all agree to that. This way, you don’t even need to pay for a product or service and can also see the battery load state of the user’s devices, which can also be useful in some situations.
Photo credit: The feature image has been done by Alessandro Castiglioni.
