Using Technology to Track your College-aged Child: Ok or No Way?

When children are aged from prep. to their year 12, give or take, then I am in favour of keeping tabs on them for their own safety.

If they were snatched from the street or dragged into a vehicle for the purpose of either kidnapping or sexual gratification, then a parent has something to refer to.

I don't care if they say they are going to Bill's house, then turn up at Fred's place, a little subtle fib or 2 should not be a worry. If however you know that Fred is a drug user, then it should be seriously discouraged.

Which? BIG BROTHER or BIG FATHER/MOTHER? Kids in college are transitioning from adolescents to adults...hopefully,

Transitioning yes. But not yet fully there.

Generally as a parent you want to know all and reveal little. In my wife's home town everyone knew everyone else, where they were and what they were doing at just about any time of the day or night. It was called growing up in a small town.

As far as monitoring, it has to depend on the child. I know some 12 year olds with enough judgement to be able to go free-range while at the same time I also know 30 year olds who need to be closely monitored to prevent them being a danger to themselves and others.

Finally, just because you can monitor and review doesn't mean you have to look at it unless something goes very wrong.

At some age, (around late high school for my kids - now grown), just knowing where your child is does not mean you can or or should or even have the rights to do anything about it. If you feel compelled to know every little detail or believe it is necessary to know and your near adult aged child is not mentally or physically challenged then it's either your own mental problem or you've already screwed up and spying will only make your relationship worse. It's better to have the trust that they are able to handle themselves and will let you know if they need help (and will be there when they do).

So, no. Let your college age kids free.

Each parent really needs to decide that for themselves based upon what they know about their children. Like others have said, some can be trusted earlier or later than others. While I would hope no one gets to that point which should be pretty rare, but I can't say never. Once one of mine headed off to basic training, someone else got to worry about that issue.

Absolutely not. That is the responsibility of the leftists in our government.

No, you mustn't spy on your college age kids. Just remind her not to hop into any car just because she thinks it's her Uber ride. Also, my college age son navigated me through a wild country detour that had absolutely no detour signs to follow, using google maps. Does everyone have onboard, talking navigation systems? I drive an '04. It has a digital speedo. It's really cool. I keep my smart phone in my tech pocket.

My kids did not roam free as teenagers. The few that we knew, who did, were tough little MFs who knew a sucker when they met one. But by college age they all have You Tube smarts if nothing else. Gotta solo sooner or later.

Sorry it is not spying, there is such a thing as kidnapping, at least here in Australia. The kids are not volunteering to jump into any car, if they have been snatched from the street, then at some later time where they should be home, but aren't, you might just see where they are located and call for help while tracking them.

OK if that location is at a person known to you, but not OK if they are miles away from anywhere.

Seriously, how often is THAT happening in Australia that it would warrant parents tracking young adults?

if they have been snatched from the street, then at some later time where they should be home, but aren't, you might just see where they are located and call for help while tracking them.

Seriously again, a premeditated kidnap attempt is going to involve the location and removal and disposal of said cell phone rendering any tracking pointless except giving the location of the point when the cellphone stopped transmitting.

G'day Jack, are you saying things like these never happen.?

Do you think every dead beat mongrel out there is wise beyond their years.?

If it only saves one younger person then I rest my case, the phone does not need to be in their pocket to work, it can be in a school bag, it can be in any of a lot of different places on a student.

I solidly stick with my original post. There are clever kids out there.

I would strongly argue that more families lives would be damaged or ruined than would be saved with the implementation and unavoidable abuse of tracking software by family members who in their overprotective mindset try and control a child's/teens life in the belief that they know best.

Where do we draw the line in the invasion of our personal privacy? What are we willing to force on others just to ever so slightly reduce some perceived risk?

Arkangel_(Black_Mirror)

OK Jack, if it only saves one child/teen, then it has done its job. A young person has no need to be told they are monitored, it is solely up to the parent involved. I do like the comment about where we draw the line, in big city's we have monitors all over the place, they do facial recognition of everyone that comes into the camera's view, I reckon this is big brother. However, no one knows that they have had surveillance done on them, so it doesn't bother them one bit. Why should it.? They have done nothing wrong, they do not know who or where surveillance is done so no problem.

However, no one knows that they have had surveillance done on them, so it doesn't bother them one bit. Why should it.?

Think back to when you were a child or young teen, how would you react if you found out your parents wanted to monitor where you were at all times, or worse were secretly spying on you without your knowledge?

This is actually a big deal for many people, and many parents would abuse this level of monitoring to control their children's lives even further, in my opinion causing more damage than they would potentially prevent.

Kept a secret, from this tech savvy and internet connected generation, are you mad? The average tech savvy teen is likely capable or has friends that are capable of locating any basic phone tracking software app or feature and disabling it with a little internet research if they wanted to.

When I was a child there were no electronic anythings, (maybe the old car battery radio may have been) but everyone in the local district knew us, they knew we should or shouldn't be in a certain area. Families reported our out of bounds to our parents who took the leather belt to our backsides. We knew we had been dobbed in but it didn't worry us one bit.

If we did wrong by going outside a "safe area" we expected all we got and accepted it as a normal way of getting the idea.

We, of course, lived in the bush and attended the local primary school about 2 miles away. No telephones or even electricity in our area but parents always looked out for our welfare. This of course was over 70 years ago.

I would guess that most "young adults" that age would be embarrassed (or humiliated) to know or find out that their parents are tracking them, especially if their friends also found out.

Just sayin'.