[cromwellian]

I also used Life360 to geofence my kids and get notifications when they leave school and return home. It actually caught my son running away from school one time, and when the guidance counselor couldn't find him, I was able to locate him outside the school wandering around the streets.

[jakear]

Not a parent, but a recent kid, and I’d hate my parents having that kind of control over me. Though I guess I’d just turn off the phone. Which then makes me even more unreachable than if the tracking had never been instituted in the first place.

[jefftk]

A lot of these tools depend a lot on the age of the kid and how they're used.

I have five year old, and they're nearly to the point where they could go the the park by themself if they had some sort of device where (a) we could tell where they were and (b) they could easily contact us plus (c) it was socially acceptable to do this. This would be using tracking to allow our kid more freedom, since the alternatives are (1) go to the park on our schedule and under full supervision and (2) stay home.

As kids get older we would want to pull back that kind of supervision, so that by the time they're 12 or so we can get their location with something active and visible to them, and by the time they're 15 or so we can just call or text them.

The technology can be used in a lot of ways, and whether it makes kids more or less free depends on parenting and culture.

[hombre_fatal]

Running away from school is pretty serious. When I was a kid, I'd expect some serious repercussions from my father if I did such a thing. The phone just made the consequences arrive sooner, but it's not the root of the issue. And the commenter didn't give us nearly enough information to judge them, so let's not.

[vonseel]

It doesn’t sound like anyone is judging here. And I agree, I would hate being tracked on my phone. I don’t share my location permanently with anyone. That just seems odd for adults to do. I was a kid before all of this was possible, but I’ve seen the tracking relatives have on their kids and it abhors me.

[cromwellian]

If you have a kid who is being monitored for depression and in therapy, it is a totally different story, and the monitoring is completely transparent, my son is not unaware of it, in fact, he specifically has an agreement not to disable location permissions for that app.

[gnicholas]

Isn’t this possible with Apple’s Find Friends functionality?

EDIT: downvote because why?

[cromwellian]

I didn't downvote you, but Find Friends doesn't geo-fence. So unless I'm actively tracking him, I won't know.

I only want to be notified if he leaves the school premises during school hours, I don't want to micromanage his location otherwise.

[gnicholas]

Thanks, I understand that the feature is enabled at a more granular level in some of these third-party apps. I don't have smartphone-aged kids, so thankfully I've not dug into these details yet...

[facethrowaway]

Sometimes I forget that this is a community full of engineers, many of whom have poor social skills.

Invest less time in apps and more time in trying to understand your kids.

[hombre_fatal]

Speaking of poor social skills, let's give each other the benefit of the doubt here, please. You have no clue what they're dealing with nor how well they understand their kid.

[cromwellian]

My son and I have a fantastically close relationship, we talk about everything, including deeply negative feelings. But unless you know how anxiety panic attacks work, don't make comments like this.

Regardless of the relationship and understanding I have with my kids, being triggered at school to ditch it from a panic attack is not a rational understanding.

It is precisely because my son and I have a good relationship, that we can come to an agreement that he needs outside supervision and monitoring.

I attend group therapy seminars with trouble teens. Some of them have been the victim of serious abuse, like revenge porn by peers on campus. This is not something "social skills" solve.

Your own comment to me suggests you lack the very social skills you claim others lack.