Home
Apple News
Should you track your child? The surprising trade-offs experts want parents to know

Should you track your child? The surprising trade-offs experts want parents to know

Real mums share why they use AirTags and location apps, while experts explain why constant tracking could affect children's independence, confidence and family trust.

Parents attaches a tracker keychain to her son's backpack at home.

Getty/Natalia Lebedinskaia

Serafina Kenny

Published: July 8, 2026 at 4:37 PM

Save

Many parents would agree that while smartphones can have a negative impact on children — one reason the government introduced a ban on phones in schools on 29 June — their calling, messaging and location-sharing features can offer valuable peace of mind in today's busy world.

But as social media restrictions are introduced and awareness grows about the impact smartphones can have on our physical and mental health, some parents and experts are beginning to question whether it's really helpful to know where your child is at all times.

We spoke to Charlotte Ashton, co-founder of Generation Focus — a campaign group calling for tighter legal restrictions on smartphones in schools and supporting schools to adopt smartphone-free policies — as well as parents from the MadeForMums community, to explore why tracking your children may not be as reassuring as it seems.

Why do some parents track their children?

Young woman is checking her route on a mobile navigation app while relaxing at home

According to a 2024 study published in the Journal of Family Psychology, around half of the 12- to 18-year-olds and their parents who took part said they used location tracking.

The researchers found that girls and younger teenagers were more likely to be tracked than boys and older teens, suggesting that parents may have greater concerns about girls' safety and tend to ease off tracking as children become more independent.

Parents choose to track their children for many different reasons, so we asked members of the MadeForMums community to share what motivates them.

Safety

The most obvious reason parents give for wanting to track their children is safety. This can be everyday — with parents able to check that their child made it to school okay or confirm that they are at the friend’s house they said they would be at — or for one-off occasions, such as visits to theme parks, shopping centres, and festivals where families can easily be split up.

And if a child goes missing, the police can sometimes use the GPS trackers on their phones or any other tracking device to triangulate their last known whereabouts.

Mums Emma Pez and Ailsa Gallagher say they use Apple AirTags on wristbands so they can locate their children on school trips, holidays, and family outings.

Sophie Hotston says: “I will absolutely be using trackers (tags) on my children on holidays and days out this summer. Not because I don't trust them — [it’s] more that I don't trust strangers.”

Giving kids independence while keeping peace of mind

Most of the mums in the MFM community who responded mentioned that they use tracking to give their children independence while still being able to keep an eye on them and know they are safe.

Many parents don’t use tracking to restrict their kids’ movement, instead to enable them to go out alone more — walking to school by themselves, staying out later with friends, or trying out public transport by themselves.

Tracking allows kids to go out and about and build confidence, but with a safety net, and in a way that eases parents’ anxiety.

Claire Thompson, a mum of teens, says: “We use Family Link on my daughter's phone, and she has a Samsung Tag on her key. She's nearly 13 and it does give me the peace of mind that I can see where she is when she is out with her friends. She's aware and happy for me to do it, unfortunately it feels needed in the world we live in now.”

Sarah Elizabeth says that while she doesn’t check her kids’ every move, it is useful for her younger children who are only just starting to go out alone.

Communication and coordination

Location sharing can also simplify the logistics of family life. Coordinating school drop-offs, after-school activities, and playdates becomes far less stressful when a parent can simply glance at an app instead of getting through to busy kids with calls and texts.

This is especially valuable in households with multiple children or shared custody arrangements, where keeping everyone's schedule straight can otherwise become a full-time job.

Sarah Elizabeth’s daughter is 11, and she can see her location on Find My iPhone. She says: “She does not go out alone a lot, but I do check it when she goes out with friends. She walked a friend home last week and got lost on the way home and it made it really easy for me to find her as I can put [in] directions to her location.”

Some families have specific situations that require tracking

Of course, the decision to track your kids probably depends heavily on who is in your family. Whether they love exploring or they get distracted easily, some kids are more prone to running off. Other children might have a medical condition like epilepsy or an allergy which means parents might want to be able to locate them quickly in an emergency.

Parents of neurodivergent children who might find it hard to navigate home or explain their situation when they get lost may want to have insight into where their kids are. There also may be custody battles or protection orders in place with some families, in which case knowing where children are can be legally important.

Or, for mums like Katie Dawson, tracking might not be about locating their child themselves, but their belongings.

“My daughter has Samsung tags on her bag and blazer, and Family Link on her phone — not to track her but [because] she is an expert on loosing things,” she says. And “they come in handy when she forgets to get off her school bus stop so [I] can help her get to where she needs to [go].”

The hidden costs of tracking your child

Shot from rear seats, a car driver uses a smartphone for GPS navigation, showing the route to the passenger, zooming in the location.

Getty/Yana Iskayeva

Location-sharing can feel reassuring, but some experts argue that constantly knowing where your child is comes with hidden trade-offs. While tracking may ease worries in the moment, it can also create a false sense of security, affect children's growing independence and even add to parents' mental load.

I think there's a risk, in the quest for convenience, that we're actually paying a higher price that we're not fully aware of yet.

Charlotte Ashton, co-founder of Generation Focus

It can provide a false sense of security

A location pin only tells parents where a phone or tracking device is, not whether a child is safe or in trouble, what’s happening, or who they are with.

And tracking sometimes isn’t actually that helpful in the case of a child going missing. Obviously, finding a child who has gone missing briefly can be made much easier if they have a phone or AirTag that can be quickly checked, but in more complex cases, this technology isn’t always as helpful as parents would hope.

“We cannot rely on tracking to find children in an emergency because the tracking device can be abandoned,” Charlotte says.

It can stop children from developing independence

Generation Focus and a group of medical professionals have published an open letter which argues that children’s development of autonomy is limited when they are constantly tracked.

In the letter, Generation Focus and the medical professionals argued: “If parents need to know their precise geographical location at all times, the logical conclusion for a child to reach is that the world must be a very dangerous place.”

They’re not being allowed to build up the resilience and the confidence to go out on their own in a safe environment.

Charlotte Ashton, co-founder of Generation Focus

This is despite evidence that crime has fallen in the UK over the last few years, and that carrying a smartphone (the tracking device for most people) actually increases your risk of getting mugged or stepping out into moving traffic while distracted.

“Children are not being allowed to build up the resilience and the confidence to go out on their own in a safe environment. That has consequences on their ability to feel confident and not feel anxious,” Charlotte says.

“They also need the real-life skills to keep themselves safe when they're out and about. That is, knowing how to go and ask for help, knowing what not to do if you get stranded, or if mum's late to pick you up, knowing to go and find a safe space if you find yourself on your own.”

Children might see it as a lack of trust

Even if tracking children is more about their safety from strangers than themselves, kids might not interpret it this way.

Persistent tracking can send the message that a parent doesn't trust their child's judgment, which may result in resentment and ingenious ways for children to get around their parents' tracking efforts.

It’s a mental burden on parents

Ironically, tracking a child’s whereabouts to ease your anxiety can end up feeding it instead. It's easy to fall into the habit of checking it all the time, and minor deviations from the norm — such as a location not updating, a dead phone battery, or a rerouted bus journey — can become a source of panic.

We've been sold this safety delusion that we can make our children safer with tech and therefore we feel obliged to use it when actually it's not necessarily better. As parents, we need to give ourselves a break.

Charlotte Ashton, co-founder of Generation Focus

It’s also one more thing for parents to think about, on top of busy schedules, meal plans, taking care of kids’ wellbeing, and making sure their homework is completed. The constant low-grade vigilance adds to the mental load of parenting which previous generations didn’t have.

"We've been sold this safety delusion that we can make our children safer with tech and therefore we feel obliged to use it when actually it's not necessarily better," says Charlotte. "As parents, we need to give ourselves a break."

Does the reassurance of tracking outweigh the risks of a smartphone?

Group of people using smartphones outdoor, wide short low angle view

Getty/Olga Pankova

For many families, location tracking only works because their child has a smartphone. But some experts argue this creates an uncomfortable trade-off: the device that lets parents monitor their child's whereabouts also gives them access to online risks that may be far greater than the dangers they're trying to protect them from.

The physical journey to school is statistically much safer than the digital journey a child takes once they unlock that screen, so we are trading a manageable physical risk for a profound digital one.

Simon Bailey, former national policing lead on child protection and abuse investigations

Simon Bailey, the former national policing lead for child protection and abuse investigations, believes a basic phone that can only make calls and send texts is enough for most children travelling to and from school.

“A simple call-or-text only is more than enough if children need to be in contact with home on the way to and from school," he says. "The evidence is increasingly clear: a smartphone in a child’s pocket opens a door to risks that far outweigh any benefits.

"The physical journey to school is statistically much safer than the digital journey a child takes once they unlock that screen, so we are trading a manageable physical risk for a profound digital one.

“I deeply empathize with parents; in an uncertain world connection feels like a vital safety net but our priority must be to protect our children, not soothe parental anxiety.”

Should parents track their children? Real mums weigh in

**Shannon Greenbank: “**I track my children on school trips with an Apple AirTag! I use it as I have anxiety, so it gives me peace of mind. The pros of an AirTag are that’s it’s small and you can get accessories like wrist bands and key rings they can fit into. The only con I have is that it needs to be near an iPhone to update location so sometimes tracking might not update for 20 minutes.”

Kayleigh Archer: “I use Life360. I wasn’t really allowed out on my own as a child, or teenager, so it’s been a real learning curve trying to give my children a bit of freedom and not totally panic. My eldest (16) isn’t thrilled that I do, but he knows it’s for my peace of mind and a happy compromise for me in order to let him out alone safely.”

Hannah Hutchings: “We have used trackers in the past, but it's not something we normally do as they are still young and with us (7, 5 and 2). When we went to Disneyland we did put Chipolo trackers in their pockets as a just in case we get separated. When they start going out on their own and have [their] own phones, we will probably share location, which [my] husband and I do anyway. I think as long as it's done with transparency and not used as surveillance as such then it's okay.”

Naomi Elise Crawford: “I do [track] my oldest when she goes out with friends. She’s 16 and shares her location with me when she goes out through WhatsApp. We went to Disneyland a few years back and a friend brought me a little tracker that was in a hair bobble that I could track through my phone which was reassuring in case [my younger children] got lost.”

Charmaine James: “My son is almost 13 and since he got a smart phone for his 11th birthday, I have had Google Family Link and Life 360 on there to track him in case anything ever happened. He is happy to have it on there and often uses it to his advantage when I'm picking him up from being out with his friends. He says, 'Find me on the map'. I also have Samsung smart tags on his keys and bike in case they are lost/stolen.”

Tracking technology can be a useful tool, but it's not a substitute for helping children develop the confidence, judgement and skills to keep themselves safe. Every family will strike a different balance between reassurance and independence, and that balance is likely to change as children get older.

Perhaps the most important question isn't whether you can track your child, but whether you still need to. Keeping an open conversation about safety, trust and growing independence can help ensure that, whatever approach you choose, it continues to work for your family.

Authors

Serafina Kenny journalist headshot

Serafina KennyDigital Journalist

Serafina Kenny is a Digital Journalist at MadeForMums. She writes news and features and has expertise in health, nutrition, relationships, and history. She has previously written for Business Insider, Women's Health, Stylist, Men's Health US, The i Paper, Dazed, and more. You can contact her with tips and story ideas (or compliments!) at serafina.kenny@immediate.co.uk.