Is It A Good Idea For Teens To Use Location Tracking With Friends?

Developments change, expertise advances, but youngsters at all times appear to remain the identical. They discover new methods to keep up social relevance — typically by doing issues older generations don’t perceive. (Don’t consider me? Simply attempt to guess what any of their slang phrases imply.) One of many newest teen developments is one thing which may elevate a couple of eyebrows amongst mother and father, resulting from security and privateness considerations: location monitoring.

Though teenagers crave independence from their mother and father, they’re voluntarily sharing their real-time whereabouts with their buddies. Widespread cellphone monitoring app Life360 not too long ago discovered that Gen Z is 70% more likely than another age group to share their location with buddies. And 94% of Gen Z surveyed stated their lives profit from location sharing.

In Might 2025, Snapchat introduced that its location-sharing Snap Map has greater than 400 million month-to-month energetic customers, per TechCrunch. This influences different social media platforms, as Instagram is reportedly engaged on the same Good friend Map to permit customers to see their buddies’ areas.

Many adults, together with Leigh McInnis, the chief director of Newport Healthcare, might really feel cautious about this pattern; nevertheless, McInnis retains an open thoughts. “Whereas my quick intuition is said to safety of privateness and limits,” she informed HuffPost, “I understand that this impulse is probably going extra associated to my generational identification and discomfort with expertise and monitoring than the social wants and preferences of right this moment’s teenagers and younger adults.”

McInnis added, “I feel that it is very important discover the operate of a habits earlier than judging it or intervening in it.”

Unsure what to consider it — or how to make sure your teen makes use of an app like this safely? Maintain studying for expert-backed opinions that will help you perceive why your teenagers may like sharing their location, in addition to recommendations on setting boundaries and pink flags to search for.

“Most of the teenagers I work with — together with my very own daughter — share their location with their buddies,” stated Dr. Cameron Caswell, adolescent psychologist, host of “Parenting Teenagers with Dr. Cam” podcast, and guardian of a teen. “It’s a bit about security, however principally ‘as a result of it’s simply enjoyable to see what one another is doing.’”

Again within the olden days (circa 2006), teenagers would replace their Myspace standing to let you recognize what they had been as much as. Later, they “checked in” to locations on Foursquare and Facebook, shared real-time updates on Snapchat and Instagram tales, and tweeted each element of their lives. Now, they use Snapchat’s Snap Map, Life360, or Apple’s location sharing to share with their buddies in every single place they’re in actual time.

“This isn’t new,” Caswell stated. “In a world the place practically the whole lot is shared, this doesn’t really feel invasive to teenagers — it feels regular. It’s simply one other means they keep looped into one another’s lives.”

Teenagers additionally use apps like this to trace their mother and father, in accordance with Caswell, whose personal daughter will textual content her if she sees her mother is at Ulta and ask for lip gloss.

“For a lot of teenagers, location sharing is about connection and a way of security,” Caswell defined. “It’s their means of claiming, ‘You’re in my circle’ and ‘I’ve obtained your again.’”

Although sharing your location with buddies may be common, it doesn’t come with out penalties. Cheryl Groskopf, an nervousness, trauma, and attachment therapist based mostly in Los Angeles, sees teenagers sharing their areas as a means “to handle nervousness, monitor social dynamics and really feel much less alone.”

“There’s consolation in figuring out the place your persons are, particularly in a world the place teenagers continually really feel like they might get not noted, changed or excluded,” she stated. “However that consolation is fragile — it depends on fixed entry (which leaves their nervous system hypervigilant to feeling ‘not noted’).”

“Should you’re checking somebody’s location since you don’t belief what they’re telling you — or as a result of they don’t belief you — then it’s already crossed right into a management dynamic,” Groskopf stated.

In her observe, she’s seen teenagers “spiral” once they spot their buddy at a celebration they weren’t invited to, or “as a result of somebody didn’t reply quick sufficient, however ‘was clearly at residence.’” She defined, “It turns into a setup for overthinking, panic and social surveillance.”

“Teenagers shouldn’t use location sharing when it’s getting used to keep away from rejection, handle another person’s nervousness, or show loyalty,” she added.

McInnis stated, “Teenagers sharing their location and having their buddies monitor them might hurt their psychological well being.” Always seeing (and evaluating) your mates’ social actions “can result in emotions of inadequacy,” she added.

Caswell agreed. “Location sharing can intensify FOMO (concern of lacking out) and social exclusion,” she stated. “Seeing a bunch of buddies hanging out with out them — even unintentionally — could make them really feel lonelier and extra not noted.”

Along with these emotional dangers, there are bodily dangers, too. Like a teen’s location knowledge being obtainable to somebody who may want them hurt. “Within the mistaken fingers, it may well make [teens] extra susceptible to stalking, harassment and even predatory habits, particularly if they’re in controlling relationships,” Caswell stated.

Teen women could also be extra seemingly to make use of location sharing as a strategy to really feel safer. Based on the Life360 survey, 70% of Gen Z ladies consider their bodily well-being advantages from location sharing. Within the area, our specialists additionally discovered that females had been extra seemingly to do that.

Caswell stated that “principally women” will brazenly share their location with buddies, “each for enjoyable and since it makes them really feel safer figuring out somebody at all times is aware of the place they’re.”

Nevertheless, this sense of security is a double-edged sword, as it may well “improve the chance of stalking, harassment and even sexual violence,” Caswell stated. “Particularly when their location is shared with the mistaken individual, which is usually somebody they know and belief.”

Groskopf warns of the hazards women and femme teenagers might expertise when their use of location-sharing is weaponized in opposition to them. “It may possibly simply flip into emotional surveillance disguised as closeness,” she defined. (For instance, a buddy or companion telling them, “Should you belief me, you’ll let me see the place you might be.”)

“I see these sorts of patterns play out in high-control dynamics — buddies or companions checking areas to not keep secure, however to handle nervousness, jealousy or energy,” Groskopf stated. “And women are far more prone to internalize that and comply, even when it feels off. They’re extra prone to be conditioned to keep away from battle, handle different individuals’s feelings, and maintain the peace — even when which means overriding their very own boundaries.”

That’s why instructing your children methods to set boundaries, in actual life and on-line, is vital.

Educating your teen methods to deal with location-sharing in a secure means begins with conversations round consent and the flexibility to say no.

When requested if there’s a secure means for teenagers to share their areas, Groskopf stated, “Provided that there’s actual consent, boundaries, and the liberty to choose out with out punishment.”

On this case, the punishment may very well be feeling guilt-tripped or rejected by a buddy. “Which means not simply technically having the choice to cease sharing, however figuring out you gained’t be guilted, shut out, or shamed in the event you do,” Groskopf continued. “A guardian saying, ‘I need to know the place you might be in case of emergency’ is one factor. A buddy saying, ‘Why’d you flip off your location?’ with passive-aggressive silence afterward is one thing else totally.”

She added, “Secure monitoring solely works when it’s not being weaponized to manage another person’s concern, jealousy or insecurity.”

Begin the dialog with curiosity, not criticism, Caswell stated. “As a substitute of banning [location sharing], I like to recommend strolling by means of privateness settings collectively and having calm conversations about why they’re sharing within the first place,” she stated. “Is it for security? To really feel linked to their bestie? As a result of they really feel pressured to? Serving to teenagers perceive why they’re doing it makes location sharing lots safer and extra intentional.”

From there, encourage your teen to solely share their location with “a small, trusted circle of shut buddies or household,” and verify in on this record incessantly.

“One mother I labored with informed me her daughter was shocked to seek out an ex-boyfriend nonetheless had entry to her location,” Caswell stated. “After all, that defined why he stored ‘randomly’ displaying up wherever she was. As a substitute of freaking out, the mother used it as a possibility to speak together with her daughter about methods to use tech extra safely transferring ahead.”

It’s at all times a good suggestion to speak together with your teenagers about methods to keep secure on-line and set boundaries round privateness with their buddies. However bear in mind, this begins at residence. “Let your teen say no to you typically,” Caswell urged.

“Training boundaries with somebody secure provides them the arrogance to do it with somebody who isn’t,” she added. “That’s how they construct real-world security expertise — not simply digital ones.”