“I don’t realize how fast I’m going until she texts me,” senior Harleigh White said in reference to her mom, who uses an app called Life360.
Life360 can be used to monitor things like location, but for White, it has become a speed monitor. Once, while on 15-501, she was going 22 miles over the speed limit. When she reached her destination, her mom texted her to tell her not to speed. White didn’t think much of her mom checking in on her, but the next day, she was speeding again and ended up getting a ticket.
White feels that her mom’s use of the app can be “demeaning”.
“It feels like she doesn’t trust me that much when she should,” White said. “I’m not worried about the Life360 because I don’t lie to her about where I’m going. But her looking at it and 
checking up on me and how fast I’m going makes me feel like I’m untrustworthy to her.”
There are many students like White, and with the growth of technology, parents are finding new ways to track their kids’ locations. In order to go out, some teens have to share their locations with their parents. In a poll conducted by the Northwood Omniscient, 28.2 percent of juniors and seniors get tracked by their parents.
One of those students is junior Shayla Baldwin. Despite doing it to please her mom, she finds it unfair and irritating.
“I understand where my mom is coming from [with tracking my location],” Baldwin said. “She uses it to see where I am and if I’m lying to her about where I am. But I’ve never done anything to lose her trust and to have her to do that, it’s irritating at times just to feel that she doesn’t trust me, and it’s kind of put a strain on our relationship a little.”
Although some students like Baldwin think tracking is unfair, senior Jonathan Robbins doesn’t mind being tracked.
“I don’t really care,” Robbins said. “I don’t lie to my parents that much. It’s all in the best interest of me. It doesn’t really hurt my feelings that they’re trying to figure out where I am. They’re not looking to make sure I don’t have fun, they just want to know where I am.”
Senior Emma Taylor says having her location on makes her feel as if she’s never on her own.
“It makes me feel like they don’t really trust me,” Taylor said. “I’ll say I’m going somewhere, and I know an hour after I leave, they’ll be checking my location. Even though they’re not there, they’re watching me. You’re never quite on your own. It’s that feeling of being watched from a distance because they’re always there and always know where you are.”
Although Emma feels as if she isn’t trusted, her dad, Jeff Taylor, says that is not the motivation for tracking her.
“A lot of it is out of curiosity of where they are and safety,” Jeff said. “It’s to make sure they’re okay. I should be familiar with where they are and if it’s in correspondence with what they told me. I [trust my kids], and I think it’s just for me. It’s something that helps me feel better late at night when I know where they are.”
Teacher Sarah Robertson, a mother of two, feels that teens being tracked is a good thing because it could prevent future issues.
“One of the reasons it’s so important is because I’ve personally known multiple students who have gone missing and were missing for days,” Robertson said. “If they had a tracker on their phone, it would’ve been a lot easier to find out what happened.”
She says that tracking is more of a safety precaution than an issue with control.
“It’s just a safety precaution, pure and simple,“ Robertson said. “Sometimes you guys get into situations you’re not able to get out of on your own. It’s best to have a safety net.”
Some students, like junior Sean Foye, have turned their location off. For Foye, this created a ripple of issues with his parents.
“Almost every weekend [there are problems with me turning my tracker off],” Foye said. “About three weeks ago, I was at a friend’s house and [my parents] came and picked me up at one in the morning. I wasn’t at the place I was supposed to be, and my tracker was off.”
If the teenager isn’t getting into trouble, Robertson says that there should be no issues when it comes to being tracked, but for some kids, the tracker may be necessary.
“Parents, unless they’re actually worried, shouldn’t be snooping on their kids,” Robertson said. “If the kid’s…where they’re supposed to be, then it’s fine. Now, if you’ve got a dishonest kid on your hands, maybe you should be checking on them every once in a while to make sure.”
Baldwin feels she deserves more trust because of her clean reputation throughout high school.
“I feel that I’m a very reasonable person, so I try to reflect and think of where my mom is coming from, but at times it’s more than just the parent knows best,” Baldwin said. “I feel that’s why teenagers rebel, because they just want some source of freedom. I, being a teenager, [have] never done something like sneak out of the house, or do drugs or other bad stuff. She doesn’t realize that I’m almost 18 and going to college. She’s neglecting to see that I’m growing up and not a little kid anymore.”
Robbins believes that in spite of some teenagers not wanting to be tracked, they should be okay with it.
“I see no issue with [parents tracking their kids],” Robbins said. “Especially if they’re paying for the phone, paying for the gas to get there, the car. It’s their job to make sure we’re okay.”
– By Courtney Wolfe
