Is Putting A Tracker On Your Child’s Phone An Invasion Of Their Privacy?

The mobile phone or smart phone is now well and truly a part of modern society. There is no doubt that the benefits of a smart phone completely outweigh the disadvantages. However, a couple of difficult questions I have been asking myself recently are: what age should children have a smart phone? Should we be putting a tracker on our children’s phones? Very difficult decisions.

What has made me start thinking about this is our twin girls will be eight years old this month and already when I pick them up from school I see many older children coming out of school holding and using their smart phones, so the decision as to when the twins have a smart phone will be upon us sooner rather than later.

The difficulty we face as parents is first of all when does it become necessary for our child to have a smart phone? For me, at just eight years old I cannot think of a single reason why they would require a mobile phone. Let me explain why. They are taken and picked up from school by us. If they need to go anywhere we take them whether that’s a friends party or just for a few hours over to a friends house. So as far as needing a phone to call us they simply don’t need one and in my humble opinion when they get to year six and are maybe starting to walk to school on their own or going to the local park to meet friends, then yes, I would prefer them to have a mobile phone for safety reasons and of course just to ring us to tell us what time they will be home and that they are ok.

The other pressure of having a mobile phone will come from friends and as more and more of their friends start having mobile phones we will be in a situation where I’m sure they will be nagging for a mobile phone too. I don’t want them to be the first to have a mobile phone in their class but ultimately I don’t want them to be the last either. This will be a very difficult decision and the timing will have to be spot on.

So once they have a mobile phone the big question is do you put a tracker on their phone so you know where they are at any given time? This will make you feel more comfortable and certainly less anxious as to their whereabouts. The question is are we invading their privacy by doing this? A massively difficult question and the truth is we are. Is it a lack of trust or do we not trust the world our children are growing up in?

For me, once the twins have a smart phone I will probably put a tracker on it but purely for safety reasons. The reasoning behind my decision is very simple. When my older children had phones in their early teens if I phoned them they would rarely answer the call, because of course it’s not cool to speak to your parents in front of friends. Well with a tracker on the phone that can be eliminated saving any embarrassment of talking to mum or dad while you are with your friends, and stop me getting worried.

For me the invasion of privacy with your children’s phone only comes about when you are checking constantly what apps or who they talking too. This can be easily solved by having a conversation from a young age that staying safe doesn’t just mean crossing the road, it’s also staying safe online in our very fast moving world.

Letting your children know you have trust in them will go a long way in them behaving sensibly when it comes to a smart phone and in life general. Making them feel that you are suspecting that they are up to no good will destroy any trust between you and they will start to hide things from you. When it comes to what apps they are using, educating our children of the dangers and benefits of being online from a young age will keep them safe and you maybe won’t have to check what they are looking at while on their smart phone.

Do you think having a tracker on your child’s phone is an invasion of their privacy? Do you check what apps they use on their smart phones? I would love to hear in the comments below.