Gen Alpha Parents Use Location-Sharing Apps to Ease Anxiety

With one Gen Alpha kid and one Gen Zer at home, our family uses Apple’s location-sharing feature to stay connected. It’s helped my husband and I feel more comfortable giving our 10- and 14-year-olds some more freedom, while still staying on top of their whereabouts. It turns out, we’re not alone.

A survey conducted by Life360 (a popular location-sharing app) found that 91% of Gen Alpha parents confirmed they actively use location-sharing capabilities. For those Gen Alphas who don’t yet have phones, 88% of parents said they plan to use location-sharing once their kids do get phones. Most parents in the survey (79%) say they plan to use location-sharing until their kids are age 18 or older.

This has given rise to the nickname “periscope parents,” or parents who choose to forgo physical proximity for digital supervision. While it provides a good balance between safety and freedom, it’s important to be mindful of some boundaries. In the Life360 survey of 1,000 parents, the driving factor for using location-sharing was to maintain safety and curb parent anxiety.

Amy Dikkers, a mom of 12- and 16-year-old kids from Wilmington, NC, says they first downloaded Life360 when their eldest started driving. But her younger child uses it as well.

“There was one evening she was leaving her dance studio and walking across a shopping center to meet me at a volunteer event,” Dickers shares. “I felt much more comfortable with her walking alone since I could track where she was.”

Sara Hart, a mom from Southern Maine with 15-, 13-, and 10-year-old daughters says she uses the location-sharing app to track the school bus.

“There have been times I’ve had an appointment or had to pick up one of the other kids, and I knew I wouldn’t make the bus stop on time,” she says. “I can see where the bus is and give my kid a heads-up that I’ll be just five minutes behind them.”

Hart says her oldest typically goes from school to cheer practice to dance—often getting rides from friends. The Life360 app allows Hart to see she’s safely arrived.

“As my daughter and her friends come into driving age, I also appreciate that I can see how fast they’re going in a vehicle,” Hart adds.

Benefits of More Freedom for Gen Alpha Kids

According to Jean M. Twenge, PhD, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, a mom of three, and the author of iGen: Why Today’s Super Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood there are plenty of positives that can come from giving kids more freedom. She feels kids in the 8 to 15 age range do need some independent experiences. It’s important for them to develop an identity apart from their parents and to socialize with kids their age. 

“Kids who don’t go out without their parents might be missing out on experiences, independence, social skills, exercise and even just play,” continues Dr. Twenge. “But we’re in a situation where if you let your kids have the freedom that kids of the 70s and 80s had, you’ll be judged. That is where technology can bridge the gap. It’s a good compromise. You can give your kids some freedom but still see where they are.”

In fact, according to the Life360 survey, with location sharing 83% of parents said they are more likely to allow their kids to stay home alone without an adult and 84% said they allow their kids to travel to school by themselves.

This is important as Dr. Twenge says the data on kids in the 8 to 15 range shows that they aren’t going outside as much or playing as much. She said it’s not just related to parenting decisions but is part of a larger cultural trend in general. It’s less common for kids to spend time away from their parents.

“The whole developmental trajectory has slowed down,” she explains. “But there are important benefits that come with being given some freedom and gaining some independence.” 

Location-sharing apps also provide some peace of mind for parents when they are away from their children, even at school. Despite worrying about kids using their phones while at school, 75% said they want their children to have their phones with them in case of emergency.

Location-Sharing While Being Mindful if Privacy

While there’s quite a bit of good that seems like it can come from a location-sharing app, Sarah Perez, a tech expert and reporter at TechCrunch says that before adopting this sort of technology, a family should discuss and agree to use it.

“There is a benefit to tracking in terms of safety, especially when kids are being allowed on their own for the first time or when teens start driving,” says Perez. “But trust is a two-way street. Parents can remind kids that they can be tracked, too, which kids may find helpful if the parent is running late to school pick-up, as an example.”

But Perez, a mom herself, adds that she personally worries whether location-sharing apps may increase anxiety in kids.

“I do wonder whether this idea that parents need to know where their kids are at all times could contribute to anxiety,” she says. “We don’t want to make kids feel anxious knowing that they’re constantly being tracked. I think it’s an issue to continue to raise as we find a way to balance the use of technology with a sense of safety.”

Perez says how the use of this technology is presented to the family might make a difference in how it’s received.

“Talking about it like a convenience or a way to stay connected as opposed to a matter of safety—as though something bad could happen if you weren’t tracking your kids—can play a big role in how everyone feels about it,” she says. “For instance, it’s a tool to see that mom’s running late to pick up so that you don’t have to text her—not a tool to see whether someone has been kidnapped. The framing of how it can be used matters.”

There are also privacy considerations. Teodora Pavkovic, a globally recognized digital wellness expert, parenting coach, and director of wellbeing at EdTech company Linewize adds that parents need to always be mindful of the “fine print” that accompanies any app they add to their child’s phone.

“Location-sharing apps talk about taking away stress and providing peace of mind by being able to see where friends and family are,” she says. “But there’s a huge amount of personal information you have to hand over and share with the platform in order to gain that. Some are comfortable with that for the benefits they feel they’ll receive. But most don’t really take the time to read the legal jargon.”

Pavkovic says apps like these use third-party identity verification services—for good reason—to make sure you are who you say you are. But she says the trade-off is that those vendors require highly personal information to do their job. To use apps like Life360, we have to agree to their terms and conditions. In addition, Pavkovic says as with any app, parents always need to be leery of hackers and other bad players looking to abuse the app’s features. That’s true when using any technology—but perhaps even more so for an app that is centered around children’s location data.

Like Perez, Pavkovic also has some concerns about the implications of kids feeling constantly “tracked.”

“I think it boils down to communication and collaboration,” she says. “To truly give kids independence, we don’t necessarily want to make them feel like they’re being watched constantly. There might be times when it’s appropriate to tell your kids you’re going to turn the tracking off because you know where they’re going to be, and you trust them.”

Pavkovic says kids are growing up in a time when they’re “painfully aware” that they are constantly being watched. And that might have implications of its own.

“This hypervigilance can be a slippery slope,” she fears. “I think it’s really important that it’s a collaborative agreement amongst families and not something sneaky that makes kids feel spied on. That can be harmful to the parent/child relationship.”

When Should Parents Stop Using Location-Sharing Apps?

It’s also important for families to have conversations around when it’s appropriate to stop using location-sharing apps. Dr. Twenge says this is an individualized conversation that families need to have. While she personally feels that age 18 would be a good age to stop tracking kids’ whereabouts, each family needs to come to a decision that works best for them. Even some college-aged kids and their families do continue to track one another.

“What it means for a young adult to be ‘independent’ and ‘self-sufficient’ has drastically changed over the past 50 years; what it means to be ‘connected’ to family and friends has likewise changed,” says Pavkovic. “I think it’s probably one of the most developmentally important questions for each family to ask themselves as their child prepares to leave home for the first time: What kinds of digital practices will help their young person flourish into a resilient and resourceful individual, and which ones should really be left behind as they venture into the world of adulting?”