article in The Atlantic about tracking your kids

[Anonymous]

I have a 15 yo daughter. No tracking at all. Never been a problem

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If they have nothing to hide they have nothing to worry about.

“Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”

― Edward Snowden

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument

Electronically tracking your kids sets a bad precedent for society, and, even if you and your kids genuinely don't find this creepy, you and/or they might prefer that their tracking data not be sold and/or used for targeted advertsing.

Also, tracking your kids means tracking their friends and associates, none of whom have likely agreed to be tracked. It's an invasion of their privacy, too.

This thread keeps getting dumber. My kids are fully aware that they do not have absolute privacy. No kid should have that. They are still learning, developing, making mistakes. We are responsible for their health, safety and well being. So until they are mature enough to be completely on their own, I will use the technology available to me to make that a success.

So, unless you have something better than "technology BAD" as your argument, I'll do what I deem necessary to keep my kids safe.

I don't even know how to respond do the insane "their friends didn't consent to being tracked." I guess I'd need to obtain their permission to know that they are with my child, even if I didn't track their phone. Do you see how ridiculous that sounds?

DP

Reread what you wrote. Actually, you sound ridiculous.

And the ability to track people via app which can be hacked makes them unsafe. Imagine your kid on a hike with their friends out of state. A hacker calls you with a zip code from that area telling you that Larlo has been in an accident and you need to wire money to the hospital. Larlo is hiking and doesn't have mobile service, but you see he's in the same area. Your hacker has his insurance, location details, friends, photographs, etc. Does this make you feel safer about your child? This is just one of billions of scenarios. If your kid has videos online they can deep fake photos of the accident with his voice asking for money.

I work in ai and there is not a chance on Earth I'm making it easy for these people. But hey, you do you. Ignorance is bliss. Actually if you make it easy for them to hack you all, then they won't go for the difficult targets, so yeah, for you, it's a great idea.

You work in AI? As in you use ChatGpt?

I saw a news story of someone getting a call from a spammer pretending to be their child and saying they were in jail and to send money for bail. The parent looked on the tracking app and figured out immediately that their child was not in jail and that it was a spam call.

So two sides to every story? Also, for your story to have any validity, you'd have to not have a phone at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All I know is my mother was a helicopter parent before it was a thing.

I was very closely monitored. Her excuse was that I was up to no good, but really it was normal teenage behavior. She was very focused on keeping me away from smoking, drinking, boys etc. She would listen to my phone calls, read my notes, always knew my whereabouts and acted as though any event or trip was a life or death encounter. She was practically hysterical.

She would have absolutely tracked me 24-7 on my phone, if possible.

Because of the intensive parenting and tracking, I didn’t gain self confidence, figure out who I was, make mistakes, learn important lessons about friendships and relationships etc. This caused me some issues later on and resulted in me being behind my peers emotionally.

As a result of this I’m very opposed to closely monitoring children. I believe in autonomy and independence.

Yet so many people find this technology extremely helpful. You have a controlling mother and she was achieving that without any tracking apps. If you don't want to track your kids, fine by me. But please stop with this nonsense that it's somehow harmful to them if we do choose to track them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a 15 yo daughter. No tracking at all. Never been a problem

She doesn’t even drive yet. She’s literally wherever you took her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If they have nothing to hide they have nothing to worry about.

“Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”

― Edward Snowden

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument

Electronically tracking your kids sets a bad precedent for society, and, even if you and your kids genuinely don't find this creepy, you and/or they might prefer that their tracking data not be sold and/or used for targeted advertsing.

Also, tracking your kids means tracking their friends and associates, none of whom have likely agreed to be tracked. It's an invasion of their privacy, too.

This thread keeps getting dumber. My kids are fully aware that they do not have absolute privacy. No kid should have that. They are still learning, developing, making mistakes. We are responsible for their health, safety and well being. So until they are mature enough to be completely on their own, I will use the technology available to me to make that a success.

So, unless you have something better than "technology BAD" as your argument, I'll do what I deem necessary to keep my kids safe.

I don't even know how to respond do the insane "their friends didn't consent to being tracked." I guess I'd need to obtain their permission to know that they are with my child, even if I didn't track their phone. Do you see how ridiculous that sounds?

DP

Reread what you wrote. Actually, you sound ridiculous.

And the ability to track people via app which can be hacked makes them unsafe. Imagine your kid on a hike with their friends out of state. A hacker calls you with a zip code from that area telling you that Larlo has been in an accident and you need to wire money to the hospital. Larlo is hiking and doesn't have mobile service, but you see he's in the same area. Your hacker has his insurance, location details, friends, photographs, etc. Does this make you feel safer about your child? This is just one of billions of scenarios. If your kid has videos online they can deep fake photos of the accident with his voice asking for money.

I work in ai and there is not a chance on Earth I'm making it easy for these people. But hey, you do you. Ignorance is bliss. Actually if you make it easy for them to hack you all, then they won't go for the difficult targets, so yeah, for you, it's a great idea.

You work in AI? As in you use ChatGpt?

I saw a news story of someone getting a call from a spammer pretending to be their child and saying they were in jail and to send money for bail. The parent looked on the tracking app and figured out immediately that their child was not in jail and that it was a spam call.

So two sides to every story? Also, for your story to have any validity, you'd have to not have a phone at all.

Nah, as in Fortune 500 company's capability dept. Not everyone is like you. I do Geospatial analytics and build capabilities in conjunction with ESRI products from public and private databases. I know exactly how to tie all these social data platforms together and tie them into location data - it's literally my job. I also know my skillset is not unique - most large corporations are doing this internally. All it takes is bad motivation, and I can see that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If they have nothing to hide they have nothing to worry about.

“Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”

― Edward Snowden

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_hide_argument

Electronically tracking your kids sets a bad precedent for society, and, even if you and your kids genuinely don't find this creepy, you and/or they might prefer that their tracking data not be sold and/or used for targeted advertsing.

Also, tracking your kids means tracking their friends and associates, none of whom have likely agreed to be tracked. It's an invasion of their privacy, too.

This thread keeps getting dumber. My kids are fully aware that they do not have absolute privacy. No kid should have that. They are still learning, developing, making mistakes. We are responsible for their health, safety and well being. So until they are mature enough to be completely on their own, I will use the technology available to me to make that a success.

So, unless you have something better than "technology BAD" as your argument, I'll do what I deem necessary to keep my kids safe.

I don't even know how to respond do the insane "their friends didn't consent to being tracked." I guess I'd need to obtain their permission to know that they are with my child, even if I didn't track their phone. Do you see how ridiculous that sounds?

DP

Reread what you wrote. Actually, you sound ridiculous.

And the ability to track people via app which can be hacked makes them unsafe. Imagine your kid on a hike with their friends out of state. A hacker calls you with a zip code from that area telling you that Larlo has been in an accident and you need to wire money to the hospital. Larlo is hiking and doesn't have mobile service, but you see he's in the same area. Your hacker has his insurance, location details, friends, photographs, etc. Does this make you feel safer about your child? This is just one of billions of scenarios. If your kid has videos online they can deep fake photos of the accident with his voice asking for money.

I work in ai and there is not a chance on Earth I'm making it easy for these people. But hey, you do you. Ignorance is bliss. Actually if you make it easy for them to hack you all, then they won't go for the difficult targets, so yeah, for you, it's a great idea.

You work in AI? As in you use ChatGpt?

I saw a news story of someone getting a call from a spammer pretending to be their child and saying they were in jail and to send money for bail. The parent looked on the tracking app and figured out immediately that their child was not in jail and that it was a spam call.

So two sides to every story? Also, for your story to have any validity, you'd have to not have a phone at all.

Nah, as in Fortune 500 company's capability dept. Not everyone is like you. I do Geospatial analytics and build capabilities in conjunction with ESRI products from public and private databases. I know exactly how to tie all these social data platforms together and tie them into location data - it's literally my job. I also know my skillset is not unique - most large corporations are doing this internally. All it takes is bad motivation, and I can see that.

Ok, cool story. I have calculated the risk for me and my family and we'll keep tracking each other. You can choose to live differently.

PS nothing you said is actual evidence that those things are even happening.

[Anonymous]

I do not care or judge if others have locations of their family members. We do not do this, however, because boundaries.

[Anonymous]

My family shares locations, including parents and teens. They can see our locations as well as we can see theirs. We don't check up on them to stalk their location - it's a practical tool for figuring out how far away someone is on their drive home, finding each other at a meetup location. Sure there are other ways to do it, but this is easy and convenient. It's only creepy or helicoptery if you make it so; in which case the behavior is the problem, not the location sharing app.

[Anonymous]

For those of you who say it’s just for convenience or your kids don’t mind or whatever - what if your kids asked to not be tracked anymore? What would your response be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids, husband, and I have location sharing enabled amongst the four of us on Google Maps.

We don't check each other's location very often time, but it's been nice to see where someone is without texting them.

The kids are teenagers now, but before they had cell phones, they would be a local park, on their bikes, or at a friend's place for hours at a time. Oddly, I know more about there whereabouts now than I did before they got cell phones!

I can also see my elderly parent's location. It's been helpful in various scenarios.

This is a problem, I think. Tracking gives a false sense of confidence. My vote is less tracking, more talking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who say it’s just for convenience or your kids don’t mind or whatever - what if your kids asked to not be tracked anymore? What would your response be?

Maybe try reading the responses to this same question instead of asking it over and over again.

They can choose not to be tracked when they are adults living on their own. Until then, it's not different than any other rule I choose to have in my house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids, husband, and I have location sharing enabled amongst the four of us on Google Maps.

We don't check each other's location very often time, but it's been nice to see where someone is without texting them.

The kids are teenagers now, but before they had cell phones, they would be a local park, on their bikes, or at a friend's place for hours at a time. Oddly, I know more about there whereabouts now than I did before they got cell phones!

I can also see my elderly parent's location. It's been helpful in various scenarios.

This is a problem, I think. Tracking gives a false sense of confidence. My vote is less tracking, more talking.

I know where my child is with a great deal of confidence, which is the entire point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who say it’s just for convenience or your kids don’t mind or whatever - what if your kids asked to not be tracked anymore? What would your response be?

Maybe try reading the responses to this same question instead of asking it over and over again.

They can choose not to be tracked when they are adults living on their own. Until then, it's not different than any other rule I choose to have in my house.

It’s a little different, but ok.

Some people are acting like it is no big deal and just for convenience or whatever. My guess is that is not exactly accurate for some of those parents. And they are saying it is not a big deal but it probably would be if the kids asked to not be tracked anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids, husband, and I have location sharing enabled amongst the four of us on Google Maps.

We don't check each other's location very often time, but it's been nice to see where someone is without texting them.

The kids are teenagers now, but before they had cell phones, they would be a local park, on their bikes, or at a friend's place for hours at a time. Oddly, I know more about there whereabouts now than I did before they got cell phones!

I can also see my elderly parent's location. It's been helpful in various scenarios.

This is a problem, I think. Tracking gives a false sense of confidence. My vote is less tracking, more talking.

I know where my child is with a great deal of confidence, which is the entire point.

I guess depending on the age of the kid (14yo is different than hs senior) I would ask why you need to know 24/7.

[Anonymous]

We are in NYC and nfw am I sending my 12 - 16 year old on the subway without a tracking device. End of story.