Female college student—my parents track me on Life360

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their money, their rules.

Once you pay for your own school and phone then your rules. Seems like a small price to pay for the next 1.5 years of phone and tuition.

Our college kids also have Life 360. We rarely "track them" except when they are driving home (5 and 8 hours respectively) so we can see when they'll be home. Although every once in a while, when we are missing them, we look to see where they are (usually in class or in their dorm or in another part of each of their respective locations).

We always made the kids have it, and have it turned on, due to the Whitman HS student who passed away a few years back who no one could find (apparently left a party, cut through the woods and passed out and died). No one could find him and the parents were frantic. That is why we require it.

And, agree with the above. If you don't ever want them to track you, pay for your own phone.

“We” track them, or just you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe OP parents do not want her to be raped, killed, trafficked.

Who was the LSU sorority sister who got drugged, gang raped, video recorded and left on the road at 3 am to be run over by a car?
Op, are you blond?

The LSU student was at a bar immediately adjacent to campus and left on a road not far away. Tracking her phone wouldn’t have prevented anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their money, their rules.

Once you pay for your own school and phone then your rules. Seems like a small price to pay for the next 1.5 years of phone and tuition.

Our college kids also have Life 360. We rarely "track them" except when they are driving home (5 and 8 hours respectively) so we can see when they'll be home. Although every once in a while, when we are missing them, we look to see where they are (usually in class or in their dorm or in another part of each of their respective locations).

We always made the kids have it, and have it turned on, due to the Whitman HS student who passed away a few years back who no one could find (apparently left a party, cut through the woods and passed out and died). No one could find him and the parents were frantic. That is why we require it.

And, agree with the above. If you don't ever want them to track you, pay for your own phone.

“We” track them, or just you?

We. DH uses it more than Indo - he gets curious and will frequently "take a look." I don't do this - I look for when they will be home.

[Anonymous]

OP it’s time to get your own phone.

[Anonymous]

I’m confused about so many people using life 360.
Why? I have high school and college age kids. We just all have find my iPhone tracking.
I can look them up through that if I want to check where they are. They can do the same.
Not sure why life 360 is necessary. Am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

We (parents) have Androids and they (kids) have iPhones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m confused about so many people using life 360.
Why? I have high school and college age kids. We just all have find my iPhone tracking.
I can look them up through that if I want to check where they are. They can do the same.
Not sure why life 360 is necessary. Am I missing something?

We have too many kids to keep on apple family. Therefore, life 360 for us.

[Anonymous]

WHY are they tracking you? Are they going to react if you spend the night with a "friend" or if you do take a road trip? All the things that make parents nervous but are totally normal in college? Do they just think you'll end up in a ditch and no one will ever find you?

Is it at all possible to reason with them? Keep your location off most of the time, but on when you're exploring on your own further away from campus?

My preteen in on life 360 becuase he just got his phone before middle school. I CANNOT imagine tracking him once he moves out of the house! For now, I want to be sure he is being responsible when out and about, and he gets home from school long before I get home so it's nice to get those alerts. But he's 12. Not a young adult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a cheap burner phone. Leave your bugged phone at home when you do your exploring.

+1

My generation managed backpacking in sketchy parts of Europe without cell phones or advance hostel reservations and lived to tell the tale! I'm sorry your parents are so worried about you, but you sound totally reasonable. How do they forbid you anything, as an adult? Are they threatening to take away funding?

OP here. Yes, they do threaten to take away funding.

They’re not great parents if they are doing this. You will realize this later, is my guess.

Get your own phone. You are over 18, you can sign a contract, and you should. They are violating your privacy by making you believe that you have no right to it. It’s messed up.

[Anonymous]

Delete Life360 and tell them you’re not doing this anymore.

[Anonymous]

My wife life 360s all of us. I am a grown man and can’t go to lunch or Starbucks at work without her tracking me.

[Anonymous]

I would just keep doing what you want to do, and if your parents become overbearing and threatening, get your own phone plan. The tracking is nuts.

[Anonymous]

buy a burner phone to take with you in case of emergency. Leave your cell in your dorm. Do your “navigation” ahead of time and print out directions if needed, the way WE did in college. If we could do it, so can you. And if you can’t manage to plan before you “explore,” you really can’t handle the real world, so stay tethered to Mommy and Daddy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they simply want to keep an eye on your whereabouts or are they actively forbidding you from going to places they feel are too “dangerous”?

As a parent w college age children, I do appreciate that from time to time I can see their whereabouts. Part of it is simply my missing them terribly. Another part is for me to be aware of unforeseen situations (DS went to NYC for the first time last year)l. I also appreciate that my kids are now adults who don’t need me to tell them what to do, where to go, etc. They do call to ask for advice and we share our locations with each other. So as long as your parents stay outside of boundaries you set, I don’t see an issue with them having your location. But if your daily movements are being restricted, then you should let them know that you won’t share your location any more.

Just curious, are you an Asian female? My niece is Japanese and the family doesn’t worry about her living in NYC alone.

OP here. I’m white.

The funding I’m referring to is about most of tuition (after scholarship), whereas I cover housing from working.

It concerns me that, aside from them telling me I “can’t” visit that city, when I tell them I went to the nearby college town (I have a bad habit of oversharing with them), they panic. That town is not unsafe by any definition. They tell me they look at Life360 often.

Then that's on you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife life 360s all of us. I am a grown man and can’t go to lunch or Starbucks at work without her tracking me.

You may be a “grown” man, but you ain’t a real man.