Teens Want Parents to Track Their Phones and Monitor Their Every Move
An upbringing filled with anxiety has Gen Z sharing their location via apps
Teenagers have long balked at telling parents where they are. Now, they’re asking their parents to track them.
Every generation experiences its set of traumas, but social media and real-time news—with vivid images about the pandemic, war and other disasters—have heightened these anxieties among young people. And lots of them are closer to their parents than previous generations have been.
Members of Gen Z, ages 11 to 26, say they use family location-sharing apps to bolster a sense of security. Downloads of Life360 doubled in the U.S. since 2021. The app now has more than 33 million monthly active users in the U.S. and another 20 million internationally. Even more teens share their location using Apple’s Find My, Google’s Family Link,
Snapchat’s Snap Map and GPS-equipped smartwatches.
Gen Z respondents to a recent survey from Life360 said they share their location when they drive, when they go on dates and when they attend concerts and other large gatherings. Many keep location sharing on at all times.