(There are at least some regulations to protect children’s personal information from corporations, like the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, and Life360’s policies state that it doesn't use data from kids under 13 for marketing or advertising.)Įven if it's totally legal for a parent to track their children, some experts have urged parents to consider how they go about it and the impact it could have on their teen's trust or their ability to practice independence. “Our legal system gives strong deference to parental freedoms and parental rights,” said Stacy Steinberg, a professor at the University of Florida Law School and the director of its Center on Children and Families. “I spend most of my time texting my parents about what’s going on rather than spending time with my friends.”īut location-sharing apps also provoke thorny questions about how much privacy children and young adults are entitled to. “I think it’s completely unfair and detrimental to teenagers if their parents use this app on them regularly,” said a 16-year-old boy from Texas who, like all the young people in this story, was contacted via social media and requested anonymity to talk freely about his family. In one recording with more than 30,000 likes, a photo of Life360’s founder and CEO Chris Hulls appears onscreen, while a rap song with the lyrics “Snitch, snitch, the snitch, the snitch, snitch” plays. Other videos are less practical and serve more as a form of venting. In some of the most popular clips, teens share with each other strategies for circumventing the app, usually by turning off various phone settings. Videos with the hashtag #Life360 have been viewed there over 13 million times. And on TikTok, teenagers are discussing and debating them. According to the San Francisco-based company, Life360 had over 18 million monthly active users at the end of 2018.Īpps like Life360 can give kids and parents a sense of security, but they also raise questions about privacy and children’s autonomy. The service is free to download and use, although you can pay for additional features. The app functions like an enhanced version of Apple’s “Find My” feature that lets you share your location with friends or family-or what the company calls “your Circle.” In addition to location sharing, Life360 lets family members see how fast people in their circle are driving, how much battery their cell phones have, and more. Life360 is one of the many digital monitoring tools now used by millions of parents in the United States. In a separate study from 2016, 16 percent said they used location-sharing apps. In a Pew Research Center study last year, 58 percent of US parents said they sometimes or often look at their teenager’s messages, call logs, and the websites they visit. Parents can now remotely check their child’s browsing histories and social media accounts, watch their movements via motion-sensing cameras, and track everywhere they go with location-sharing apps. Schools are adopting facial recognition technology to monitor campuses. That’s because for many adolescents, adult supervision has turned into adult surveillance. Some of the videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of likes-in other words, they’re relatable. As one girl with long, blond hair jokes in a popular TikTok clip, it’s set her summer vacation on fire. The service allows parents to track their kids’ whereabouts in real time, among other features. That’s because Life360, a location-sharing app aimed at families, is apparently ruining the lives of teenagers all across the United States. Spend enough time on the social media app TikTok, and you’re bound to see a Life360 meme.
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