lets all share our locations with someone

[cannonballz]

specifically while wondering around in a holiday destination on our own, but generally, really at all times. I go birdwatching, or camping, or running, and my son has my location tracked on my phone. My daughter goes on nights out, and I know where she is. My son goes to festivals, and his father can track him. Basically, all of us can be found by at least one relative, if anything unexpected happens.

Surely, most people carry phones, and surely, this function is one of the major benefits?

This is incorrect. They can only get a very vague idea as it is a different system to the ones that put out information. When recently there have been the missing people on wales in the car crashes etc this has shown the public that you can’t just magically ping a phone, you have to actively share the information

Why does y your son have his own find my phone option?

No thanks. I live alone and am not going to tell anyone (who?) whenever I leave the house.
A tracker on my phone also seems a bit much, although I can see it has a place for children or vulnerable adults (think someone with dementia). Like a few PP, I have known women who were made to have trackers on their phone by abusive partners (and also know of a man who was abused by his girlfriend who was also made to have a tracker).

I have been a missing person. I left my phone at home.

I have friends who all do this. Difficult to convince teenagers though, I’m still working on DS to get an Alexa speaker so I can talk to him without the need to yell up the stairs.

OH, myself and 3 grown up children can all see where we all are at anytime. It began many years ago when DD kept ringing for lifts and I was in work. This way they could see where I was and not keep ringing😃.

We find it reassuring, none of us have anything to hide from each other. DH sometimes travels with work, I can see where he is on route home and plan tea, kids hobby runs based on when he will be back.

people do think we are weird but to be honest you don’t look at it unless you need to, you can go days without looking.

I'll switch it on if I'm going for a remote walk

As a family we all share locations with each other. If you have nothing to hide I don’t see why it matters.

I have nothing to hide but I'm also entitled to privacy. No one needs to always know where I am.

me, dh, my mum, my sister and mine and dhs best friend are all on my find my friends. Its really bloody handy 😂

What is someone hiding if they don't share their location?
Tracking/tagging etc is relatively new thing.

I insist my daughter share hers when she's out riding in case she has a fall. I share mine with my husband when I'm on holiday or abroad without him mostly just because he likes looking at my little blip and imagining what I might be up to.

Other than that I don't utilise it as much as I probably should, considering how much true crime I watch 👀

Pretty sure I would never learn to use it and certain DH couldn't, its taken him months to master the airfryer. I know how to reach mountain rescue and the coastguard though. My son has led an interesting life🤣

Thanks OP, you're right and it's a reminder as we keep meaning to do this.

I am in FY3 9RB.

Please send feds if no response.

Same.
I just don't like the idea. Not because of any wrongdoing, just I like to just go off and do my own thing sometimes!
Is it a generational thing? There were no such things as mobile phones when I was little never mind us all tracking each other!

It is Airtag things now too.
I have seen them being suggested to keep track of people, and not "stuff".

I only ever share my location with my closest friend when I go on a date with someone I met on an app e.g. Tinder, PoF etc

I have never tracked ? I have 4 kids all with iphones and varying age groups. We communicate via text and im happy with that. Knowing each and every location seems intrusive to me. Sorry

true, but a generation ago the birth rate was higher, and it was more acceptable in society to lose more children - worldwide, that culture changes whenever the birth rate comes down.

Not that I would have wanted to lose a child or other relative 40 years ago either, but on a population level, it happened a lot more.

now we have phones, why not use them

My son tracks me,always makes me tea for when I arrive home from the gym in the evening,I am all for it.Started after I had a nasty accident in a remote location.

We all have trackers/Life360. We used to live in an earthquake zone. I also go so far off the beaten track without the rest of the family (think 100s of miles from paved roads) that I'd rather be found before I'm a desiccated husk.

However, I also worry about stalkers and hackers and plain old abusive men. So I don't recommend it. Unless people actively choose it.

Who am I supposed to share it with? I don't have family around - my sister is 2000km away and my mother in care. I don't do remote stuff, I'm purely urban. The idea of someone being able to track where I am is more disturbing than reassuring in my situation.

I think it’s up to the individual. It can definitely be misused and I’ll probably advise my kids not to use it in their relationships until they’re at a very serious stage.

We use Life360 for me, DH and 2 teens. It’s really handy for picking them up from the train station and timing dinner being ready when they’re all home to eat it.

DH loves a long walk but he tends to head into bushland with terrible coverage so occasionally it looks like he is in one place for a long time when he’s actually not. I suppose if he didn’t come home at least I would be able to give the police a starting point on where to look.

DD17 has started to drive and it does feel like a safety net. It’s a balancing act giving her privacy versus knowing she’s safe. Once she’s 18 and goes to Uni it will be her choice but if she agrees to keep it turned on it will be only for emergency use.

For DS16 it was very useful when he left his phone on the train. Within 2 minutes we could see which station’s lost property it was in and went straight there to retrieve it.

What happens if someone loses a phone in a vehicle, the person gets lost then the phone is tracked assuming the person is with it, person gets kidnapped the first thing the kidnapper would do is get rid of the phone, person gets raped and loses the phone

Phones are not the answer people taking sensible precautions are, which would not prevent all scenarios but again they are not the answer