To Air Tag my son?

[Cluborange666]

Son is 15. We live in Manchester which does have a rough element, also the bomb is still at the back of my mind. DS has just got his first girlfriend from the other side of Manchester and they meet in the middle.
I bought a box of AirTags as my elder son (who is AuDHD) will be travelling to university every day with his brand new and expensive laptop (and he has massive form for forgetting bags).
I had the idea of making my younger child carry an AirTag in his pocket whilst in Manchester as a safety precaution. He says no and my husband supports this. I feel like it’s a good idea. Not because I will spy on him but in case he runs out of money or loses his phone and can’t get home. I’ll put it to the jury.

I’m a teacher - I hear some terrible things. I’d say to my kids - it’s this or you don’t go! I tagged my 9yo last week as met with friends. It was that or she didn’t go. I know 15 is a lot older, but he’s still a child and you’re still responsible to him (to him and not for him as he’s own person)

Better to work on building a trusting relationship so he'll feel that he can always call you if something, God forbid, ever does go wrong.

Honestly, I would tag my kid at that age

Its for his safety, thats it

I myself would share my location with my dd though

Set up a life360 group. I did pin AirTags into my DDs jackets when they were younger and in camp in London.

We use life360 , 3 teens know exactly where we are and we know where they are when needed , it's not something we all always look at but saves them messaging me 100 times a day saying where are you? Are you at the shop? They can see and I can see where they are too x

I feel for you Op, I was the same with my daughter, constantly worrying when she was out, wondering if she was safe, but she definitely didn't have tracking devices. I accepted that the worries were mine and I had to manage them myself. We had one rule, if I texted her and she didn't answer then I would set off to find her, even if she was embarrased in front of her friends. Not much else you can do really. She lives away from home now and I still hear from her every day, which is all you can hope for really.
Try rehearsing catastrophic contingencies with him, eg what would you do if you lost your phone etc, so that he has plans in place

I track my 15 year old through his phone, we are linked through find my. He knows I can see where he is and is happy with that. Although I may actually download life 360 because my sister showed me it this weekend and it looks good

I track my 15 year old through his phone, we are linked through find my. He knows I can see where he is and is happy with that. Although I may actually download life 360 because my sister showed me it this weekend and it looks good

What is the matter with you? Son has to learn to stand on his own two feet. If he lost all contact with money he can walk home unless he is mentally or physically disabled. You are making him scared of life: you need to get a life.

Yes this is what I've been thinking reading the thread - lots of people saying 'for safety' but I can't picture exactly what this means in practice

Yes this is what I've been thinking reading the thread - lots of people saying 'for safety' but I can't picture exactly what this means in practice

No, nor me neither!

Anyway, if any of these 15yo have half an ounce of nous, they'll be ditching the trackers or finding a way round them. And good luck to them.

A lot of teens about 14 or 15 are barely allowed out nowadays so unlikely to come to harm anyway

No, invasion of privacy. I think you stunt young people's growth if you can't let them experience independence.

So what terrible things do you hear that would be prevented by tagging?

Oh my word, it's so sad kids have no privacy with this sort of thing.

OP would you have liked your parents to know everywhere you went?

They have mobile phones, a lot more safety than we older generations.

How far and how old do you have to go to keep tags on your children 🤔 When younger i can understand but at university age, really??

I’m a teacher too.

I can't see the problem. My teen daughter put Life 360 on my phone to keep track of her so she could go out around London! Her friend group all have each other on there, which is kinda cute 🥰 She also has a teen account on my Uber just in case I can't pick her up for any reason. I'd rather she be safe than sorry.

I feel sorry for today's kids. I feel something's been lost from when we were young in the 80s and 90s.
There's no sense of privacy anymore, people are terminally online and tracking's being normalised and explained away

I wondered that too - when would they be "allowed" to take the tracker off?

But you can't. You can see where his phone is, not where he is, surely? I know most teenagers are almost surgically linked to their phone but you can't guarantee they are always in the same place.

I'm sure they would find a way to disable it but parent may have a back up. It's like James Bobd with kids lol 😆

Well he should take a backup. I always take a card or two and maybe some cash in addition to the phone in case it’s lost, runs out of battery or decides to stop working for some mysterious electronic reason. If he doesn’t have cards yet he should take some cash.

An AirTag just gives you a false sense of security. It does nothing in the circumstances you have pointed out.

Terrible parenting. You could probably have just used the phone locator, but you may have poisoned that well.

This absolutely. We have sleepwalked into a surveillance society. No one has privacy any more. I agree that I especially feel sorry for the kids.

I have them in our cars but I was upfront with everyone that I was doing this. I would not ask them to carry one with them, however tempting it is to know where they are. It’s an invasion of privacy.

DP does occasionally check to see where everyone is, if he sees one car isn’t in the road it’s usually because occasionally eldest has gone out but not let him know. (They share use of the car.)

DP had forgotten I was working in another location a week ago, mentioned he’d seen my car was not where he was expecting it to be. (It was work related, I don’t have the time or inclination to do anything untoward.) I did pull his leg about it. But mostly we all get on with our lives and don’t check.