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Pros and Cons of Tracking Your Child
Remember lying to your parents about your whereabouts? Or sneaking out to your friend’s or crush’s house during the night? Well, some of us might have that experience, that sense of freedom. Back then, everything seemed fine, with those small risks of getting caught.
But, if you look around today, the danger has become more and more serious. With more of us getting connected to the internet, everyone can easily get into your location. Plus, the increasing level of criminality surely makes a lot of parents worried.
There are plenty of ways parents use protective measures, and one of them is monitoring. But before doing that, it’s best for you to learn about the pros and cons of tracking your child.
Why Parents Should Track Their Child’s Location
We know that many parents are asking “What can I use to track my child?”, and we will answer that in the upcoming section. But for now, let us try to find the reasons why parents are tracking their kids.
One of the most notable reasons is the increasing criminality. In 2020 alone, there were 999 violent crimes per 100,000 population in the USA. What’s saddening is that the condition didn’t get better. In fact, in 2023, even in the early, we’ve already found so many criminal cases, especially the ones related to high-school shootings.
However, criminal acts are not only limited to the real world but also virtual. There were so many cases of hacking, illegal activities, and weird individuals who like to groom kids and teenagers way below their ages.
Seeing how terrible the environment is now, it’s just natural that parents want to protect their kids from harm. And simplest way to do this is by using tracking apps, which they can use to not only track the kids’ location but also monitor their online activities.
Pros and cons of tracking your child
So, what is the best app to track your child’s location? We’ll answer that later. For now, we want to briefly explain the pros and cons of tracking your kids. To make it easier for you to understand, we provide a table which you can see right below:
Kids Monitoring | |
Pros | Cons |
Safety: Monitoring your kids may give you clear information about your kids’ whereabouts. The information provided here is often detailed, which will tell you about the location, dates, and hours. | The kids will find a way to bypass it: We know that being monitored is not something that’s commonly found to be pleasing. When feeling oppressed and annoyed, they will find a way to counter it, either by turning their phone off or using anti-spyware programs. |
Peace of Mind: Knowing that your kids are safe in your warm hands may give you peace of mind. As you can monitor everything, you can act immediately in case something goes wrong. | The lack of accuracy: Although most monitoring apps promise accuracy, not every one of them actually has it. Sometimes, the displayed information is inaccurate, causing confusion and may spark conflict between parents and kids. |
Their trust could be damaged: We know that the parents will do this in a positive way and with a positive goal: to make their kids safer everywhere they go. However, if you did this without their consent, their trust can be easily damaged. They will be shocked to find out that their own parents actually monitor them all this time without their knowledge. |
Seeing the reasons why parents should track their child’s location and the pros and cons above, we highly recommend that the parents shouldn’t only depend on the monitoring system alone. Instead, they will have to cooperate with their direct approach.
They need to teach their kids about how to be safe on the internet and the real world, telling them about the risks and how to avoid them, and giving them clear examples for both cases. That way, they can be informed well and eventually be independent.
And if you do want to use this monitoring app, it’s always best to tell their kids beforehand. Tell the kids why you do it, what the app can do or not, and ask for their consent.
Methods of Monitoring Children
If you’re asking about, “How can I monitor my child’s phone without them knowing?” The answer would be using a monitoring app or a program to track their location. But before doing so, there are plenty of other methods you can do as well, such as:
1. Ask them directly
In the old days, there were no ways parents could use to check on their kids except by asking them directly. Now, you can also apply the very same thing by being closer to your kids. Gently ask them about their days, their activities, their friends, and when they’re about to go somewhere, you may also ask them about the location.
If your kids become your best friends, every detailed information like this can be obtained so easily and without force. So, there’s nothing much better than being close to your own kids.
2. Ask their friends
As an act of confirmation, you can also ask their friends about what your kids were doing or where they go to. Again, the parents can also be close to their kids’ friends, and it’s not actually that rare to find this kind of relationship.
The kids will be much more relaxed if they find their parents are cool, and the same thing goes for their friends as well.
3. Track phone location
There are many ways to prevent child from turning off location iPhone, for example, by telling them about the cybersecurity risks. In order to further protect your kids, you may also use a certain program to track iphone location secretly. That way, you can always know about their whereabouts.
What is the best app to track your child’s location?
We highly recommend using these two best apps to track your kids’ location:
1. Without installing an app – Scannero
Scannero is an excellent option to track your kids’ locations by using their mobile phone tracking capability. This website is able to track locations using phone numbers. All you have to do here is to input the phone number, and Scannero will do the rest.
Another thing it can do is track location using text messages. Simply share the linked text messages to allow location-sharing, and you’re good to go. As this exists as a website, you don’t have to install anything
2. Full control of kid’s phone – Parentaler
If you wish to get full monitoring capabilities, you can highly depend on Parentaler, an excellent choice for kids’ monitoring. It features a function to monitor not only text messages, but also calls, social media, and chatting apps.
Simply install it on your kids’ phones, and monitor them from the inside by using the provided dashboard.
Conclusion
So that’s the pros and cons of tracking your child, along with the best way to track your child. As the world grows to be more dangerous for everybody, it’s parents’ duty to keep their kids safe. However, remembering the cons above, it’s best for parents to make a direct approach as well.