Umbilical Ward

“Location tracking might start, for younger kids, with an AirTag slipped into a backpack, jacket, or shoe. (Skechers now makes shoes with a dedicated compartment in the sole.) For kids old enough to have their own smartwatch or phone, the GPS is built right in—and so parents keep tracking them into adolescence and even beyond. Three-quarters of parents with teenagers ages 14 to 17 had access to their kids’ location data, according to one study. Even among college students, one-third were being tracked by their parents, according to another study, conducted in 2021 by Michaeline Jensen, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Five years later, Jensen says, that number is even higher: More than half of college students are being tracked, per her unpublished data. In her own lab, she’s learned that even her graduate students continue to be tracked; she told me about one student, 29, who recently defended her dissertation but whose mom still checks—and calls about—her location.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): What Constant Surveillance Is Doing to Children. (I don’t have to actively track my kids’ location. They share my Uber account…)