The days of a parent simply checking in with their child via phone call or text are becoming a thing of the past. A powerhouse of new apps aimed toward advocating parental control and improving safety measures have replaced the, “Where are you?” text messages and the, “What are you watching?” questions in exchange for an easier, faster and more convenient downloadable app. But opponents question the invasiveness of this technology.
The Apps
The developers of each app, according to their websites, all generally say the purpose of the specific app is to make it easier for parents to check in with their children and increase communication with their child. Global Positioning System (GPS) is used to locate a child’s communication device, while protection software allows parents to monitor their child’s online activity.
The concern for some is whether using the apps result in an invasion of privacy or broken trust due to the efficiency and control provided by the technology.
A survey conducted in 2016 by the Pew Research Center said 39 percent of parents in the U.S. had used parental control tools for their children’s online activities. Another 16 percent of parents surveyed said they used apps to track their teen’s location at any given time.
Life360
Launched in 2008, Life360 is an app growing in popularity according to Google Trends. Life360’s website says the app is 50 million users strong across the world, allowing families to “stay in touch and communicate easily.”
Life360 is a free, location-based service, which runs on a mobile device, allowing users to view family members on a map, communicate with them, and receive alerts when loved ones arrive at home, school or work.
For many users, Life360 has been beneficial in providing information pertinent to their children’s safety. In Owensboro resident Misty Payne’s experience, the app gave her much-needed insight in regard to her son’s safety while riding with other drivers.
“My son has turned 16 and starts driving in December. We thought using this app would keep him safe,” Payne said, adding that she downloaded the $5 per month premium version so she could view rapid acceleration and crash detection.
“That’s important because if he’s in an accident, he might not be able to call,” Payne said.
One night in October, Payne’s son worked late. He told his mom he could ride home with someone he knew rather than have his parents pick him up. Payne allowed it — however, she decided she should check the app the next morning, just to make sure her son had been safely driven home.
“He was driving at a max speed of 110 miles per hour,” Payne said of the driver. On the Life360 app, a pin is dropped indicating an area where a driver speeds or drives recklessly. When Payne checked, she not only saw the 110 mph maximum, but saw that three different pins had been dropped — two on Highway 54 and one on U.S. 60, indicating her son’s driver had driven at least 80 miles per hour on both roads.
“I said, ‘You’ll never ride with that boy again,’” Payne said of her response to her son. Instead of retaliating, Payne said she was shocked when her son admitted that the vehicle had been driven too fast.
Payne, who lost her brother in a car accident five months ago, said her brother had been driving at around 110 mph when he was killed.
“It’s still fresh to me,” Payne said of her brother’s death. “The app paid for itself that day. I’m really glad I did it.”
Other apps that allow parental control on children’s devices include Bark and OurPact. Bark connects to 24 platforms to monitor for signs of harmful interaction and content, while OurPact gives users the ability to block specific apps their children may use.
Bark
Created in collaboration with child psychologists, youth advisors, digital professionals and law enforcement professionals, Bark’s algorithms detect potential risks for cyberbullying, depression, online predators, adult content and more. Parents are alerted immediately if the app detects any users are experiencing potentially harmful interaction.
The Safewise blog gives the Bark app a 4 out of 5 rating, commending it for focusing on a child’s safety and mental health. It describes Bark as “an affordable, easy-to-use app created to monitor a child’s online behavior while still affording them some degree of privacy.”
When the software identifies a potential issue on Bark, the parents are alerted so they can view the flagged text, email, post or picture.
Since launching in 2016, Bark has scanned more than a billion messages from 2 million children. Bark costs $9 per month at a flat rate no matter how many children a parent decides to link to their account.
OurPact
According to the OurPact website, parents can install the free app on a child’s device and control the settings from their device to set use times and block or grant access to apps at a moment’s notice.
Aside from the parental controls, the OurPact app includes a family locator as well. Parents can create geo-fences around specific locations to receive instant alerts when their child leaves or arrives at any set zone.
Web filter and text blocking programs are included in the OurPact app, and the site says parents can limit iMessage or SMS access. The web filter allows parents to block adult sexual content on all browsers installed on iOS child devices.
While the OurPact app is free for the basic package, the Premium package allows unlimited manual blocks and grants and schedules on up to 20 devices.
Opposing View
According to Gizmodo, preliminary research from the University of Central Florida said parental control apps drive a wedge between teenagers and their parents.
In a survey conducted between 200 pairs of parents and teenagers aged 13 to 17, the results showed that parents who relied on these apps were “stricter and more authoritarian” to their children. The study also found that two-thirds of children out of 736 online reviews for one of the apps gave the app only one star out of 5, while parents were more likely to give the app 4 or 5 stars.
Corey King, Public Affairs for Kentucky State Police, says while these apps may provide peace of mind for parents, each of the apps on the market can be hacked or spoofed in a way that won’t allow 100 percent accuracy.
“Even though it’s better than nothing and raises awareness, there are many ways to trick or disable the most-used tracking apps,” King said, giving the example of enabling a phone’s airplane mode to prevent GPS tracking.
King said that while anything is worth having, a tech-savvy kid or their friends will know how to disable these running apps.
“Just because your child has an app installed doesn’t mean, as a parent, you put 100 percent credence in it. Trust, but verify,” King said. “We promote parents to educate, communicate and monitor.”
