What Constant Surveillance Is Doing to Children

Re:What Constant Surveillance Is Doing to Children by semiquaver on Tuesday November 10, 2026 @06:31AM (#50438842)

  > If watching your kid’s real-time location isn’t enough, there is Life360, a tracking app that allows parents to review up to 30 days of time-stamped location history, monitor driving to make sure their kids stay within the speed limit, and get alerts when they arrive at or leave saved locations, such as home, school, and, yes, a college dorm. “Holy sh—,” a psychologist who studies kids’ resilience started to say when I described the app to him.

I’m sorry, this psychologist is a person who academically studies the issue and is not familiar with the capabilities of Life360?? Why would the author of this piece have continued talking to someone after they demonstrated themselves to be so shockingly ignorant of their own field?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What Constant Surveillance Is Doing to Children by not-kinsale-joe on Tuesday November 10, 2026 @06:34AM (#50438864)

Why should a psychologist know all the capabilities of Life360? Why does that make them an ignorant psychologist?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What Constant Surveillance Is Doing to Children by semiquaver on Tuesday November 10, 2026 @06:35AM (#50438868)

  > a psychologist who studies kids’ resilience

You simply can’t have talked to that many kids, or parents, if the idea that parents track their kids location is news to you.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What Constant Surveillance Is Doing to Children by not-kinsale-joe on Tuesday November 10, 2026 @06:41AM (#50438911)

What in that article made you think the psychologist didn't know parents track their children?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What Constant Surveillance Is Doing to Children by blooalien on Tuesday November 10, 2026 @10:47AM (#50442037)

> What in that article made you think the psychologist didn't know parents track their children?

My own thought when reading that was that the psychologist was aghast at the extent of the tracking of that particular app, not by the idea of parental tracking in general.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What Constant Surveillance Is Doing to Children by embedding-shape on Tuesday November 10, 2026 @07:11AM (#50439191)

Isn't this whole "tracking kids locations" an American thing, first of all? I haven't heard of parents doing this stuff in Sweden or Spain, just as two examples.

With that, comes the possibility that maybe this is some sub-section of parents in American, not all of them. Maybe middle-class and above, the people who can justify more subscriptions in their life with not much effect on their economy? Maybe some other segment(s) make more sense, just thinking out loud.

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing this is maybe not widespread among all types of parents in the US, since it isn't a "every parent in the world" thing at the very least.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What Constant Surveillance Is Doing to Children by simoncion on Tuesday November 10, 2026 @06:36AM (#50438875)

I'd go a step further and ask why a psychologist should know every single piece of stalkerware that's advertised to parents as being a good thing to install on their kids' computers.

[ Parent | on HN ]