A reciprocal arrangement would also work. My little terror will soon be at the point of having a mobile phone. My wife and I already share locations in real time. They will get the same arrangement. We can check on them, however, they can also check on our location. Moving on from this, in the future will be a negotiation, not an ultimatum.

It's also worth noting however, that a level of accountability is required with phones and social media for children. Knowing that mum or dad might go through their phone to check things makes them think about what they are doing. It is also required to make sure they don't err too badly. The key is to be open, clear and reasonable in your requirements of them. Also, never mock or belittle. To you, it might be a cute minor kids spat. To them, it's the life or death of their entire social life.

If you have a good relationship with your children, these will be a non-issues. Mutual respect (not fear) is a FAR better position to take, parenting wise.

Yeah making it optional for them to turn on because they are still entitled to privacy even though they are children is the key to building trust. Them trusting you as a parent is the most essential thing here, there is always a way around something, you want them being honest by choice rather than sneaky or you forcing "honesty" by coercion.

We always did that from when the kids were younger and my now adult daughter still chooses to turn it on when going on dates.

Try Paralino! It's a family location sharing app but is end-to-end encrypted :)

I have very mixed feelings about androids crash detection. The personal privacy is fine but - fucking google.

Same here even without dangerous activities. I may look up where my partner is at the end of the working day. Still in the office? May be a rough day, I can think about some nice dinner and serve a glass of wine 30 seconds before she comes back home.

If you want to install free tracking tools, you'll need consent or try to guess the lockscreen password to try to install it covertly.

With this, its doesn't require consent, since most families are on the same family plan.

Only abusers would use this, since a normal person who actually cares about a family member's safety would just ask them to install a tracking app voluntarily and be transparent about it.

Its tracking either way, but doing so voluntarily is way less creepy and also free.

Most modern Android and iOS allows you to share your locations for free via Google and Apple "Find My Phone" networks.