Life360 is a popular app that connects family and friends digitally. The app is generally used to track the location of someone with the intention of making sure they are safe from harm. Parents or guardians are likely to use this app so they can track their children’s where-abouts without having to rely on texts or calls. 

Life360 does more than just allow users to see the locations of people within a “circle.” It also provides directions to a person’s whereabouts and gives access to a weekly distracted drivers reports showing the amount of phone usage while the users car is in motion when driving. It will even provide the battery power remaining of users’ phones. 

Most teenagers are familiar with this app because their parents make them download it so the parents know where their children are.  Life360 helps avoid the usual parental texts of “Where are you?” and “How far away are you from home?”

Many teenagers may not enjoy having this app because it prevents them from going places and doing things their parents wouldn’t normally allow them to do. Teenagers don’t want to feel like their parents are following them around all the time, and they feel that they need to be allowed a least a small bit of freedom while they are growing up. They argue that teenagers need to learn boundaries and how to be responsible before they turn 18 so that they can learn how to make good decisions and be independent on their own. 

Parents tracking their kids every move can be damaging to the relationship between a teen and a parent. Many teens think that there is no reason their parents need to know where they are every five seconds. “If you are that worried a simple text, ‘Did you make it … safely?’ will do just fine,” says user Kk 334567432t. 

Some teens even believe the forced use of the Life360 app borders on an invasion of privacy. Sharing locations is obviously useful for safety reasons, but many teens object to what they consider the unnecessary details Life360 offers about the activity of its users.

Olympic Heights sophomore Marly Telchin says, “I don’t like the app because if I want to do something for my parents, like surprise them or something, they always have to know where I am every single second of the day. You basically have no privacy.”  

Others don’t mind how the app can track every movement because they have nothing to hide. Parents who track their teens movements through the app care deeply about their safety. Some parents say that it’s not that they don’t trust their kids, it’s more of the fact that they don’t trust other people, saying that they can be immediately alerted to and danger their children may be encountering. “Better safe than sorry,” these parents argue.