An 'Invasion Of Privacy' Or A Safety Must? Parents Are Location Tracking Their Uni-Age Kids

“Empty nesters” are getting real about what it’s like having their adult children leave home for university – and 83% report feeling extreme grief, according to new research by Unite Students.The feelings are strong, and they are valid. After almost two decades of raising your child, knowing their whereabouts (most, if not all, of the time), you are suddenly left with an empty bedroom and no end of worries about how they’re getting on – and most crucially, whether they’re keeping safe.Calls and texts might go unanswered as they dive headfirst into the social fest that is Freshers week. Then the weeks turn into months, with scattered catch-ups and home visits here and there, and you realise this is the new normal. Not wanting to detach completely, two-thirds (67%) of parents admit to using an app to track their child’s location once they leave for university, according to Unite Students’ 2025 Empty Nester Survey.Interestingly, dads are leading the charge here – the survey found 71% of fathers are turning to tracking apps to keep a watchful eye from afar, compared to 59% of mums.Steven, a dad of two, is one of them. He said his whole family is on family location safety app Life360, including his daughter, who is now at university.The family have been tracking each others’ whereabouts for a while – since their daughter “first started going out in town, just so we could know where she was”.“She’s fine with it, she’s not bothered. It’s good for us, ’cause we can see where she is, and we can see what time she gets back to halls. At least we know she got home after a night out and is safe,” he said.Some argue this infringes on their privacy, however. Recent empty nester, Angharad, who has two children, has chosen not to track her daughter’s location while she’s at university.She said: “Personally I feel it’s an invasion of their privacy, and could result in more worry and become a bit obsessive – checking where they are too much.”Should parents track their adult kids?Even past university age, some parents continue to track their kids. One survey found one in four parents track their adult child’s (18-34 years old) location. Most cite safety reasons as to why they do it – parents of young women in particular are more likely to monitor their whereabouts. But there are also worries that tracking could go too far, and not give students the chance to actually grow up and learn from their mistakes.For example, what happens if a parent starts calling their adult child to wake them up for class because they can see they’re still in their halls instead of on campus – or if they keep messaging because they’ve noticed they’re not at home past a certain time, when they might be staying out (they’re adults now, after all)?Hard-won trust can start to break down. As Axios noted: “What starts as parents holding onto teens’ location for peace of mind can devolve into parents scolding them for staying out late on a Saturday or calling them every morning to wake them up for class.”One university student, whose parents tracked his whereabouts while he was studying, noted that it can even harm the parent-child relationship if parents start using it to control their child’s life from afar. “I strongly believe that parents should not track their college-aged children, for one simple reason: Trust isn’t built on control,” wrote student Tasawwar Rahman in 2024.And at some point, the location tracking does have to stop. As Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center, said: “You’re providing your child with training wheels. They’re going to have to come off.”There is also a legal element to considerIs it even legal to track your kids when they’re at uni? Well, it depends on whether they’ve consented or not.Henrietta Ronson, a partner at the law firm Corker Binning, told HuffPost UK that under UK law, parental responsibility ends when a child turns 18, at which point parents lose legal authority to make decisions or act on their child’s behalf (unless a formal legal arrangement is in place).So, having your child’s consent to track them is crucial. “Tracking apps seem the perfect antidote for worried parents waving their (adult) children off to university. However, the use of these apps, without informed consent, can land them in serious trouble,” Ronson explained. “Under section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 it is an offence to access someone’s device or data without permission. Installing or using tracking apps without consent could be classed as unauthorised access, punishable by up to two years in prison.”The expert said it could also be considered harassment or stalking if the “use of the tracking apps is persistent or causes alarm or distress, especially if the child makes it clear they do not agree to this course of conduct”. Unlawful tracking can also be a breach of data protection laws.“What may feel like a protective measure, when done without consent, is a parental overstep with potential criminal consequences,” she added.If your child has consented to being tracked, and is happy for you to know their whereabouts, there’s no harm in keeping tabs. Yet one expert suggests it might be time to start rolling back on how frequently you’re checking their whereabouts. Dr Dominique Thompson, former GP and young people’s mental health expert, said of the rising number of empty nest trackers: “As parents, we have raised our children to be independent, to fly the nest and achieve their goals – they therefore deserve our trust and have earned the right to privacy and independence.”She suggested that while parents might find reassurance in checking where their child is, “we probably need to wean ourselves off the tracking app, and encourage them to do so too”.“We need to be comfortable with not knowing where our adult children are at all times, reassuring as that may be, and sit with the discomfort that maybe they have forgotten to go to a seminar, or have chosen to go to a cafe with new friends, instead of to a lecture, but that is part of growing up and making one’s own life choices.”Related...The Rudest Things People Say To Parents Of Autistic KidsThis Generation Of Parents Are 'Cycle-Breakers' – A Therapist Explains Why The Tide Is Turning NowParents Who Are Close To Their Adult Kids Share How They Got There

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