There’s no such thing as a perfect parent. Every mom and dad is just doing their best to ensure that their little ones are safe and loved! And when it comes to keeping track of children, some parents prefer to take advantage of the technology we now have at our fingertips and literally track their kids.

One mother, Vada Stevens, recently shared on her Stevensfam TikTok account that she has been using bracelets with Apple AirTags to always know where her girls are. Viewers then chimed in with their thoughts, and the reviews were mixed. So below, you’ll find Vada’s full video, as well as some of the reactions it received.   

This mother showed on TikTok how she chooses to track her children with AirTags

Image credits: stevensfam

“I saw a TikTok about a mom who puts Apple air tags in bracelets on her kids, and I thought it was the coolest thing.”

Image credits: stevensfam

Image credits: stevensfam

Image credits: stevensfam

Image credits: stevensfam

You can see Vada’s full video right here

@stevensfam Today we are dog training 🐶 Outfits: @Kailani Kids Mom genius: @Lacey Johnson ♬ Funny Music Background – original_soundtrack

It’s understandable for parents to err on the side of safe rather than sorry when it comes to keeping an eye on their kids

As with almost any other decision parents have to make, there are mixed opinions on whether or not moms and dads should be tracking their kids. Some parents believe that this is too extreme of a measure to take, as this kind of technology didn’t exist when they were little and they turned out just fine. Meanwhile, others believe it’s great to utilize the technology we now have if it can keep our little ones safe and sound. Whether or not you agree with Vada’s choice to place tracking bracelets on her girls, it might be important to understand that in the United States, nearly 400,000 kids were abducted in 2020. Safe at Last also reports that every two minutes, a child is reported missing in Europe, and over 40% of children abducted by strangers don’t make it back home safely.

It is a harrowing fact that no matter what parents do to keep their children safe, we can’t always keep them out of harm’s way. It is true, however, that the vast majority of children who are kidnapped are taken by a family member, typically their non-custodial parent, Child Find of America explains on their site. But when it comes to non-family abductions, 40% of the time, the children are tragically killed. Children abducted by strangers are more often girls than boys, and nearly half of them are also sexually assaulted.    

Image credits: Amazon

Many find that tracking their little ones, and even teens, brings some peace of mind

So it’s understandable that many parents would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to keeping track of their little ones. There are plenty of tracking apps, watches, devices like AirTags and more that moms and dads utilize nowadays, and many parents note that this technology brings them some peace of mind. One of the most popular apps to keep an eye on kids is Life360, which sends parents reassuring “dings” when their kids make it to school, make it home, etc. “I don’t want to be the helicopter parent, but we’ve had [the app] for a while, and there’s a part of me that’s hesitant to totally cut it off,” Elaine Spector, a Baltimore-based mom, told the BBC. “I like this subtle part of, ‘he’s safe and I don’t need to pester him’.”  

One 2019 survey found that 40% of parents and guardians in the UK were using some sort of GPS tracking on a daily basis, and Life360 is now used in over 140 countries. According to Karen Barski at Woombie, tracking our children is wise when it comes to emergency and safety concerns, knowing where our children are without waiting for them to call or text back, helping to locate a lost phone, and it can keep them safer when traveling. “We no longer live in a world where children run off to play in the neighborhood until dusk falls and then return home for dinner,” Barski writes. “Knowing where your loved ones are will provide you with a great deal of peace of mind and allow you to rest more in various situations.”

Image credits: stevensfam

But this parenting method certainly isn’t for everyone

Not everyone is on board with tracking their kids. As the comments on Vada’s video go to show, tracking out little ones has been criticized as well. Sonia Livingstone, a professor in the department of media and communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, told the BBC that she has never found any real evidence that these tracking apps actually keep children safer. “I’ve never seen any, and I look at all the evidence.” In fact, Livingstone warns that this kind of tracking might have unintended damaging consequences. She notes that it can undermine the trust in a parent-child relationship, and it might inspire our kids to make riskier decisions, while going out of their way to avoid being caught. Parents might also become too dependent on the tracking and refuse to give their kids space once they become adults.

Livingstone also worries about the “scary” amount of data tech companies such as Life360 are able to collect on their users. She provides the example of data gathered on a seven-year-old today which could possibly be used against them in some “brilliant algorithm” in the future. “No-one is looking forward in that way, so I think parents should really think very carefully about giving that access to anybody,” she told the BBC.

We would love to hear your thoughts on this video and whether or not you choose to track your children, pandas. Feel free to share in the comments down below, and then if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article discussing how closely we should be watching our kids, look no further than right here.

Some viewers were critical of the tracking bracelets

While others thought Vada’s technique was brilliant

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