‘I want to put tracking app on 27-year-old child’s phone – some think I have no right’

A worried mum wants to put a tracking app on her daughter’s mobile phone to keep an eye on her, but people have told her she has ‘no right’ to invade her child’s privacy

As a parent, it’s normal to be worried about your children and what they might be getting up to when they’re not with you, but it’s important to allow them to have some level of independence to help them grow as people.

But one mum has said she’s so concerned about her daughter that she’s thinking of making her install a tracking app on her phone so that she can see where she is at any given moment – even though she’s 27.

The mum explained her daughter is set to go travelling for several months in Asia, and wants her to have a tracker on her phone so that she can make sure she’s safe while abroad.

She also claimed she “can’t imagine the issue” with watching her adult child’s every move, and said she wants to try and “persuade” her daughter to download the app after she initially “just laughed” about it.

In a post on Mumsnet, she said: “My daughter is off travelling soon for 6-9 months approximately. She’s going to Bangkok to start with, Vietnam and so on. She’s 27.

“So yesterday I mentioned a tracker app as a friend had suggested it to me, and she just laughed. I think I may be able to persuade her.

“Your suggestions on how to convince her would be fab, please. Why would she be likely to resent it? I can’t imagine the issue with it.”

Many commenters on the post were baffled by the mum’s desire to put a tracking app on her daughter’s phone, as several of them said she had “no right” to do so – especially when her daughter is an adult.

One person said: “She’s an adult. You need to let her be independent. There is absolutely no way in hell that I’d let anyone track me like that and it will just feed you anxiety.”

While another wrote: “Are you serious? You have no right to do this.”

And a third posted: “She wants her privacy and she’s a grown adult. You should respect that. I understand that you’ll worry or spend time wondering about where she is but she’s not a pre-teen who is new to going out alone so don’t pressure her into it.”

Not everyone was against the idea though, as some told the mum there was nothing wrong with discussing the idea with her daughter, as long as she could have control over when her location is tracked.

Someone suggested: “I think it’s a brilliant idea to set it up and let her manage it so if there was a reason she felt she needed it she could just enable it. The key thing is she’s in control of when she’s tracked. I know it kind of defeats the object but it’s a good compromise.”

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