At what age does monitoring your child’s location and well-being become a violation of privacy?

In this high-tech world we live in, families are using technology more and more to help raise their kids and make the work-life balance easier. This is overall a good thing! Technology, among other things, has enabled mothers to go back to work with more ease and comfort. Parents can sleep better at night with products from companies like Owlet and SNOO. Various apps have also been made to help kids learn to read, empathize, and do math. The company Connect Wolf is making a wearable device to track your baby’s location and heart rate, so the working mom can reach her goals with less anxiety.

When kids are young, it makes sense for parents to keep track of their whereabouts with a GPS locator and their vital signs with a wearable device. This kind of device can make it easier on parents who have to work during the day, but want to make sure their child is safe. However, if parents have a GPS locator and heart rate monitor attached to their pre-teen, the scenario becomes less about safety and well-being and more about violations of privacy.

At what age does a child deserve more privacy and ability to make their own decisions?

This is an incredibly important question both for baby tech companies, who are creating their products to fit different needs and encourage certain behaviors, and for parents. At what age are the roles of the parent changed in this respect?

This question does not have a one-size-fits-all solution. The timing of this change of parenting roles is influenced by the maturity of the child, any pre-existing conditions the child may have, the environment in which the child is growing up, along with a multitude of other factors.

For parents, perhaps once your child is able to move around and think for themselves, that is the time to cease the use of the wearable monitors.

For tech companies, perhaps the software of the device just needs to be modified to send the parents signals only if their child is wildly out of range of the neighborhood. But even though this approach may make it more ethical to employ for a few more years of the child’s life, it would reach another ethical block at some point during the child’s adolescence. These are just points and actions to consider.

Why is this so important?

As an infant, your baby will have less objections to wearing a monitor that tracks their location and heart rate. They may want to play with whatever is around their arm, but they will have no sense of privacy violation! However, as children grow up and become more social beings, their sense of self and need for privacy develop. Violating a child’s privacy as they are growing physically and socially, is detrimental to their development.

These are some of the thoughts in the back of my mind as I’m working at Connect Wolf this summer, trying to determine how to market and manufacture a device that encourages ethical behavior.