{"id":2625456,"date":"2026-07-06T09:12:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/let-your-kids-grow-up-without-a-homing-signal\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T09:15:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:15:38","slug":"let-your-kids-grow-up-without-a-homing-signal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/let-your-kids-grow-up-without-a-homing-signal\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Your Kids Grow Up Without A Homing Signal"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flet-your-kids-grow-up-without-a-homing-signal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2625456&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>This article discusses the growing trend of parental tracking of young adults and teenagers through smartphones and tracking apps. It highlights a poll showing that over half of parents monitor their children&#8217;s whereabouts constantly, which raises concerns about privacy, independence, and the normalization of surveillance. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/facebooks-fact-checkers-are-still-complicit-in-censorship\/\" title=\"Facebook&#039;s &#039;Fact Checkers&#039; Are Still Complicit In Censorship\">author recounts personal experiences<\/a> with tracking, noting that while it can be useful in specific situations-such as ensuring a teen&#8217;s safe road trip-it often leads to unnecessary intrusion into young adults&#8217; lives. The piece argues that <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >constant monitoring diminishes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-founding-fathers-6-prophetic-warnings-that-are-coming-true\/\" title=\"The Founding Fathers: 6 Prophetic Warnings That Are Coming True\">essential liberty<\/a><\/a>, fosters a dependence on surveillance, and hampers the development of independence and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-study-reveals-effect-of-pandemic-on-babies\/\" title=\"New Study Reveals Effect Of Pandemic On Babies\">problem-solving skills<\/a>. The author advocates for trusting young adults and respecting their privacy,emphasizing that healthy independence is vital,and that excessive tracking undermines their growth and autonomy.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Once upon a time, young adults could leave the house and disappear. Not disappear as in end up on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.missingkids.org\/blog\/2024\/milk-carton-kids\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">back of a carton of milk<\/a>, another relic of a bygone era, but disappear from the watchful eyes of their parents. Then cellphones became ubiquitous, dampening the ability to do ridiculous things without repercussion, at least not immediate repercussion. With smartphones and tracking apps, though, the game is over. Big Brother is watching you, only this time it\u2019s in the form of mom and dad.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not all parents, <a href=\"https:\/\/mottpoll.org\/reports\/safety-or-surveillance-tracking-young-adults\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">only 52 percent<\/a>, according to a new poll from Mott \u2014 a children\u2019s hospital that conducts polling on children\u2019s health. The other 48 percent of parents are cool. For the 52 percent, though, they are keeping tabs on their precious kiddos at all times. <\/p>\n<p>Forget skipping school, the apps know. Likewise, if a kid speeds a little or heads to a neighboring town for its music venue or goes to Whataburger at 3 a.m. When Benjamin Franklin said, \u201cThose who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety,\u201d he was actually talking about an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/03\/02\/390245038\/ben-franklins-famous-liberty-safety-quote-lost-its-context-in-21st-century\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">argument over taxes<\/a> between the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Penn family, not tracking apps. But that\u2019s no reason not to appropriate the sentiment for modern times.<\/p>\n<p>Because tracking kids is wrong. I know, I\u2019ve <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/03\/13\/ferris-bueller-never-would-have-made-it-past-todays-obsessive-location-sharing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">been a tracker<\/a>, but I gave it up and never looked back. My kids, though, continue to track one another. Their mom tracks them. They track her. Friends track one another. Everyone is involved in everyone else\u2019s business. And, admittedly, at times it\u2019s useful. For example, my 16-year-old wasn\u2019t given her requested days off for the Cromwell family reunion. She decided to make the three-hour drive after her shift ended sometime after 10 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Her mom was against this. Her grandparents were against this. I was mildly concerned, but I\u2019m given to a bit of oppositional defiance, so I decided she was definitely making the drive. Did I have her sisters pull up her location a few times to ensure she was safely progressing in our direction? Totally. In that scenario \u2014 a 16-year-old traversing a major interstate before heading onto rural deer-infested roads \u2014 a little tracking made sense, particularly as she didn\u2019t arrive until almost 2 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not what\u2019s going on for most, particularly as the <a href=\"https:\/\/mottpoll.org\/reports\/safety-or-surveillance-tracking-young-adults\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mott data<\/a> is about tracking young people ages 18 to 25, a group that used to be known as \u201cadults.\u201d Outside of specific situations such as the aforementioned road trip, no one needs to know what their offspring are up to on such a granular level. When I was that age, my parents didn\u2019t even necessarily know what state I was in, literally or figuratively. Things were simpler then. <\/p>\n<p>I do have an 18-year-old, though, one who is heading out of state for college. As a caring father, shouldn\u2019t I want to know if she\u2019s on campus or somewhere else? No, and not just because I don\u2019t know anything about the local geography of the state to which she\u2019s moving other than it mostly consists of land and not much else.<\/p>\n<p>I know this is radical, but I trust her enough to go camping without a homing signal. Even if I did know, that information wouldn\u2019t tell me anything useful, such as \u201cshe\u2019s being stalked by a moose.\u201d And if it did tell me that, the moose would definitely be faster than the plane ride it would take me to get to her.<\/p>\n<p>Because by constantly monitoring the situation, we\u2019re not just giving up essential liberty for a little temporary safety, we\u2019re raising kids to think the surveillance state is normal. I mean, it is, but that doesn\u2019t mean we should give into it and blindly accept it. It\u2019s not right that our pocket computers are relaying information about our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edmunds.com\/car-news\/report-finds-apps-are-selling-your-driving-data-to-insurance-companies.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">driving habits<\/a> to our insurance companies. We shouldn\u2019t normalize being spied on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transparencycoalition.ai\/news\/yes-your-tv-is-spying-on-youand-collecting-your-data-report-finds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">by our televisions<\/a> even if too many consumers view <em>1984 <\/em>as a guidebook and not a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n<p>I get it. I\u2019ve got three daughters, three precious angels who I want to keep safe. Tracking them doesn\u2019t keep them safe, though, it just infringes on their ability to grow up. Because a kidnapper isn\u2019t going to let a victim broadcast her location. A runaway is going to delete the app. A young adult who really wants to go away for the weekend without mom and dad knowing is going to use a GPS spoofing app.<\/p>\n<p>And we should encourage that. Not the kidnapping, but the subterfuge. It shows independence and problem-solving skills. That still doesn\u2019t justify the tracking, though, so just stop it. They may always be our babies, no matter how old they get, but they\u2019re not our free-range prisoners.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the Cookin&#8217; Up a Story podcast, which you can listen to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/1942562\/episodes\">here<\/a>. You can also follow him on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rcromwell4\">X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once free to vanish, now parents constantly track teens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":2625457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pexels-ron-lach-10484683-e1782413912119.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[53814,82259,9224,17459,51373],"class_list":["post-2625456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-child-psychology","tag-childhood-development","tag-independence","tag-parenting","tag-parenting-tips"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pexels-ron-lach-10484683-e1782413912119.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2625456"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2625460,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625456\/revisions\/2625460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2625457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2625456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2625456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2625456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}