Parents track school-leavers, Gold Coast Schoolies 2024

Parents are keeping an increasingly close eye on school-leavers, with data showing a 58 per cent spike in usage of a tracking app during the Gold Coast rite of passage. Read the warning.

Parents are keeping an increasingly close eye on Schoolies, with data showing a 58 per cent spike in usage of a tracking app during the Gold Coast rite of passage.

Last year family safety and location sharing app Life360 figures revealed parents checked the GPS-operated map on average 68 times across the Schoolies week to pinpoint the location of their children.

Bond University psychologist Dr Cher McGillivray said the benefits of using this kind of technology outweighed the cons but warned consent was important.

“If you look at some of the stats during Schoolies, 58 per cent of young people reported blacking out, 41 per cent reported being injured … (there’s) fighting and drink driving,” she said.

Schoolies at Surfers Paradise on The Gold Coast. Photograph : Jason O'Brien

“This is not to disempower children, but if there is an emergency the child can then send an alert to the parent, or at least if the parent hasn’t heard from them they know where they are.”

With one in five Australian parents tracking their kids, Dr McGillivray said it was integral that parents discussed the ‘why’ with their children.

“The downside of tracking devices is that we want to make sure that we’re having our child consent – that they understand the reason why we’re tracking them is to make sure they’re safe, not to control them or to take away from their autonomy” she said.

“Some research suggests this generation could go towards more coercive control relationships because they’re used to being followed and tracked.”

Phone images for Life360 art

Dr McGillivray recommended having conversations around boundaries with kids, including who they will allow to track them and what people have power and control in their life.

“It’s all about connection before correction – sit down with your child, establish why they agree, what are the limits,” she said.

“Have that conversation with them and don’t track them without their knowledge because otherwise they could be more privy to go into those sort of relationships of coercive control if we don’t have these conversations.”