Tracking children, constructing fear: GPS and the manufacture of family safety

Abstract

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has revolutionised the ability to locate oneself in urban space, often under the guise of providing individuals with more freedom to roam. However, with that development there has also been the realisation that this means that others may be able to track one's movements. For parents concerned about their child's safety, the utilisation of this service appears attractive, as they can check that their children are 'where they are supposed to be.' To date, the law's response to GPS tracking generally has been to raise privacy concerns around who may have access to one's location information. There has also been some discussion of the rights of children to privacy from parental control. While these concerns raise important issues of children's autonomy, they are responses that sit firmly within traditional legal concerns about privacy and need for ethical constraints on tracking the individual.