Should Divorced Parents Share Their Child's Location?

Whether divorced or separated parents should share their child's location doesn't have a universal yes or no answer, it depends heavily on the child's age, why it's being used, and whether both parents are actually aligned on the reason.

The case for sharing it

For younger kids especially, location sharing offers real, practical reassurance: knowing a school bus arrived, confirming a pickup happened without a phone call, or having a safety net during a first solo outing. Smartphones and location features can offer genuine safety benefits alongside easy contact when something goes wrong. For many families, especially with younger children or ones just gaining independence, this is a reasonable and fairly uncontroversial use.

The case for caution

The concern isn't the feature, it's what it can become. Location sharing between a parent and child can, in practice, function as a way to monitor the other parent's household, when a child arrived, how long they stayed somewhere, whether their schedule matches what was agreed. Family law commentary on this specifically flags it as an invasion of privacy when it's used to track the other parent through the child, rather than to track the child directly. There's also a trust cost: location sharing that a teenager experiences as constant surveillance, rather than agreed-upon safety, can damage the parent-child relationship rather than protect it.

What tends to determine which one you get

Whether both parents know and agree. Location sharing that's discussed and mutually understood tends to read as a safety tool. Location sharing one parent discovers, or that only one parent has visibility into, tends to read as surveillance, regardless of the original intent.

Whether the child understands the purpose. A child who knows their location is shared for safety, and why, generally experiences it very differently than one who finds out it's been used to check on them without their knowledge.

What the data is actually used for. Confirming a child arrived somewhere safely is a different use than using the timestamp to question the other parent's schedule or decisions.

The child's age and independence. What's reasonable for an eight-year-old and what's reasonable for a sixteen-year-old are different conversations, and most families loosen tracking as a child demonstrates independence, the same way other oversight typically loosens with age.

A reasonable default

Many families land on: both parents have equal visibility (not one parent tracking a child the other can't see), the purpose is discussed with the child rather than hidden, and the data is used for safety questions, not for auditing the other household. See location sharing rules between two homes for how to set this up concretely, and can a co-parent ask a child to share their location for the narrower question of the request itself.

Put it in writing if it's a recurring issue

If location sharing keeps coming up as a point of friction, it's worth spelling out explicitly, who has access, for what purpose, and what happens with the information, in a parenting plan rather than relitigating it informally each time.