Kids Are OK is built on what studies of parents and teenagers keep finding: tracking that feels like control costs trust, and trust is what keeps you informed. Here are the studies, with sample sizes, links and their limits, so you can judge for yourself.
1
A study of 1,186 fourteen-year-olds and their parents asked how parents come to know what their teenager is doing, and which of it goes with teenagers doing well. Children's own, unprompted telling explained more of that link than parents' efforts to keep track of them. Teenagers who felt controlled were doing worse.
The authors' conclusion: tracking and surveillance efforts are not as effective as previously thought.
2
In 21 focus groups, 147 teenagers aged 13 to 16 described when location tracking feels fine. It has to come from a close and trusting relationship. It is not meant to be on all the time. And it should confirm ordinary, expected whereabouts.
Checks used to verify that they obeyed felt controlling and like a lack of trust. Some described ways around it, down to using two phones.
3
Researchers read 736 reviews of 37 online safety apps written by children aged 8 to 19. Children's ratings were significantly lower than parents', and 76% of their reviews gave a single star.
Children felt the apps were overly restrictive and invasive of their privacy, and that they hurt their relationships with their parents.
4
A review of 74 Android online security apps for teenagers found that 89% of their security features were about parental control, and about 11% helped teenagers manage things themselves. The researchers asked app makers to balance the two.
5
In a national US poll, 96% of parents who track their young adult child said the child knows about it, but only 54% said they gave the child the option not to be tracked. Two thirds of parents who do not track see it as an invasion of privacy, against 16% of those who do.
The authors' advice: tracking may affect privacy and independence, especially without clear boundaries or mutual agreement.
6
About half of parents and teenagers in a study of 729 adolescents reported location tracking. Links between tracking and problems such as alcohol use did not hold up across informants and checks. Some links showed up only among older teenagers and those who felt less positive parenting. The authors suggest these teenagers may see tracking as controlling and intrusive.
The rules, your promise, every check and the replay, on real screens from the app.