Location-Sharing Apps

Australia Broadcast Center

27-05-2025

JOE BARONIO, REPORTER: Do you have any location-sharing apps on your phone right now?
PERSON: Snapchat and Find My.
PERSON: I have Life360 and Snapchat has my location.
PERSON: I've got Snapchat and sort of like iPhone, Find It.
PERSON: Snapchat, Find My and Life360.
PERSON: Snapchat and I have Find My Phone.
PERSON: Life360 right now and Google Maps sharing.
Yeah, a lot of young people have some kind of location-sharing app on their devices, whether it's to keep up with friends or for parents and family to keep an eye on you.
PERSON: I use location-sharing apps so that my parents can track me, so they know that I'm safe.
PERSON: Oh, because my Mum makes me.
PERSON: Yeah, just to find my mates.
PERSON: For Snapchat I think it's more like a cultural thing, you like to see where everyone is.
PERSON: I'm driving so my Mum just likes to know like where I'm at and like if I'm going the speed limit.
PERSON: Yeah, I think like with going out and us being, you know, the age that we are, there's a lot of uni, a lot of travelling, so just, you know, gives a bit of comfort for myself, my parents.
But, while many of these apps sell themselves on safety, there is a potential dark side.
JULIE INMAN GRANT, ESAFETY COMMISSIONER: We've been talking about coercive control for a long time in the context of family, domestic and sexual violence, but we were starting to see indications that coercive control from a technology perspective was starting to creep into the romantic and intimate relationships of young people.
Coercive control is when someone tries to control another through manipulation, pressure and fear, and a recent study from the eSafety Commissioner looked into the normalisation of tech-based coercive control in more than 2,000 Aussie adults aged 18 to 75, including the use of location-sharing apps. It found that about one in five of 18 to 24-year-old participants expect to be able to track a partner using these apps, and that it may stem from childhood experience.
JULIE INMAN GRANT: Young people's lives are inextricably intertwined with technology. They're meeting each other online. You know, they're checking out where their friends are on Snap Maps. I mean it's, it, it is part of their daily lives.
PERSON: I think it's being accepted so much more now with Snapchat and stuff.
PERSON: I wouldn't say normalised. I think it's definitely, like I've had conversations with many of my friends being like, 'Do you wanna show your location?' 'Yeah, sure, whatever.'
PERSON: I think 100% it's normalised and I think for some people it might even be an expectation, like I'll even message my friend here and be like, 'Why is your location not on? Where are you?' So, do you think that more people in the future are going to expect to, to track loved ones? PERSON: Yep, as is growing right now, I'm sure the trend's gonna stay the same. That is a big concern for the eSafety Commissioner, who says that particularly for young people who've grown up with this tech, it can be difficult to work out the line between love and care, and dangerous controlling behaviour, which doesn't stop with location-sharing apps. JULIE INMAN GRANT: There were two examples where we saw some concerning trends and that is that almost one in four said that it was reasonable to expect to have a partner's codes or passwords for their personal devices, and, and we also found that more than one in eight agree that constantly texting a partner to check who they're with or what they're doing is usually a sign of care in a relationship rather than a manifestation of control. PERSON: With it being such a new concept, it's so hard to understand because you know we're all trying to learn about. PERSON: When they start, like doing it all the time, getting super insecure, always asking questions. I think that's when the line starts to draw. PERSON: Yeah I think it's a bit of like a hard line to draw, but I think if you're constantly getting a message like I would say more than five times a day really saying, 'oh where are you?' like I think if it's a constant like situation that's arising, I think that's when you have to re-evaluate if it's beneficial for you or not.
PERSON: If it's your first relationship, it's been just like a couple of days, a couple of weeks, you, that's a huge expectation to you know, and why are you firstly looking at someone's location? Why are you wondering that much about them?
JULIE INMAN GRANT: We've seen families heated out of their homes where the former partner turns it up to 45 degrees, or every time the family turns on their smart TV, there are menacing messages. And then there are more high-tech versions like drones over safe houses, cars that are now largely electronic, that can stall when it goes more than a kilometre away from the family home. We've even seen a cat feeder with a video tracking a person's movements and who is coming into the household. But even stuff like this, this one really gets me, is the whole idea of let's send a grand gesture, I will send a beautiful meal on Uber Eats to my partner to check that she's where she says she is. So, it can be tied up in a grand gesture, but it can also be used in a way that is meant to check on a person's whereabouts in a very covert way.
Of course, we can't forget that the main reason location-sharing apps were created is safety, and that is still what they're mainly used for. But, if you find yourself feeling unsure or uncomfortable about location-sharing, experts like the eSafety Commissioner say to trust your gut and set digital boundaries, and if things get really uncomfortable make sure to reach out to the Kids Helpline, Headspace, or talk to a trusted adult.
JULIE INMAN GRANT: I don't want to sound like Commissioner gloom and doom. You know, all of this is a balance, right? We want young people to be vigilant, you know, I guess armed but not alarmed. And we, we don't want this to be so normalised that, you know, it changes sort of the fabric of the, the kind of relationships that we're in.
PERSON: Make sure you trust the people you share your location with.
PERSON: Just really important that it's all you know, consensual and that it's all safe.
PERSON: And if they don't know, or they don't give consent, then absolutely not.
PERSON: If you have that trust within you two, awesome. But it's also another aspect of trust. PERSON: It's all about communication, and if you're communicating properly, I don't think there's a need to. PERSON: Especially in a modern world, you don't have a lot of privacy, and that just adds to it, you know, it's just a constant sort of feeling of surveillance.
PERSON: Yeah, I'd say take whatever you, whatever privacy you can get really.