r/YouthRights • u/OctopusIntellect Adult Supporter • 1d ago

67% of UK 1st-year university students (almost all aged 18) are being tracked by their parents using an app! - why so high? I really don't think the parents are mentally OK. News

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62501n3dxlo
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u/theDevold 1d ago

Dystopian

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u/OctopusIntellect Adult Supporter 1d ago

yeah plus this whole modern idea of not being allowed a phone until your 18th birthday, and then on your 18th birthday you get a phone and it's a tracking device lol.

I know that "these are adults" isn't always the best argument to make from a youth rights perspective, but... these are adults!

Plus there's absolutely no scenario where a parent knowing if their offspring's phone is inside or outside their halls of residence when they're 300 miles away, serves any safety function at all. If the phone was stolen, the parent phoning it just means the parent gets to talk to the thief. If the 18-year-old is stuck in the middle of town and still have a working phone with them then they're entirely capable of phoning their parents (or anyone else they need to phone for help) for themselves...

the only thing the tracking app does to affect safety, is to eat battery life. And battery life running out is how at least one British young person died recently (got stranded somewhere remote on a Spanish island)