Ingenting å skjule Ungdoms perspektiver på GPS-sporing fra foreldre, venner og kjærester

The report explores how children and young people experience location tracking and sharing by parents, friends and romantic partners, drawing on qualitative interviews with 23 adolescents aged 13–19 and a nationally representative 2026 survey of 8–19-year-olds. GPS- sharing has become a normalised part of young people’s everyday lives, particularly through Snap Map, with almost eight in ten children and young people reporting that their location can be tracked by parents, friends or others. Girls report higher levels of tracking and greater social pressure than boys, suggesting that the costs and expectations associated with constant visibility are strongly gendered. Parental tracking is often introduced without meaningful discussion or active consent, even though it represents a significant intrusion into children’s privacy and does not necessarily increase their actual safety. When tracking is used to confront, restrict or control young people, it can undermine trust and encourage them to hide more from their parents, potentially making them more vulnerable in difficult situations. Among friends and romantic partners, location sharing is increasingly an expectation rather than a genuine choice, blurring the boundaries between care, social pressure and controlling behaviour. Young people actively manage their visibility through tools such as Ghost Mode and temporary location sharing, demonstrating an ongoing negotiation between privacy, belonging and autonomy. The report concludes that children and young people need stronger safeguards, clearer and more meaningful consent mechanisms, better education about privacy and digital rights, and greater awareness among parents of the consequences of routine tracking.