Imagine being watched all the time; your speed limit, your location, your previous driving paths, etc. Students living with parents enforcing the app ‘Life360’ have to live their everyday life with these precautions.

According to the app, “Life360”, it allows parents to track their child at all times, regardless of if  they are using their phone or not. The app tracks the user’s location, how fast they are driving, when they arrive at their destination, and much more.

According to Blake Messacar ’20, it’s hard to do anything or go anywhere without someone knowing. Not only on the nights you want to go out, but with the special features the app has that don’t go away for him.

“It kind of is like being stalked, in a way, and you can see how fast you have driven and since we have the premium, your past traveling from over a week ago,” Messacar said.

However, there are some cons to the app as well. Especially when you are trying go hang out with friends, according to Lainey Rahm ’21.

“On the nights I go out, it does limit my freedom a little bit because my parents know where I am at all points,” Rahm said. “So if they get suspicious at all then it gets annoying, but it doesn’t really affect me that much.”

According to Mara Doyle ’22, certain parents, like her’s, don’t wait to install the app, and inforce the app immediately after receiving their phone.

“(I downloaded the app) Right when I got a phone which was at the end of seventh grade, in 2017, and they were very overprotective at the time,” Doyle said.

According to Rahm, her parents installed Life360 when her and her siblings began entering high school and became more independent. However, she found that certain characteristics posed to be helpful for not only her parents but herself.

“For my everyday life it’s kind of nice. When I can’t get ahold of my parents I get to know where they are, if they are at work or wherever,” Rahm ’21 said. “I can know who’s home or if no one is answering the phone, I can at least get an idea of what they are doing.”

There are other features that make the Life360 app that can pose to be helpful for family members, like if you ever need a ride or you are going to pick someone up, according to Messacar.  The app can make it easier to find out where the person is.

“Also you can see what battery percentage you have so if your phone dies your parents will know to call someone else,” Messacar said.

According to Doyle, the app can also be very helpful for your parent to know your battery percentage as well, to help not losing communication with your parent if you find yourself alone.

“My mom would check my battery percentage frequently so she could remind me to charge my phone, so I wouldn’t lose contact with her,” Doyle said.

According to parent Kathleen Messacar, she finds the app very useful in regards to her children’s safety and well being.

“I like it because hopefully it will remind them to obey the speed limit, be truthful where they are, and to not be on their phones while driving,” Messacar said.

Although the parent can watch you, according to Doyle, it is in their child’s best interest and it is usually used in regards to the students safety. Even if it for the students well-being, Doyle says it still can be frustrating, with or without the app.

“My parents would always be texting my siblings and I always asking where we are, and it was very agitating,” Doyle said.

According to Doyle, her parents eventually deleted the app, therefore giving up their ability to watch them.

“They stopped using it (Life360) because I would never go anywhere without telling them in the first place, being honest is really the smartest thing to do the gain their trust,” Doyle said.  “They (the parents) should be able to still take your word for what your doing without the app.”