What is location sharing? Is it creepy or is it necessary?

Checking in on a family member in 2016 is much easier than ever, and perhaps less invasive, too. We don't have to call or text to see that someone hasn't left the house or that I am driving and should be home by 7. Next week we will talk about the dangers that can arise with apps that allow anonymous users to interact. Equally concerning is the growing popularity of location tracking apps among teens. Designed to help moms and dads keep track of kids, these apps serve a great purpose. However, they can be misused by teens looking for nearby friends if privacy settings aren’t locked down.

We have apps that can passively keep an eye on friends and family members' whereabouts, and that's a huge relief. No more worry when someone forgets to call or is held up. A quick glance at your tracking app tells you all you need to know -- and then you can relax. On the other hand, because they broadcast your teen's physical location on a map, they open up the possibility of meeting strangers face to face or enabling someone to follow your teen without their knowledge. Also, these apps don't work if the phone is turned off or out of battery, preventing you from tracking your kid, if that's your goal.

These apps differ from social networks—such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook—which also have geo-location features built into them that take a few extra clicks to get to. Location tracking apps are designed specifically to locate users with precision—down to their street address, avatar, and time stamps. Which frankly, is pretty frightening if an app is being misused. If tracking the people you love sounds shady, or you're worried about spying, don't worry. These Android and iPhone apps are safe when used properly, however there are dangers with these too. Contacts have to agree to be tracked, and the apps come with very clear instructions for use. As you read through each selection, bear in mind that this is not an exact science and that GPS signals determine how precisely locations can be calculated. What's more, none of these will work with the phone turned off.

Life360 Family Locator

This free app lets family members track one another in real time. One great feature automatically lets family members know when someone has entered a predefined location, like home or school. You can choose two such spots. So when the kids come home after school, Life 360's app automatically checks them in and sends an alert to show they've made it.

The app also includes a full location history, which is nice for an overview of recent activity. The built-in "panic" option sends out an emergency beacon to designated emails, text and phones with your exact location of your GPS coordinates. The app can also be used to message family members.

Glympse

Designed around the simple notion of at-a-glance-tracking, Glympse lets you decide who you want to see your GPS location, and select how long they can track you.

Although location sharing ends once the time interval is up, it's possible to manually stop the transmission at any time. Along those lines, it's also possible to tack on extra tracking time.

Glympse is perfect to turn on when you're headed home from work and want to let your spouse know where you are. It's also great for friends to keep temporary tabs on one another when you're planning to meet up at a park or public event.

Glympse also lets you share real-time locations, estimated arrival times, and travel speeds through email, text or social networks. I especially like the calendar integration, which shares location and your ETA with everyone.

Find My Friends

This app, which is also made by the Life360 guys, gives you a central place for sharing your location and messaging. Headed out of town for a few days of downtime? Plan and coordinate your trip with others before getting in the car. Likewise, the app can be used to quickly broadcast your location in an emergency situation.

Like other apps of its kind, this one uses Google Maps at its heart, so it's a breeze to learn and understand. Along these lines, the map automatically lists places such as police stations, fire departments and hospitals, among other.

So what are the dangers of such apps?

There’s the obvious danger of personal information instantly becoming public. And, when it comes to minors using these apps, it is a potential safety issue.

Perhaps the bigger danger is this: Many teens see nothing inherently wrong with sharing their location at anytime, with anyone. Sharing is in their cultural DNA.

That’s where parents need to step in and curb their urge to share things such as personal info, location, and other details that could put them at risk.

Discussion points for families:

• Examine how an app is being used. If your teen is using a location app, ask them to show you how they’re using it and the friends with whom they interact. Make sure that your teen is only communicating with people they know.

• Share location with friends only. Location apps for minors are unnecessary outside the context of family. Let your kids know if they’d like to share their location with a friend, they can call or send a text. And here’s an idea: If they want to know who is nearby, they may want to look up from their screens and scan the room—an app is not needed for that.

• Location sharing can put a whole family at risk. When location services are turned on within a social network, embedded in photos, or shared through a location app, it becomes easier for criminals to track behaviors. Using these apps can open up your family to theft or personal harm.

• Location apps are kind of creepy. Location apps can encourage cyberbullying, stalking, and predatory behavior. Some of these apps are populated by people with ill intentions who are looking to engage in sexual conversation with anyone of any age. Teens don’t realize this when they download these apps and innocently set out to find friends nearby and connect for purely social reasons. Kids can also be duped by people who look like peers but are not.

• Just say NO to giving away personal info. Many of these apps require first and last names, age, and zip code at registration or that a user log in using a Facebook account. Most apps simultaneously ask permission to use location services on a user’s device. This has become the norm but advise your kids to just say NO to that click. This is far too much personal information for a minor to be giving out.

• Review privacy settings on all social networks. Remind them that location information shared through social networks can make everyday photos more visible to people and communities beyond their accepted friend list. Be sure your kids set social networks to private and that location settings are switched to “off.”

With all the features being built into apps today, chances are many of the apps on your child’s phone have some form of location approval enabled. To disable location services on apps, go into your child’s general settings icon and find Settings > Privacy > Location Services.