{"id":219726,"date":"2026-03-04T06:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/consumer-reports-breaks-down-what-parents-should-know-about-gps-trackers-for-children\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T07:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T12:55:11","slug":"consumer-reports-breaks-down-what-parents-should-know-about-gps-trackers-for-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/consumer-reports-breaks-down-what-parents-should-know-about-gps-trackers-for-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer Reports breaks down what parents should know about GPS trackers for children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Consumer Reports breaks down what parents should know about GPS trackers for children<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/03\/04\/safety-vs-privacy-consumer-reports-breaks-down-what-parents-should-know-about-gps-trackers-for-children\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-04 06:15:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.news4jax.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Is your child ready for some independence, but you\u2019re not ready to give them a smartphone? <\/p>\n

More parents are turning to GPS trackers and kids\u2019 smartwatches to keep tabs on their child\u2019s location, but who else can see that location, and are you putting your child\u2019s data at risk? <\/p>\n

We have a new investigation from Consumer Reports that parents will want to see!<\/p>\n

Kayelani Vasquez tracks her daughter\u2019s location as her daughter travels with her school\u2019s sports team. She says it\u2019s more about peace of mind and being able to see exactly where her daughter is when she\u2019s not with her.<\/p>\n

Eighty percent of parents in one survey track their kids\u2019 locations. <\/p>\n

Trackers on the market range from inexpensive Bluetooth tags to GPS devices and connected cellular smartwatches. And only some of these devices are designed specifically for kids. <\/p>\n

Parents often assume that products made for children are held to higher standards, but that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n

Depending on their features, these devices don\u2019t just track location. They also collect sensitive data, such as messages, voice notes, and detailed movement patterns. <\/p>\n

The details of what information is being gathered and how it is being stored aren\u2019t always easy to track. Depending on the device and the company behind it, that information may not be stored securely.<\/p>\n

CR analyzed 15 devices by reviewing their privacy policies, testing app permissions, and default settings, and examining how each product handles sensitive data such as location, messages, and device IDs.<\/p>\n

CR found that most privacy policies often clearly explain what data is collected and why, and several brand apps let parents limit data-sharing or turn off targeted ads. CR wants apps to function without being given additional permissions.<\/p>\n

But CR found that some kid-specific products fell short in protecting their child\u2019s privacy and security, lacking multifactor authentication and logging unencrypted direct messages.<\/p>\n

For parents looking for a Bluetooth…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consumer Reports breaks down what parents should know about GPS trackers for children https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/03\/04\/safety-vs-privacy-consumer-reports-breaks-down-what-parents-should-know-about-gps-trackers-for-children\/ Publish…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/graham-media-group\/image\/upload\/f_auto\/q_auto\/c_thumb,w_700\/v1\/media\/anyclip\/fstl-tf\/xpWHuJwBd6l32tr-YuKU\/1772622608664_1920x1080_thumbnail.jpg?_a=DATAg1fkZAA0","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219728,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219726\/revisions\/219728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}