In a world where constant surveillance of children is becoming normalised, one mother has taken a stand against the trend. Charlotte Cripps, a mum of two, has publicly shared her decision to stop using Apple AirTags to monitor her daughters' every move, citing a profound negative impact on her own mental health and her children's sense of autonomy.
The Rise of the 'CCTV Parent'
Like many parents, Cripps began slipping the small tracking discs into her children's school bags back in 2022, when they were just four and six years old. The practice felt like a responsible safety net in what she perceived as an unsafe world. This sentiment was echoed by high-profile figures like Mike and Zara Tindall, whose daughter Mia was seen with an AirTag at the Burghley Horse Trials in 2024. The market adapted, with companies like Skechers even launching children's shoes with hidden compartments for the devices.
"I thought using trackers would give me peace of mind – but it did the opposite," Cripps admits. Instead of reassurance, the technology fostered a state of constant vigilance and anxiety. She found herself compulsively checking her phone, and any momentary inability to spot her daughters, Lola (now nine) and Liberty (seven), would spiral into catastrophic thoughts of kidnapping.
Expert Warnings and a Personal Reckoning
Cripps's personal awakening aligns with a growing chorus of concern from health professionals. At the start of 2025, a campaign group called Generation Focus issued a letter signed by 74 experts, urging parents to 'pause on tracking'. They argue that such surveillance is a damaging extension of helicopter parenting, undermining a child's development of autonomy and real-world problem-solving skills.
"When we track children, we are implicitly telling them that the world is unsafe," the experts stated. They also highlighted the risk of making a child a target for theft by equipping them with valuable tech. For Cripps, the turning point came when her own children began questioning the trackers. "Are we unsafe, Mummy? Why are you tracking us?" their questions revealed the fear the devices were instilling in them.
The Psychological Cost of Constant Surveillance
Although direct studies on tracking are nascent, substantial research links helicopter parenting—characterised by overbearing control and micromanagement—to increased anxiety and depression in children. A 2025 study published in Development and Psychology found this parenting style amplified stress in first-year university students.
Psychologists suggest that by constantly monitoring a child's location, parents stunt the development of crucial decision-making skills and resilience. "Rushing into every emergency – or locating children in a flash with an AirTag – stops a child from learning to problem solve," Cripps reflects. She realised her children never learned to keep track of their own belongings because "Mummy could track them."
The experts describe tracking as an 'invisible umbilical cord' that needs to be cut to foster healthy, independent young people. Cripps has since adopted a 'free-range path of trust,' focusing on teaching her children what to do in genuine emergencies rather than digitally shadowing their every step.
She acknowledges she may revisit her stance when her daughters become teenagers, potentially providing a basic mobile phone for communication. But for now, her focus is on addressing her own anxieties rather than projecting them onto her children. "I have to trust they will be safe," she concludes, "and start the process of letting go."
