Tracking children on their way to school? What experts, schools and parents say

Status: 12.09.2024 07:35

With smartwatches, parents can locate their children and contact them at any time. The devices are also becoming increasingly popular among schoolchildren in Schleswig-Holstein. However, media educators and teachers criticize this.

by Friederike Schneider

“Real security enrichment”, “practical for parents”, “Feel safe and worry-free when your child is out and about” or even “perfect for the start of school” – this is how telecommunications providers advertise smartwatches for children. With the devices, children receive messages on their wrists and can also use them to call their parents. They can then locate their child using GPS.

A quarter of Germans can imagine tracking

Children’s journeys can also be tracked using smartphones or air tags on school bags. In a survey conducted by the digital association Bitkom, six percent of participants said they had already used such devices to track children, and another 24 percent could imagine doing so.

Media educator: Smartwatches are a topic at every parents’ evening

The topic is also becoming increasingly popular with parents in Schleswig-Holstein. This is reported, for example, by Henning Fietze, head of the Schleswig-Holstein Open Channel, who advises on dealing with digital media with the ElternMedienLosten project. “We have been holding 200 parents’ evenings a year in the state for 15 years. For the last two or three years, parents have been asking about smartwatches. It is now actually brought up at every parents’ evening at primary schools,” reports Fietze. Many parents find the watches exciting because they use them themselves and see them as a quick means of communicating with their children – after all, a message on the watch can be read more quickly than on the cell phone that may be in the child’s school bag.

Schools criticize distraction in class

Headmaster Annette Grosse observes that students are increasingly distracted by digital devices.

But that is exactly what is becoming a growing problem in schools. “Of course, it is always a disruption to lessons, they are distracted,” says Annette Grosse, head of the Poul Due Jensen School in Wahlstedt (Segeberg district). The children not only respond to messages from their parents, but also use the watches to arrange to meet friends in the toilet during lessons, for example. At her school, she has observed that more and more pupils have the devices, especially from the 9th grade onwards. Other schools in Schleswig-Holstein report that even the lower grades are bringing smartwatches.

Parents value security through tracking

The parent representative of the Poul Due Jensen School, Sandra Schulze, sees the problem of distraction in the lower grades – but thinks that smartwatches are a good thing in themselves. Her own child doesn’t have a smartwatch, but does have a tracking function on his smartphone. “I think that’s really great, especially these days with all the young people,” says Schulze. “I know where he is, he has his SOS button and can press it if something happens.” Her child also feels safer as a result.

Media educator Henning Fietze has a clear opinion: “We believe that wearables, i.e. online-capable devices for the wrist, simply do not belong on children’s wrists at primary school age.” Although he does not advise against the devices in principle, after all they are also innovative and parents can and should talk to their children about the technology – but younger children in particular should not wear their own device on their arm all the time.

“Children must be able to hide”

Parents should definitely show their children how to use new technical devices, say media educators. However, constant accessibility can pose problems.

There are several reasons for this. Firstly, tracking is not actually necessary in most families. It is much more important to accompany the child through everyday life and to build a relationship of trust. This could even suffer under surveillance by digital devices. “Children need to be able to hide,” says Fietze – and also notice that parents are worried. “From a developmental psychology perspective, these are all important experiences of the parent-child bond. Smartwatches can prevent all this free experience and testing of boundaries and that is not to be welcomed.”

Ansgar Büter-Menke, lecturer in media education at Kiel University of Applied Sciences and head of the Digital Transformation Department at the UKSH Academy, sees another problem here: “The child gets the impression that there is an immediate solution. I am in a situation as a child where I don’t know what to do next and I have this watch and can click on it, call my parents and they will solve my problem. And I find that quite critical from an educational point of view,” he says.

Experts: Watches only offer pseudo-security

Both experts also speak of a perceived, pseudo-security. The smartwatches cannot replace dealing with the child’s everyday life and accompanying them, stresses Fietze. The parent-child bond simply cannot be transferred to the wrist. Büter-Menke is particularly critical of the so-called geofencing function. Parents can define areas in which the child is not allowed to stay – the watch then sends a warning. The providers are playing on the parents’ fears here, says the media educator.

However, he also notes that there can be exceptions in which the tracking function can be useful, for example for children who are dependent on medication. The ability to contact parents immediately can also help children who have developed fears due to current crises or reports about wars. Even then, however, it is important that the children themselves can decide which functions they use. “Tracking must be discussed with the child. If it is justified from a parental perspective but is done without the child’s knowledge, it violates the child’s privacy.”

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Tracking does not violate data protection

From a legal perspective, however, parents are generally allowed to track children. This is because it does not violate data protection regulations. “In principle, data protection does not extend to the family, as the so-called household exception applies,” says the state data protection commissioner Marit Hansen. This means that the General Data Protection Regulation does not apply if personal data is only collected for personal or family purposes. “The special relationship between parents and children also applies,” Hansen explains. “Determining one’s own personal data and exercising data protection rights is usually only possible for older children or young people.” According to Hansen, tracking does not violate data protection even if the children do not know about it.

Personal rights versus supervisory duties

The basic rights to freedom also apply to children and the right to privacy is enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – but this is offset by the parents’ duty of care and supervision, as the portal “Living children’s rights digitally” has worked out. According to this, parents can decide for themselves how and with what means they carry out their parenting tasks, as long as the child’s well-being is not endangered. “In the case of tracking children, on the one hand, it could be argued that constant monitoring constitutes damage,” says Marit Hansen. A child could therefore theoretically sue its parents if it can be proven that it has been harmed. “Based on basic rights, the child’s right to participation and Section 1626 Paragraph 2 of the German Civil Code, the child has the right to at least be informed about the tracking and/or, depending on their age and level of development, to be asked,” says the portal “Living children’s rights digitally.” The Federal Code stipulates that parents discuss parenting issues with their child in an age-appropriate manner and “strive for agreement.” However, the final decision lies with the parents.

Providers collect data and movement profiles

The watches often measure health data such as heart rate or number of steps – this is interesting for children, but is also transmitted to the providers.

However, parents must ensure that their children’s data is not publicly accessible – there are data protection concerns here, as movement profiles and health data are usually transmitted to the watch providers. According to Hansen, there have already been cases in which children’s data was not adequately protected. Henning Fietze says: “Anyone who buys their children a smartphone has already decided against data protection.” Nevertheless, one must be aware that a smartwatch connected to the Internet also collects and transmits data.

Wiretapping via smartwatches is prohibited

The devices themselves are only banned in Germany if they have a so-called listening function, which allows parents to remotely activate the watch’s microphone and thus listen in on ambient noises and other people’s voices. This was decided by the Federal Network Agency.

Schools must regulate usage themselves

Smartwatches are not generally banned at schools in Schleswig-Holstein either. The watches are also allowed at Annette Grosse’s Poul Due Jensen School. “The students have the right to wear their clothes and watches as they want,” she says. “We could now say that they have to be taken off, but then we would have to check again.” That is not feasible, especially since simple digital or fitness watches and internet-enabled smartwatches are not easy to distinguish from one another. The use of mobile phones in school is prohibited, however – there has already been a case in Wahlstedt where lesson sequences were recorded and posted online. The school took action against this.

Parents can discuss things in class

Other schools in Schleswig-Holstein have already included in their school rules that smartwatches may not be used in class, says Henning Fietze. He and his colleagues from the Open Channel also advise parents at their events to discuss things in class and generally stipulate that no child brings such watches to school – this also avoids the social pressure of having to have a smartwatch in order to keep up with friends.

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