When is location sharing a red flag in relationships?
Published By admin
Between phones, watches and other smart devices, we’re never far from reach for our family, friends and partners.
There are also apps and location services that can show where we are at any given moment.
Experts say couples may see location sharing as a sign of trust or closeness.
But if your partner asked you to share your location, would you say yes? And when does it begin to cross a line from caring into tech-based coercive control?
Why do people share their location?
According to clinical psychologist and director of the Brisbane Centre for Attachment and Relationships, Dr Clare Rosoman, location sharing in intimate relationships can be motivated by a sense of safety.
“It’s [often] about knowing where the other person is to reduce anxiety,” she told ABC Radio National.
“But it has to be done through mutual agreement, it has to enhance a feeling of safety and connection between partners.
“[But] if that’s the only way you feel safe and connected, then that’s a problem, because that creates an insecure coping strategy in the relationship.”
How common is location sharing?
More than one in 10 adults believe it’s reasonable to track a partner using a location-sharing app, according to eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant.
“There are many legitimate reasons why people might choose to share their location with a partner,” she says.
She says while many people do it “consensually and with reasonable boundaries”, what concerns her is “the expectation that a partner should be able to monitor someone’s movements in microscopic detail whenever they want”.
Read more https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-22/when-is-location-sharing-a-red-flag/106432788
Content retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-22/when-is-location-sharing-a-red-flag/106432788.
