Location-sharing apps linked to increased risk of digital coercive control, eSafety Commission research finds
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Nearly one in five young adults believe tracking a partner’s location is to be expected in a relationship, new research has found.
The eSafety Commission study has linked location-sharing apps with an increased risk of coercive control.
More than 13 per cent of the 2,000 adults surveyed said it was reasonable for a partner to monitor them using location-sharing apps like Life360 and Find My iPhone.
“It isn’t an exaggeration to say preventing tech-based coercive control, and the attitudes that it condones can save lives,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.
“Young people have become so accustomed to certain levels of online tracking by family and friends … that it no longer raises red flags in a relationship.”
Tech-based coercive control is defined as a behaviour pattern that uses digital technology to control, manipulate and create fear in a current or former relationship.
About a quarter of adults surveyed agreed it was necessary to have a partner’s passwords and codes for their personal devices.
A similar study published by Griffith University earlier this year found location-sharing apps had become “normalised” as a way for parents to monitor their children.
Location-sharing apps like Life360 are marketed to “protect your family with easy-to-use location tracking”.
Over the last three years, Griffith University PhD candidate María Atiénzar Prieto has studied perceptions of digital coercive control.
Her survey of more than 1,000 young people said the acceptance of location sharing “starts at home”.
“We found parents increasingly used tracking apps to monitor children and provide safety,” she said.
Content retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-15/location-sharing-apps-esafety-commission-coercive-control/105289994.
