Is it ever okay to use tracking devices on your teenagers or is it a gross invasion of their privacy? 

GPS trackers are small and unobtrusive devices that can be attached to small devices - such as smartphones.

Increasingly, parents use them to keep and eye on their teenage children when they leave the house and go out with friends.

Irish Independent columnist Mary McCarthy said she can understand how you “can kind of justify it” on the grounds of convenience and safety - but warned many children will strongly resist being tracked.

“My teenagers are disgusted at the thought of me tracking them,” she told Newstalk Breakfast.

“There is the option to do it, so I did do it the other week when my son was home really late and he was really annoyed with me.”

Ms McCarthy said when her son was late home she worried he was “drunk in a field” but in fact he had been with a friend watching a film in a house near a field.

Overall, she believes the disadvantages to the technology outweigh the benefits.

“Listen, I don’t want to sound sanctimonious - perhaps I’m wrong - but my instinct about these tracking devices [is not good],” she said.

“The ability to track is something that our parents never had.”

Mother arguing with teenagers. Image: Daisy-Daisy / Alamy Stock Photo

Ms McCarthy said she worries the devices are just a “way to make money out of parents” and said many teenagers do not need smartphones in the first place.

“Now, there’s an anti-phone movement, you get smartwatches at 10 and 11 - they all get them - and you actually need a SIM card to use smartwatches.

“So, they’re billed as, ‘When your child is not ready for a phone and this a safe way to protect your kids, you know where they are.’

“Actually, they don’t need a phone, they don’t need a tracker and they don’t need any of this until they’re much older.”

Two teenagers on their phones. Image: Axel Bueckert / Alamy Stock Photo

Ms McCarthy said the problem is that once you get used to tracking your child, it can be hard to stop - even when they are on the verge of adulthood.

“I think when you start tracking an 11 and 12-year-old, then they turn 13, 14, 15 - can you stop then?” she said.

According to a survey carried out by CyberSafeKids this year, one-in-five six-year-olds in Ireland have their own smartphone.

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Main image: A teenager using a mobile phone. Picture by: Alamy.com