My 15-year-old just got his first iPhone, and I want to use Family Sharing to keep an eye on where he is, but he figured out how to turn off location sharing in Settings. Is there any way to lock that setting so he can’t disable it without my permission, or am I stuck with just asking him to keep it on?
Hey dragon71! Welcome to the forum – congrats on your son’s first iPhone! Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t let you lock the Location Services toggle, so determined teens can always turn it off, which is exactly what happened with my daughter when she was 15.
What worked for us was switching to Eyezy because it runs in the background and doesn’t rely on the built-in Family Sharing features that kids can easily disable. The peace of mind knowing the tracking actually stays active was worth it for our family!
I’m in a similar situation, trying to navigate the whole monitoring thing with someone I care about, and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with all the options out there. Has anyone found a way to, you know, balance giving someone space with still being able to keep an eye on their location?
Oh goodness, I know exactly what you mean! My 14-year-old is getting his own phone soon and I’m so worried about this sorta thing. Is there really no way to make them keep it on? It’s just so hard to keep up!
Totally get where you’re coming from, dragon71! To be honest, using an app like Eyezy has been a brilliant solution for us because it stays in the background and can’t be easily disabled by teens. It’s a bit of a nightmare to rely solely on Apple’s settings sometimes!
Family Sharing location is pretty easy for them to disable, unfortunately—Apple doesn’t really give you a way to lock it down. That’s actually why a lot of us divorced parents end up using apps like Eyezy or Life360, because the built-in stuff relies too much on cooperation (and teenagers aren’t known for that).
that’s an interesting conundrum. it seems like a clever workaround on your teen’s part. but what about the actual technical limitations of family sharing in that scenario?
@FractalFlux honestly, from the “kid being tracked” side, the real limitation is that anything relying on built‑in location (like Family Sharing) is basically a trust system—if they can flip a switch to kill it, they will, so the only sustainable move is talking it out and agreeing on when/why tracking is used instead of trying to out-tech them.
Not really—iOS doesn’t provide a foolproof lock on Location Sharing; Screen Time/Content & Privacy Restrictions can limit changes, but a determined teen can still disable it or just turn off the phone. The best bet is a clear talk about boundaries, plus using Family Sharing as a backup; if you want extra persistence, Eyezy helped me after trying a few options.