Intimate surveillance of the ordinary: youth's negotiation of digital location tracking with parents and peers

Abstract

Digital location tracking (DLT) is increasingly prevalent in young people’s lives. This qualitative study adopts a youth-centric lens, drawing on Feminist Science & Technology Studies and Communication Privacy Management theory, to investigate how young people negotiate DLT with parents and peers. Based on 21 focus groups with 147 young people (aged 13–16) in Belgium, the study demonstrates youth’s DLT as an agentic process of boundary negotiation guided by their sense of autonomy and safety. Three implicit rules govern DLT boundaries: (a) access is reserved for close, trusted connections, DLT must (b) remain non-continuous, and (c) confirm ordinary, routine whereabouts. These boundaries are negotiated through 3 strategies: (a) humor, (b) revoking location access, (c) circumvention. The study shows how these negotiations build on a “risky world” premise and how young people reproduce and challenge gender stereotypes throughout. Ultimately, through both acceptance and resistance, young people question and normalize everyday surveillance culture.