Cybertip.ca Alerts

Imagine a world in which your whereabouts at any given time are broadcast to everyone you know using a GPS-tracking device.

While this may seem unsettling for many, you should know that for millions of teenagers this is a voluntary part of their everyday lives. Your teen may find it normal — even expected^{Go to footnote 1} — to share their location with their friends, their partners, and their followers; however, this constant accessibility comes with risks.

Cybertip.ca, Canada’s tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children, is warning parents and caregivers that your teen may be sharing their real-time location through social media, making them potentially vulnerable to coercive control, emotional distress, and sextortion threats.

These location sharing map features are available and widely used on two of the most popular social media platforms used by Canadian youth: Instagram® and Snapchat®. It’s important to initiate conversations with your teen and ask if they have activated real-time location sharing, who they are sharing it with, and discuss the potential risks involved.

A tool for coercive control

Research shows that some young people view the constant monitoring of their whereabouts — like through location tracking and incessant texting — as a sign their partner cares and is concerned about their well-being, and not as a possible coercive control tactic.^{Go to footnote 4} Some partners may pressure teens to share their locations and even accuse them of being unfaithful, secretive, or dishonest if they don’t. It’s important to talk to teens about healthy boundaries and red flags that can surface in relationships.

Risks of emotional distress

Sharing one’s real-time location with some or all of their online networks also has the potential to create new and unexpected sources of distress. For example, when a teen’s friend group shares its location with one another, the teen will be immediately aware if they are being excluded from social gatherings. This can lead teens to feel inadequate, or it can create pressure to appear busy and socially active even if they aren’t (or really, just want personal time).^{Go to footnote 6} These location sharing functions can also create an expectation of continuous access and generate high levels of peer pressure to share private information which can cause conflict among friends.

Amplifying sextortion threats

Through reports to Cybertip.ca, we’ve also encountered instances where sextorters leverage a victim’s location as a way to threaten and intimidate them. In such cases, a sextorter may use it as a way to scare the victim into believing they can reach the victim’s community, such as their teachers, family, friends, or police department.

Next steps

Talk to your teen about their location sharing habits. Some good discussion points include:

• If they feel pressure or expectations to share their location with others;
• If they think this practice is healthy or beneficial;
• Whether they know and trust those who can access their location, and if they should think about restricting access to a narrower group;
• How often they use the location sharing functions and if more limited or case-specific uses are more appropriate.

1. 1 An example of a public commentary on this issue can be found in this blog post — https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/positively-media/202507/why-teens-love-location-sharing ↩
2. 2 Screenshot created by C3P when using platform ↩
3. 3 Screenshot created by C3P when using platform ↩
4. 4 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178925000230 ↩
5. 5 Image sourced from Instagram — https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-new-features-connect-friends ↩
6. 6 An example of a public commentary on this issue can be found in this blog post — https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/positively-media/202507/why-teens-love-location-sharing ↩
7. 7 Image sourced from Snapchat — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q-gjHtttGQ ↩