In today’s hyper-connected world, many teens are voluntarily broadcasting their real-time location through social media - often without fully understanding the risks. What might feel like a normal part of digital life to them could expose them to serious threats.
Cybertip.ca, Canada’s national tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children, is sounding the alarm: location-sharing features on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are making youth vulnerable to coercive control, emotional manipulation, and sextortion.
Luckily, Cybertip.ca has shared helpful tools to make sure you know the risks associated with location sharing and how you can talk with your teen.
Some quick tips include:
Start a conversation with your teen: Ask them if they’ve enabled location sharing.
Discuss who they’re sharing with and why.
Talk openly about the risks and help them make informed choices.
Sit down with your teen and explore the privacy settings on their phone and apps. Disable location sharing where it's not necessary.
Teach your teen to share their location only with trusted individuals - and never with followers they don’t personally know.
For more resources and tips, visit Cybertip.ca.