Latest news with #MaríaAtiénzarPrieto
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Tracking apps and their use in coercive relationships
It's natural for parents to want to know where their children are and technology has made that easier with the use of tracking apps like Life360, Find My Friends or Google Family. But research suggests that the use of these apps may have unintended consequences, normalising the idea of personal tracking to the point where young people don't recognise when a partner crosses the line from caring to coercive. Spanish researcher and academic, María Atiénzar Prieto is doing her PhD on how young people perceive the use of digital technology as a form of control in relationships. She explains to Kathryn how her work raises concerns about the failure to set appropriate digital boundaries. Originally from Spain, María Atiénzar Prieto is doing her PhD at Griffith University in Queensland. Photo: SUPPLIED/María Atiénzar Prieto
ABC News
14-05-2025
- ABC News
Location-sharing apps linked to increased risk of digital coercive control, eSafety Commission research finds
Nearly one in five young adults believe tracking a partner's location is to be expected in a relationship, new research has found. The eSafety Commission study has linked location-sharing apps with an increased risk of coercive control. More than 13 per cent of the 2,000 adults surveyed said it was reasonable for a partner to monitor them using location-sharing apps like Life360 and Find My iPhone. "It isn't an exaggeration to say preventing tech-based coercive control, and the attitudes that it condones can save lives," eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said. "Young people have become so accustomed to certain levels of online tracking by family and friends … that it no longer raises red flags in a relationship." Tech-based coercive control is defined as a behaviour pattern that uses digital technology to control, manipulate and create fear in a current or former relationship. About a quarter of adults surveyed agreed it was necessary to have a partner's passwords and codes for their personal devices. A similar study published by Griffith University earlier this year found location-sharing apps had become "normalised" as a way for parents to monitor their children. Location-sharing apps like Life360 are marketed to "protect your family with easy-to-use location tracking". Over the last three years, Griffith University PhD candidate María Atiénzar Prieto has studied perceptions of digital coercive control. Her survey of more than 1,000 young people said the acceptance of location sharing "starts at home". "We found parents increasingly used tracking apps to monitor children and provide safety," she said. The 2023 murder of Lilie James put tech-facilitated control in the headlines, when it was revealed last March that her killer had tracked her location through Snapmaps. The court heard her killer's behaviour was normalised as "coming from a place of kindness and love". Ms Atiénzar Prieto found the technology was "the perfect tool for perpetrators of domestic violence". "Participants in my study discussed how the first time they were monitored was in an environment of care and love and that was then being transferred to other relationships," Ms Atiénzar Prieto said. She said parents needed to explain that they're using these apps for safety, but that there were risks in using it outside the family. According to the eSafety commission, the average Australian household has about 40 inter-connected devices. The eSafety Commission wants more education for young people to understand digital coercion and consent, and for norms around digital privacy respect in relationships be reshaped. "There needs to be conversations about setting digital boundaries and what consent looks like" Ms Inman Grant said. "We're not saying a couple in a relationship or family members shouldn't share their location online but it's the expectation to track a romantic partner's movements, which is problematic — even dangerous". Ms Inman Grant is calling on companies to adopt more safety by design features and mindful engineering of apps to prevent misuse. "We had one situation where a young woman was being surveilled through her electronic cat-feeder" she said. "It was used by her former partner to track her movements in the house and to see who she was with. "The thing that's so insidious about coercive control is that a very determined predator can always exploit the loopholes." In serious cases, victim-survivors have had to begin new digital identities and accounts to stay safe. Ashton Wood is the founder and chief executive DV Safe Phone, which provides free phones to victim-survivors as part of their safety and escape plan. "Unfortunately, the only way of really knowing that you're not being tracked or monitored as a domestic violence victim is to have a device that the partner doesn't know about at all, so it doesn't even exist, as far as they're concerned," he said. "As technology gets better, perpetrators are always finding ways to weaponise it, and then the manufacturers and software providers find ways to lock it down, and then the perpetrators find a way around that." DV Safe Phone has provided more than 12,000 free phones in the past five years and asks people to donate their old phones to help. The charity has been handing the fully reset phones out to police stations, safe houses, hospitals and domestic violence agencies to distribute. "Once they're out of danger, we generally recommend destroying the old phone, unless they need it for evidence, and then keep [the new] phone because that hasn't been compromised."
