A growing number of UAE mothers are placing Apple AirTags in children’s backpacks or fastening them to wristbands, saying the small devices give them reassurance during the journey to school, on bus routes and during field trips.
The motivation, they say, is not necessarily to monitor every moment of a child’s day. It is to calm the anxiety that can come with a first school year particularly when a young child is travelling independently by bus for the first time.
“I put one in my daughter’s bag when she was in KG1,” said Mariam, a mother who shared her experience. “I worried a lot about the bus. It reassured me to see that she had left school and was on her way.”
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For Fatima, the feeling was strongest with her eldest child. “I think it is usually the first child,” she said. “After that, mothers get used to it.”
Another mother, Noor, said she placed an AirTag on her son’s wrist when he was in first year and plans to do so again this academic year. Aisha, meanwhile, said the device is useful because her child takes the school bus and goes on school trips.
AirTags are marketed by Apple as item finding devices for belongings such as keys and backpacks they are not marketed as dedicated child-safety devices.
The illusion of safety
But Dr Alexandre Machado, Senior Clinical Neuropsychologist and advanced neuromodulation specialist at Medcare Royal Speciality Hospital, warns that the trend can reflect a deeper problem that adults trying to manage their own anxiety through constant oversight.
“We must stop treating children like trackable luggage,” Dr Machado said. “To raise capable, independent, and emotionally stable adults, we must be willing to endure the discomfort of giving them the freedom to exist unmonitored.”
He said that, beyond the stated aim of safety, the practice can become part of a hyper-vigilant parenting style that gives a child too little space to explore, make minor mistakes and build age-appropriate independence.
According to Dr Machado, regular surveillance can send a harmful implied message that the child is incapable of coping independently and that the world is inherently unsafe. He argues that, over time, this can weaken confidence and emotional resilience.
Dr Machado stressed that families facing a specific and abnormal threat, or living in areas with serious safety concerns, may approach the question differently. However, he believes that in places he considers broadly safe, including the UAE, a tracker can be less about a child’s immediate protection and more about easing an adult’s unmanaged anxiety.
Source: Khaleej Times