Making mistakes is universal, especially among teens. A teen’s acknowledgement of a false step to their guardian is no easy task. When parents make their children more comfortable admitting their mistakes, they will progressively ease into making better subsequent decisions.

In a perfect world, parenting shepherds the next generation of new minds. The current state of helicopter parenting is moving the young generation in the wrong direction. At some point, parents should realize when it’s time for their kids to make decisions for themselves.

As a teen, there are many aspects of modern parenting that I disagree with. One of these is parents’ decision to track their children. I’m sure many students receive the same explanation as I did: it’s their phone and they need to see where you are at 4 p.m. in the afternoon for your own safety. Granted, they may have bought your phone or given you one as a privilege. Regardless, it is immoral for them to track you.

A big part of growing up is learning from your mistakes—learning what’s wrong and what’s right. Having adults supervise you via tracking is not the correct approach. I’m sure both American adults and children don’t like the government tracking their internet activities. There is no difference between this and overbearing parents who vicariously live through their children by tracking them with an unhealthy amount of vigilance.

It’s all too easy now for parents to establish an interface allowing them to track you. Companies like T-Mobile have 100,000 users paying $9.99 a month for a service, FamilyWhere, which lets parents keep tabs on all phones on their accounts. Apple has made it free to apply family sharing to devices.

Back in the ‘80s, parenting was merely checking in with children and making sure they were doing everything they were supposed to. But the fact that the latchkey kids from the ‘80s are raising the children of today has changed something. Sadly, the kids from then are the helicopter parents of today.

The coverage of tragic events concerning children has strongly influenced modern parenting, prompting parents to expand their supervision to inessential lengths.

To parents who insist on tracking their children for their safety, I ask this: won’t your child be safer in the long run if you grant them the independence they deserve? The only way us adolescents will be able to survive in the real world is by experiencing it early on in life by gradually taking on more personal responsibility.

Detailing the issue of tracking teens is merely scratching the surface of animosity between parents and their children. Five years from now, we won’t have our parents to lean on. If we’re prepared for that now, we’ll be able to thrive when that time comes.