Can a mum track a child when she’s with father

Sukiko

Friend of mine has 50-50 co parenting with his controlling ex. 

He’s found out that the mother has a tracker on his 11 year old daughters phone. 

When she comes back from contact with him the ex is questioning the daughter about where’s she’s been.  Then shouting at her calling her a liar as she knows by the tracker. 

My friend understands she needs this when she’s home but feels that it’s invasion of his privacy when his daughter is with him.   

What’s everybody’s views please?

Mojisola

I would buy another phone for the child to have while she is with him. 
Switch off the tracked phone as soon as he collects his daughter or get her to leave it at home. 

ilikewatch2

Why doesn't your friend just disable the tracker or turn the phone off when his daughter's with him if he doesn't like it? He's the adult, it's up to him to decide what happens when he's the one looking after his daughter.

Sukiko

She has no right to do this though?  She’s a control freak , you wouldn’t believe how much she tries to get away with.  A couple of months ago he had her and they went for a weekend break to Scotland with his partner and her daughter and she reported him to the court for removing her from the country.   She thinks she has to be told. But when they go to their caravan in Wales nothing is said. 

ilikewatch2

Sukiko said:

She has no right to do this though?

I would imagine that mum has every right to install/activate a tracker on the daughters phone when she's "in charge", and dad has every right to disable it when he's "in charge".

I'm not quite sure why an 11 YO would need a phone capable of running a tracking app anyway, surely just a basic handset capable of making a phone call in an emergency is all that she would need at that age?

Mojisola

Sukiko said:

She has no right to do this though?  She’s a control freak , you wouldn’t believe how much she tries to get away with.  A couple of months ago he had her and they went for a weekend break to Scotland with his partner and her daughter and she reported him to the court for removing her from the country.   She thinks she has to be told. But when they go to their caravan in Wales nothing is said. 

With someone like this, he needs to pick his battles.  A lot of what she does will be to get a rise from him.

Spoil her fun by getting round her shenanigans rather than confronting her or getting angry.

RAS

Sukiko said:

A couple of months ago he had her and they went for a weekend break to Scotland with his partner and her daughter and she reported him to the court for removing her from the country.   She thinks she has to be told. But when they go to their caravan in Wales nothing is said. 

Just for the record.

England and Wales share the same legal system, even if Wales have a devolved government. So the rulings of an English court apply in Wales.

Scotland has always had a completely different legal system, even before devolution. So he was removing the child from the jurisdiction of the English court. One reason why people sometimes move across the border to prevent the ruling of a court on one side applying.

Not that I approve of the mother tracking her daughter when she's with her father but if he's going to pick a fight, this would not be a good one to choose.

ZaSa1418

Is the 50/50 court ordered? 
He should turn the tracking off when she arrives and then put it back on when she leaves to go back to her mum.

Marvel1

Leave the phone at home (his).

Jude57

Is it possible that dad is taking daughter to places and asking daughter not to tell mum they went there? Especially as he took her out of the (legal) country with his new partner. Then mum gets upset because tracking shows daughter was elsewhere than she said. If this is what's happening, it needs to stop as it's unfair to put daughter in that position.

Otherwise, I agree with getting a separate phone for daughter to use while in dad's custody. Dad could install a tracker on that for daughter's safety. If mum is concerned about daughter's safety while with dad she should address that directly with dad or via the court.

seven-day-weekend

I don't know a lot about these issues, but surely if he has been granted co-parenting rights, then it is up to him where he goes with his daughter when she is with him, as long as he returns her to her mother at the correct time.

If it turns out that they have been somewhere the other parent disapproves of, then they need to sort that out like responsible adults.

I think it is a gross invasion of privacy to put a tracker on the phone.