Here is a set of family location sharing rules you can copy straight into a note on your phone, or onto a sheet of paper stuck to the fridge. It is short on purpose. Fill in the blanks, argue about the bits you disagree on, and sign it together. A rule your teenager helped write is one they are far more likely to keep.

The agreement

Copy this, then change anything that doesn’t sound like your family.

  1. We are doing this so that ______ (for example: we stop worrying about the bus, the walk home, or the first ride).
  2. Everyone in the Circle can see who else is in it. Nobody is added or watched in secret.
  3. The parent will look at the map when ______ (a ride is overdue, a message goes unanswered), not as a habit.
  4. These are the alerts we have turned on: ______. Anything more gets discussed first.
  5. Nobody uses the map to check on friends, to settle an argument, or to bring up places that were not part of the plan.
  6. A teenager can pause sharing for ______ (an evening, a sleepover) by telling a parent first. A pause is not a punishment, and nobody takes it personally.
  7. If the map worries a parent, the parent asks a question before drawing a conclusion.
  8. We will review this on ______ and change whatever isn’t working.

Signed: ______ (parent) ______ (teenager) Date: ______

Why each line is there

Line two is the one that carries the most weight. Without it, the rest is a promise from one side. In Traxl it’s how the app already behaves: there is no hidden mode, and a teenager joins only through an invite that a parent or guardian confirms. But the line is worth writing down whatever you use, because it’s the thing a teenager will check first.

Line three keeps a parent honest. “I might look anytime” makes a teen feel watched. “I look when something is off” is something they can live with. Line five protects the friendships and the privacy a young person needs, and line seven saves a lot of evenings. A dot that has stopped moving can mean a flat battery, a switched off phone, or a lecture hall with no signal. Traxl will often show which one, but a question is still the better first move.

Tip: Keep it one page

If the agreement spills onto three pages, nobody will remember it. Cut it down until a thirteen-year-old could recite it. Where a rule needs more words, discuss it instead of writing it.

Choosing the alerts

Line four is where parents most often overreach. Resist turning everything on. One arrival alert for school, and perhaps one for tuition, covers most of what families want. A free Circle can save three places, so the three most important ones are enough to start with; our post on arrival alerts for tuition shows how to set up a place without it turning into a flood of buzzes. For a teenager who has started riding, the notes in the first scooter post add a couple of lines worth including.

What about the grown-ups?

Agreements are not only for teenagers. If grandparents, a spouse or an older sibling are in the Circle, they can sign too. It shows a teen that the rules apply to everyone, and some parents find that they need the same pause line when they are the one who doesn’t want to be tracked on a Saturday morning. A free Circle holds up to three people, so a larger household needs Traxl Plus (up to 10 people per Circle, ₹100 a month or ₹999 a year). See the pricing page before deciding.

When to revisit it

Put the review date on the page itself, usually a month after you start. After that, look again when something changes: a new school, a first scooter, a longer commute, a new phone. Ask the plain question, “Is there anything on here you’d change?” and mean it. If you need help opening the conversation, start with our guide to talking to your teenager about location sharing.

What an agreement can’t do

A piece of paper can’t fix a relationship that is already tense, and it’s not a substitute for talking. If a teenager really doesn’t want to share, listen to the reason before you push. Sometimes the answer is fewer alerts or a shorter list of times; sometimes it is not using an app for a while. If the worry behind all this is about something heavier, such as bullying or a health concern, a school counsellor or doctor is the right person to speak to. Traxl is not a medical or emergency service.

Traxl is a free Android app (the iPhone version is coming soon) for sharing location inside a Circle you have agreed to. It alerts the people in your Circle, and it doesn’t call emergency services.