Some are, some genuinely aren't, and the brand marketed specifically "for kids" isn't automatically the safer pick. Consumer Reports tested 15 GPS trackers and kids' smartwatches this year, digging into privacy policies, app permissions, and default settings, and found real gaps in how several of them handle a child's location, messages, and device data. If you're using one of these to give your kid some independence before they're ready for a full smartphone, which is a huge share of parents right now, it's worth knowing which features actually protect your kid and which ones just look like they do.
What Consumer Reports Found When It Tested 15 Kids' Trackers and Smartwatches
The testing looked at how each device and its companion app handled sensitive data, location history, messages, device identifiers, and what the default privacy settings looked like out of the box. The Apple Watch SE 3 with GPS and Cellular scored well overall, and the Garmin Bounce came out on top specifically for data security. That's useful information, but the bigger takeaway isn't which single product won. It's that the results varied enough between devices to matter, and most parents have no way to know that variation exists without a third party actually testing it for them.
Why "Made for Kids" Doesn't Mean Better Privacy
This is the part I think trips parents up the most. It feels intuitive that a product built and marketed specifically for children would be held to a higher privacy standard than general consumer tech. Reporting on this space has found that's not a safe assumption. Not every tracker sold to parents was actually designed with kids' data protection as a priority, some are closer to a repackaged general GPS tracker with a kid-friendly case. A cute design and marketing copy about keeping your child safe tells you nothing about what server their location data lands on or who else has access to it.
What COPPA Actually Requires From These Devices Now
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act requires verifiable parental consent before a company can collect personal information from a child under 13, and the FTC has been clear that this covers location data and other identifiers these devices collect by design. The FTC finalized a significant update to the COPPA rule that took effect earlier this year, tightening those requirements further. That's meaningful legal backing, but a law setting the floor doesn't mean every product on shelves is actually meeting it well, and enforcement happens after a problem is found, not before you buy the watch.
Why I'd Pick a Boring, Established Brand Over a Cute One Here
My honest take is that this category rewards being a little boring in your choice. A tracker from a company with a real security track record and a Consumer Reports-style third-party review behind it beats a device that leans hard on cute branding and a low price with no visible privacy testing anywhere. I'd also push back gently on treating a tracker as a "set it and forget it" purchase. Consumer Reports' own advice is worth repeating because it's genuinely underused: turn the privacy settings to the most restrictive option available, skip trackers that rely on targeted advertising to make money, and don't set one up on your kid without telling them it's there. That last one isn't really about privacy technology at all. It's about trust, and it matters just as much as anything in the settings menu.
What to Check Before You Buy or Set Up a Tracker This Week
Before buying, or before trusting a device you already have, open the app's privacy settings and turn every optional data-sharing toggle to off, check whether the company's business model depends on advertising, and if so treat that as a real red flag rather than a minor detail. If you already own one and haven't looked at those settings since setup, that's worth doing tonight, not eventually.
