https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/airtags-in-your-bags-they-work#top
I reference this posting last year about AirTags and was wondering about the safety of the AirTags and whether I should or should not gift one to my granddaughter (12 yo). Stan touched on safety briefly, but what is your opinion on these?
I take it she already owns an iPhone - what's your perceived need for her to have one? There's a learning curve that goes along re: all the alerts.
Or is this for parental tracking, which I would be opposed to, personally.
What exactly are your safety concerns? And why would your granddaughter need one ? Have you asked her parents if they want her to have one?
I would not hesitate to give an AirTag to anyone who is old enough to know how to use them, and a 12 year old probably is, although I'm not sure what she would be tagging. Does she carry something around that could be easily lost? Also, I'm not sure what your safety concerns are.
@periscope, what are your concerns about tracking a 12-year old? I would do it in a heartbeat if it allowed me to find my child who was lost or in danger. An adult, no; but my child? Yes.
Linda, they've come in handy many times finding my keys and grandson's backpack. I haven't tried it on luggage yet. One in your car can help you find your car in a big parking lot.` But note, you set up each Airtag to link to a specific phone (yours - unless you decide to share). So its not like strangers can also track that tag. The safety issue is that a stranger can put a tag (linked to their phone) on you, your car, something of yours, and track someone unbeknownst to them. Like most good tools, subject to misuse.
Searching for this and similar terms makes for fun reading. Apple tags and other products can provide a certain level of traveling security but not necessarily anything an astute traveler cannot do on her own.
This first article is a classical example of why carryon is the only way to go; regardless of all previous experience, every time one checks a bag, its arriving at destination is a binary event: it does or it does not, anything can happen and one has zero influence over the outcome.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/06/22/airtag-helps-man-discover-airline-offices-full-of-lost-luggage
https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/travel/travel-apple-airtags?iid%3DCNNUnderscoredHPcontainer
The safety issue is that a stranger can put a tag (linked to their phone) on you, your car, something of yours, and track someone unbeknownst to them.
@Stan, I get that safety issue, but that has nothing to do with buying one as a gift. That's a risk for anyone, not people who purchase or are gifted AirTags.
Thanks everyone for piping in. Yes, GD has an IPhone and AirPods. She wants to tag the AirPods so that they don’t get lost. I didn’t think there would be a concern, but someone has said that it’s a tracking device which could be used to track down and follow my GD.
I have one that I will put in my checked luggage when traveling and another one that I may put on my kitty cat.
She might not need an AirTag for that. Perhaps try using the find my app.
Linda, if she links the AirTag to her phone, then only she can track it.
I will probably give her the AirTag after I set up mine and see how it works. They will come in handy when we check our bags on the trip in August?
For the past 20+ years I have traveled carryon only, but am finding it more and more difficult to lift the bag up into the overhead and the aggravation of having to navigate the bag in the airport bathroom when traveling solo is starting to get to me.
Thanks again for your input
There is no need to purchase AirTags for tracking AirPods. Please use the attached link to learn how to track AirPods.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207581
