Context · Safety
Location sharing is switched on in more places than most families realize, and the setting that matters is usually not in the phone settings but inside each individual app.
The map features kids turn on themselves
Snap Map and Find My and the location features in messaging apps are mostly off by default and get switched on by a kid who wants to see where their friends are. Once on, they broadcast continuously rather than when asked, and the friend list they broadcast to is often much longer than a kid remembers.
The location nobody chose to share
Photos carry the place they were taken, so a picture posted from home can carry home with it depending on the app and the settings. Some apps strip that and some do not, which is why the safer habit is not photographing the house number or the front of the school.
What to check and in what order
Start with the apps that have a map, then the photo settings, then the phone level permissions where you can set an app to ask every time rather than always. Doing it in that order finds the real sharing first instead of the theoretical kind.