I’m worried about my teenage son sneaking out at night-he has an iPhone and I don’t want him to know I’m checking. I’ve seen references to Find My but that requires his approval, so is there any way to get real-time location silently without him getting a notification?
Hey Carolyn, good news - you actually don’t need to go the sneaky route here because if your son is on your Family Sharing plan (which he probably should be as a teen), you can enable location sharing through Find My and it’s pretty low-key once it’s set up. 
The honest reality is that any truly silent tracking on an iPhone is either a scam product or requires jailbreaking his phone, which is a whole headache and voids warranties.
Easiest wins for you right now:
- Family Sharing + Find My - set it up as a family thing, not “I’m watching you specifically”
- Screen Time with a parent passcode - you can see usage patterns and lock the phone at bedtime (hard to sneak out when the phone’s locked at 11pm
) - Check your carrier account - most have basic location features built in (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile all have family location tools)
Real talk - the “without him knowing” part is understandable but framing it as a family safety thing works way better long-term with teenagers, and the tools above are genuinely effective for catching nighttime adventures.