The more technologically advanced our society becomes, the more shady uses people find for that tech. And now one mom is left wondering about her ex’s intentions after allegedly discovering he was tracking their daughter with an AirTag.
Ikiera Lee (@ikieralee19) asked TikTok for advice last week after she received a notification that an AirTag — a simple tracking device from Apple meant to attach to your keys, backpack, or similar — had been located near her.
When your iPhone notices an AirTag that isn’t registered under a person’s account is moving with them an alert will pop up. This is meant to inform people in case they are being tracked or followed without their knowledge. They are then given the option to force the AirTag to emit a sound, so they can find it.
Ikiera did just that, and followed the beeping to the lower level of her home, where she found the AirTag stuffed into a torn seam in her young daughter’s jacket.
“Me and my daughter’s dad split custody. He has her on weekends. And he decided to put an AirTag in her jacket,” she concluded. “Is this normal? Like, is this a normal human being thing to do? Or is this legal? I don’t know what to do.”
Viewers were torn in their responses, with some suggesting the father may have just wanted to keep tabs on his daughter during his time with her, while others agreed with Ikiera that the whole thing seemed off.
“For safety if you both discussed it, I would understand, but gives that vibe he wants to see where you take her,” wrote @salty.saraa.
“My friend has an air tag in her kids shoe (he wanders away a lot) but to not tell the other parent about it is shady,” @uchechido agreed.
@nanz801 countered that it seemed normal, suggesting that “with everything going on with this world he’s playing it safe,” while @ddsavssd pointed out, “if it was for safety at school put in her backpack, sewing it in and not telling ur or her is just so strange. No explaining that.”
In a follow-up video, Ikiera briefly updated viewers to say that she did end up confronting him about it, and that his response was that he was “collecting addresses” that she takes their daughter to — in other words, the shady aspect of it all was fully intentional.
For anyone else who finds themselves with an unwanted AirTag, Apple suggests disabling them by pushing down and twisting counterclockwise on the back of the AirTag. This will allow the cover to come off so you can remove the battery, thus preventing it from tracking.
