From today, people aged 14 - 17 will be able to be transported around New Zealand in Ubers without their parent or guardian being present, so long as their account is linked to their parent or guardian's.
Uber for teens launched first last year in the US and is now also operating in Canada, Latin America and Australia, with the company saying it has received a lot of positive feedback from busy families juggling responsibilities.
The teen's account is overseen by their parent or guardian, who will set up and configure it, receive ride request notifications, monitor journeys remotely in real-time, be able to communicate with the drivers and have access to Uber's in-car audio recording functionality.
Currently in Aotearoa, people must be aged at least 18 to have an Uber account. In other countries, Uber for teens is available to people aged 13 and above, but in New Zealand the company made the minimum age 14 years old after consultations with charity Safeguarding Children.
"Parents should always have their own conversations with their kids to decide when their kids might be ready to use a feature like this," Emma Foley, general manager at Uber ANZ, told Newshub.
"The great safety features built into the technology are what we hope will make many parents feel comfortable using it. But at the same time, this is not necessarily for everybody. We encourage families to have conversations with their teens and there is advice on how to have those conversations on a website that's publicly available with information about the product.
"It's very much for each family to make that choice. We've tried to do everything we can to make sure this was built with safety front and centre, to give families another great option to get the kids around."
There have been reports of underage people finding ways of using Uber and other ride services like Ola and Didi despite the age restriction, which is said to have left drivers in the uncomfortable position of deciding whether or not to refuse teens rides.
Safeguarding Children worked with Uber to develop a Child Protection Policy and an introductory education module for drivers on recognising and responding to signs of child abuse and promoting safe interactions with minors.
"The introduction of Uber for teens provided an opportunity to reinforce this collective duty we all hold to keep children and young people safe," said Willow Duffy, chief executive at Safeguarding Children.
"Any organisation working with children must have robust policies and guidelines about how they interact with young people. Our aim is for everyone, regardless of their role in a child's life, to understand that they're always in a position to recognise potential risks to children and do something about it."
Uber said drivers will only get Uber for teens trip requests if they are highly rated and experienced. Drivers will also be made aware that a trip is with a teen and can opt-out of receiving teen trip requests at any time.
Uber for teens key safety features:
- Live trip tracking: Parents or guardians will be automatically notified when their teen requests a trip and be able to monitor the trip in real time.
- PIN Verification: Required for every teen's trip, this provides an extra layer of protection in making sure the teen is getting into the right vehicle with the right driver.
- RideCheck: This is said to proactively enact measures when it detects something may have gone wrong, like a possible crash or an unexpected long stop. If something like this happens, the Uber app will message the teen and the driver to make sure they're OK. RideCheck will be adjusted to be more sensitive during teens' trips, Uber said.
- Audio recording: Once the teen has registered for audio recording through the safety toolkit, the audio recording feature will be automatically turned on for every trip. To ensure both privacy and safety are protected, the recording will be encrypted and stored on the user's device. The recording can only be accessed if the rider or driver partner reports an incident to Uber and chooses to attach the audio file to the report. Teens could use another app to record the trip if they and/or their parents or guardians wish.
- Expanded communication: During the trip, parents or guardians can call the driver at any time as well as Uber support.
How Uber for teens works:
Parents/guardians can follow these steps to get their teen's account set up:
- Tap Account > Family to create a Family profile.
- Tap Invite Family > Teen > Choose contact and select their name from contacts.
- Make sure payment information is up to date before the teen requests their first ride.
After that, the teen will receive a text message with an invite and will need to complete a mandatory safety onboarding. Once they're done, they'll be ready for their first ride.
