I just text my parents if I feel like they need to know where I'm at, worked for me from middle school all the way to me living independently today.
Like a phone's location services can be turned on remotely if an emergency calls for it, but as long as I'm good with my family then the vast majority of the likelihood I'll ever need to know where my kid is while they can't communicate with me is null since like 80% of kidnappings are over custody battles or other related family disputes.
To clarify, the location service is turned on remotely during an emergency call or after texting an emergency number to let first responders know where an emergency is, but it is turned off afterwards by the phone if it was disabled beforehand. And it's only turned on during the call that the user initiates, emergency services cannot remotely turn it on, because it is the phone that actually manages the permissions and computes the location and not the dispatcher. Neither Android nor iOS allows emergency services to remotely turn on location services without you calling them first, since that would be a violation of your privacy and would absolutely be abused by law enforcement.
So everyone should be advised that you cannot check the location of a loved one unless you arrange it before you end up needing it.
Well yeah I meant being able to turn it on via family controls.
Just because I wouldn't be using it personally save for an emergency doesn't mean I wouldn't rather my kid have it in the event of an emergency.
Of course they aren't getting a phone period until they're old enough that I feel comfortable they're olden and wisen enough to let out of my sight for stuff other than school clubs and playdates.