What to know about teen accounts on Uber
One of the most challenging eras of parenting can be during the teen years when your kids aren’t yet old enough to drive, but have a schedule full of activities.
They need rides to get to soccer practice, to get home from school after staying late to make up a test or to get to the mall to hang out with friends. But parents aren’t always available to act as pseudo chauffeurs.
Now, Utah families can access a unique solution to this issue: Teens in Salt Lake City and Southern Utah can have their own Uber accounts.
With an account, young people can request rides on the app and food from Uber Eats all on their own. While some teenagers may have been cheating the system already by using their parents’ accounts, this new option provides extra safety measures when kids book a ride themselves.
Parents will need to invite their child (between the ages of 13 and 17) to join a family profile on the app and all charges will go to the payment method linked to that profile. Guardians are able to set individual spending limits for their kids’ accounts and get notified if the account is close to reaching that limit.
Teen account holders can have other teenagers along for their rides, but they also must be at least 13 years old and should have permission from a parent or guardian.
Teen Uber accounts
Uber has put several safety measures in place for teen accounts, which means parents should not book a ride for their child on an adult account, since those additional safety measures won’t kick in.
When a teen requests a ride through their own account, or places a meal order through Uber Eats, the guardian who manages the family profile will be notified. The Share My Ride feature is automatically turned on and kids cannot disable it, so parents can monitor the trip in real-time.
The teen will receive a PIN to give to the driver and the ride cannot start until the driver inputs the correct PIN. This helps ensure the teenager is getting in the correct vehicle.
Additionally, during teen trips, Uber’s RideCheck feature will adjust to be more sensitive. That means that if a ride goes unusually off-course, stops unexpectedly or ends early, the teen will receive a message asking if everything is OK.
Teens can opt-in to audio recording which will automatically record each trip. Drivers can also choose to record audio on a trip and the teen will be notified, but if they don’t want a trip to be recorded, teens can cancel and request a different ride. The recording is stored and encrypted, and the only way it will ever be accessed is if someone opens an incident report with Uber support.
Another popular ride-sharing app, Lyft, hasn’t ventured into the teen account world yet. Its website states that account holders must be at least 18 years old and passengers under the age of 18 aren’t allowed to travel alone.
Setting up an Uber account for teens
To set up a teen account, guardians can go to Account>Family to create a family profile. Invite family members to join your account and make sure payment information is up to date.
Your teen will get a text invite and will need to complete a safety onboarding. That will take them through each of the steps they should know about to stay safe before and during their ride.
If a teenager uses their account to order from Uber Eats, they’ll see a teen-friendly view which eliminates any age-restricted offerings such as alcohol and certain medications.
These additional safety measures implemented by Uber for its teen accounts may help give parents peace of mind when their kids use the app. If nothing else, they’re a good jumping off point to start a good conversation with teens about whether and how they can use ride-sharing.
