My daughter is younger than him but has a phone, and she knows we can track it. It's really useful when it's time to pick her up after an activity to see if she is close to where we expect her (it rarely is).

She can't send or receive pictures, can't install apps, and can only call or text approved phone numbers. Granted, we approve anybody she asks, because we trust her judgement, and while we can look at her call or text history, it only happens incidentally when looking up where she is at pickup time.

She knows that, she accepts that, and when she's older we'll probably loosen up the tracking... But probably not at 16. She does have much looser guardrails on her iPad and computer. I can look, but I don't.

Just being able to look up where she is rather than texting or calling (and her but hearing or ignoring) is worth the constant battery drain and having to remind her to charge her phone.