Last reviewed: September 14, 2026
In general, yes. In Colombia parents hold the parental responsibility to guide, care for and accompany their children under 18, and the Constitution places children's rights above everyone else's. That duty covers supervising the phone of a minor in your care, always in proportion to their age and without exposing them. With an adult — your partner, your ex or a child over 18 — accessing their communications without consent is a crime.
It is the most repeated question among parents in Colombia, and the short answer fits in a paragraph. The details matter because the law does not treat reading a chat, seeing a location and recording a call the same way, nor a 9-year-old the same as a 17-year-old. This guide goes through the Constitution, the Childhood and Adolescence Code, the Civil Code and the Criminal Code so you can supervise your child without crossing a line.
Article 15 of the Constitution guarantees personal and family privacy and declares that correspondence and every other form of private communication are inviolable: they can only be intercepted with a court order. That guarantee is why going through another adult's phone is a crime. But article 44 establishes that the family, society and the State are obliged to assist and protect the child, and that children's rights prevail over everyone else's. Parental supervision of a minor rests on that second mandate.
The Civil Code grants parents patria potestad over their non-emancipated children (article 288 and following), and the Childhood and Adolescence Code gives it content. Its article 14 defines parental responsibility as the obligation to guide, care for, accompany and raise children throughout their formation, and article 39 obliges the family to protect them against every form of abuse, mistreatment, exploitation and violence. Supervising the phone of a child under 18, for protection and in proportion to their age, is part of that responsibility.
The same Code recognizes children and adolescents' right to privacy and to protection against arbitrary interference in their private life. Against their parents that right is not absolute, but it demands proportionality: the older the child, the more reasonable privacy they are owed. The Constitutional Court has reiterated it in cases about minors on social networks (Judgment T-260 of 2012): parents must protect their children's privacy and data online, and that duty never authorizes exposing them. Checking a 9-year-old's phone is one thing; doing it with a 17-year-old without a concrete reason is another.
Taking, hiding or accessing someone else's private communication is "unlawful violation of communications" (article 192 of the Criminal Code), and since Law 1273 of 2009 abusively accessing a computer system (article 269A), intercepting computer data (269C) or obtaining, compiling or disclosing personal data without authorization (269F) carry prison terms of up to 96 months. This applies to your partner, your ex, a child over 18 and any employee's personal phone, even if you pay the plan. Publishing or forwarding what you find makes everything worse — that includes a minor's conversations: never share screenshots.
Law 1581 of 2012 excludes from its scope data processing in a purely personal or domestic setting (article 2), so supervising at home does not make you the controller of a database. It does bind you to something more important: article 7 gives special protection to the data of children and adolescents, and the Constitutional Court has conditioned any processing on respecting their best interests. In practice: what you see on your child's phone stays between you and them.
The law does not require telling a minor. But the best interests of the child (article 8 of Law 1098) and the recommendations of the ICBF and digital-parenting guides agree on transparency: explain what is supervised, why and until when. A teenager who discovers by accident that they were watched experiences it as a betrayal and becomes more secretive, the opposite of what you want. A written family agreement is also your best backing if anyone questions the supervision, for instance in a custody case.
When parents are separated, both keep patria potestad unless a judge decides otherwise: supervising the child is defensible; using their phone to watch the other parent is not, and it backfires before the family judge or the comisario de familia. Devices handed out by a school are governed by its coexistence manual (Law 1620 of 2013). To do it right: confirm your child is under 18 and that you hold patria potestad; use a device you own or that they use under your responsibility; have a real protective reason and write it down; talk to them and, with teenagers, agree rules in writing; scale the scope to their age; share nothing of what you see; protect your account with a strong password; and when they turn 18, stop, or turn it into an arrangement with their consent.
Generally yes, as a parent holding patria potestad, especially with a protective reason. The Childhood and Adolescence Code recognizes a right to privacy that grows with age, so keep the scope proportionate and make sure your child knows the rules.
Yes, for a minor in your care. Tracking an adult's location without consent — partner, ex, adult child — is illegal and can amount to harassment or a personal-data offense.
This is the most delicate area. The other person on the call has not consented and, if they are an adult, the recording could be treated as unlawful violation of communications. Limit it to concrete risk situations, with your child's knowledge; call logs and messages do not raise that problem.
No. Accessing another adult's communications or phone without consent is a crime (articles 192 and 269A of the Criminal Code), even if you are married or pay for the plan, and disclosing what you find increases the penalty.
Not without their consent. Paying the plan or owning the device does not give you the right to supervise an adult. If they agree, in writing, that is a different situation.
Yes, when it is installed on the Android phone of your own minor child, or on an adult's device with their informed consent. Any other use is illegal and violates the terms of service.
How to set it up as parental controlThis guide is general information about Colombian law as of the review date, not legal advice. Laws change and case law evolves. If your case is specific — a custody process, an emancipated minor, a criminal complaint — consult a family-law attorney.
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