Uber for Teens allows children aged 13 and over to catch Ubers with drivers who have a Working With Children Check.

Only drivers with high ratings and experience are allowed to receive trip requests from teens, with parents having the ability to monitor their children’s trips.

The service is being launched in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia tomorrow.

Children were previously only allowed to travel in Ubers when accompanied by an adult.

However, since April last year, Uber for Teens has been running in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, and the ACT, and Uber reports that no safety incidents have been recorded in those regions.

Uber has introduced additional safety measures for its teen service, such as a three-way intercom feature for teen accounts, live trip tracking, and a four-digit PIN verification system.

In NSW, ACT, SA and TAS, teens are able to register for audio recording which will be automatically enabled for the entire teen trip.

The service will cost an extra $2 per trip, with the additional fee going towards the driver’s cost of obtaining a Working With Children Check.

Uber for teens drivers in Queensland are not required to get the Working With Children Check as it is not legislated under state law.

The Managing Director of Uber Australia & New Zealand, Emma Foley, stated: “We understand that managing a modern family is a continuous juggling act, from early school runs to extracurricular activities and all the tasks in between.

“For this reason, we are thrilled to extend Uber for teens to New South Wales, Victoria, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia, offering more families a safe and dependable solution to help ease their load.”

But some parents and child safety advocates warn the measures are not enough to safeguard children.

Child safety advocate Hetty Johnston told The Sydney Morning Herald she did not believe Uber’s safeguards were enough to protect young people.

While the driver having a Working With Children Check (WWCC) was better than nothing, the current system was “a bit like having an ashtray on a motorbike”, Johnston said.

Shortcomings of the WWCC had been highlighted by the Melbourne childcare crisis, she said.

“I think you’re throwing caution to the wind there, and you’re just hoping that everything will be all right whenever you send your young people off into an Uber,” she said.

“Particularly sending them off alone, I would not as a parent be doing that.”