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I love how Facebook has connected family, old friends, new friends, brands and organizations with customers but as a mom, I’m definitely concerned about Facebook’s new “Places” feature. Places is a location app like Foursquare and Gowalla which allows users to check in to various places (ei: restaurants, stores, gym, gas stations, etc) with their Smartphones.
Some of my friends know I love Foursquare and use it often; I enjoy the perks from checking in at various places, but it’s only visible to my friends on Foursquare and occasionally to my Facebook friends. But when it comes to a location base feature on a platform that attracts millions of kids, it’s a whole different story and it does raise some security issues for a couple of reasons:
1. There are a lot of young people like tweens and teens who use Facebook. The new Places feature allows Smartphone users to check in to places he or she is at, or if a child doesn’t have a Smartphone, no problem…he or she could use a friend’s phone to check themselves in. And these days kids younger and younger are sporting Smartphones.
Although the age requirement for Facebook is 13 and older, you and I know that there are a lot of kids on Facebook under 13 and many of them are probably not aware of the privacy issues with the new Places feature.
I know a lot of parents who are not involved in social networks and don’t feel the need to be on them because it’s not their generation; while that’s fine, we still need to be abreast and understand how these social sites operate in order to help keep our kids stay safe.
If parents are not up to speed with social networks and how the new location base app work and are not communicating with their kids or helping them with their privacy settings, then their whereabouts may be exposed to all of their friends if they check in somewhere.
So what’s wrong with letting all of their friends know their location? Well, some kids are friends with “friends of friends” and may not necessarily know them personally. So who really is this “friend of a friend?”
Now, by default, Places is set to “friends only” but even so, if your family is on an outing and unbeknown to you, he/she checks in somewhere and 100s of their friends know where your family is dinning, shopping, or hanging. I know my husband would not be for this. At all.
2. Another feature with Places, like tagging photos of one another on Facebook; if you or your kids checked in somewhere with a group of friends, they can tag you if you are their friend on Facebook. They can tag their friends, or their friend can tag your child showing that they were all at “this” particular location. Not cool. Disable that feature on your child’s privacy settings.
Parents, protect your kids. I’m concerned about our kid’s privacy. Some kids are not mature enough to use social networks; as we all know with media headlines in the past from cyber-bullying to cyber stalkers.
Unfortunately we live in a world where perverts and stalkers are waiting and preying on kids and this is just another opportunity or entry way for them to take advantage of.
Facebook is reaching more and more adult users in the past couple of years and the creators behind these apps are not thinking about our kid’s privacy, safety nor are they responsible for our kids. As parents, we are the ones ultimately responsible to guide and teach them how to navigate in the world where technology is ever growing.
Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Facebook to consider raising the age requirements for new users. Just a thought.
Here’s a video explaining the new Places feature by Facebook’s Founder: Mark Zuckerberg…
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m not a big fan of sharing where I’m at all the time anyway. Couple that with suddenly allowing it for kids, and it’s just a nightmare, plain and simple.
I don’t like a lot about Facebook, making things automatically public. Parents HAVE to change their child’s security settings, this is a MUST. They must keep updated on Facebooks neverending changes and additions, too.
My oldest is 15 and as of right now, she is not on Facebook. I’m having a hard enough time keeping up with MY OWN privacy changes, let al0ne one for her, too.
I use and like FourSquare for PR purposes, but honestly, when I saw this update on my iPhone, I kinda freaked out a bit. I dont like it. I just hope that the kids’ parents are teaching them safety on the internet! It’s a scary world out there!
Hi Duong –
Thank you for continued relevant and provocative postings – this is a gudd’n.
I’m not a “fan” of ANY location sharing – no matter the fun involved. Although we have a good time with social networking, I think we might be leading the way to a false sense of security and vulnerability. Long gone are the days of being disconnected and free to roam about the country.
Unless you’re planning a to perform a concert or do a book signing, I don’t think everyone needs to know precisely when you’ve arrived. If you want to post about a great place, the fun you’re having wherever you are – that should be up to you- at your hand. Not at the discretion of a crazy app you may not know how to operate properly or weren’t fully aware of it’s functions. Certainly not without your permission! Follow and be followed – it’s all good – but I think we sometimes feel to safe on the web. Remember stranger danger? How would recognize that virtually?
Great article! It certainly made me think. It is so easy to take our safety for granted and you are right, this is a perfect way for the “wrong people” to get valuable info about us, our kids and what they are doing.
I think so many people have a false sense of security when it comes to our safety and a lack of understanding of just how powerful social media can be used, both for good and bad.
As parents, it is our responsibility to protect our kids, in order to keep them safe we need to constantly educate ourselves on new technology, trends and fully understand how these “fun” features and programs can and should be used.
I also agree with the other comments on age restrictions, unfortunately, as parents we all know that if kids want to do something, they will find a way to do it with or without our approval- old enough or not. If we are truly going to keep our kids safe, in my opinion, it starts with educating ourselves and our kids on the potential danger that can happen if these features (or anything for that matter) are used carelessly.
I agree we all need to stay up on social media, facebook, twitter, foursquare. It it moving so fast. My kids are young but I am about 2-3 years till they are immersed in the technology. I am a avid social media user and I am always surprise when people say. “I don’t get foursquare or twitter.” My feeling is exactly so need to learn it because your children will be having a whole different social experience growing up then you did. As Parents we have to have knowledge to protect them from others and themselves.
Great Post!
Thanks for an excellent post. This is also very concerning to me. I think as parents we must be very open with our children. Gone are the days where we would be the dictator and expect the kids to simply follow. If we sit down with our kids and explain the dangers of such an application and then listen to them as well, it can be easily solved.
It is very scary that FB is adding this feature especially where children are concerned. Although my children have cell phones, they only have the texting feature, yep, I’m not the ‘cool’ mom but they also know the rules and boundaries that have been set in place. Consequences are followed through with and they have experienced it if not for at least one occasion.
It is important for us as parents to be completely aware of everything that is going on. If we are not sure, search it online. With the availability of the Internet, there really is no excuse to not be informed. Love, nurture and prepare your kiddos for adulthood and this is definitely one of those times where we must teach them as well.
I can’t think of anything that would make a child predator happier than a way to pinpoint the locations of intended victims. Children simply cannot be held to an adult standard of reason. Telling a child that this is potentially dangerous is like telling them they shouldn’t text and drive. It IS dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed.
Well, the concern isn’t just for kids, it’s now for all those people who don’t use location-sharing apps like Foursquare and Gowalla. My son has a smartphone now and is constantly on Facebook, and my daughter wants one (it’s getting harder and harder to get a new phone without a data plan these days!) – as well as a Facebook account since many of her cousins are on it.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Facebook has a lot of people up in arms about privacy again, luckily lifehacker has already posted a “how-to” on how to disable Places across the site, including your friend’s apps.
Great post! I agree with the concerns listed here.
You mentioned FB raising the age for new users. While that won’t work (as you mentioned, the 13 yrs of age requirement is broken daily {usually with parents permission}) maybe raising the age for accessing THAT particular function would be helpful.
Kids must be made aware of the dangers of these things. Just like I don’t ever “check in” at my kids schools, there has to be a reasonable restraint on the usage of it, and I don’t know that kids have that…
Good point Karla, raising the age for that feature Places, would be a good idea. Yes, agree, I would never check in at MY kids school either. I saw a add check his little girl in today as he dropped her off for first day of school on Twitter in addition to tweeting out her pretty face. WOW–ignorant.
I don’t like this feature. For adults it might be fine. And even then I’d say use with extreme caution. As parents we definitely need to stay connected to our kids, make sure we are checking and discussing privacy settings and general social media activity with our kids. There’s so much danger out there. Even though our kids take Internet Safety classes, they still are not all that cautious. In fact, this weekend, we’ll be looking through all the thousands (yes thousands) of friends on both my daughters accounts. If they don’t have a true personal, real life connection with that person, they’ll be unfriended. I know they’ve “friended” some kids because they had other friends in common. But yet they don’t know these kids personally. We must be alert when it comes to our children!