Parents' Guide to Foursquare

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Common Sense Media Review

Chad Sapieha By Chad Sapieha , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 18+

Location-sharing app useful for adults, risky for kids.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 18+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 12+

Based on 4 parent reviews

age 14+

Based on 2 kid reviews

Privacy Rating Warning

  • Personal information is sold or rented to third parties.
  • Personal information is shared for third-party marketing.
  • Personalised advertising is displayed.
  • Data are collected by third-parties for their own purposes.
  • User's information is used to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.
  • Data profiles are created and used for personalised advertisements.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say ( 4 ):
Kids say ( 2 ):

FOURSQUARE is a useful and powerful social media tool, but it’s strictly for adults. It’s free and simple to get up and running -- just follow a few onscreen steps to install it on your iPhone or mobile device. Within minutes you’ll be able to search out friends who may be nearby and check out details and tips written by other users for local venues such as bars, restaurants, and stores. It takes just a couple of taps to post your current location to sites like Facebook and Twitter, making it easy for friends -- and potentially strangers -- to meet up. What’s more, the service cleverly hooks users into continued use by offering badges for checking into particular locations and mayorships for those who have visited locations more than anyone else (some venues even offer discounts to mayors). It’s well designed, accessible, and potent.

With photos of attractive young members featured on the app and accompanying website and tie-ins to Facebook and Twitter, Foursquare offers a temptation for some kids to make new real-life friends using the app. But with no age limits or predator filters, parents probably want to steer kids away from this one.

App Details

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