Foursquare
Location-sharing app useful for adults, risky for kids.
Foursquare
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Foursquare is a social media app designed for older teenagers and adults. It allows users to communicate their whereabouts and post it to sites including Twitter and Facebook, thereby encouraging others to meet up with them. Depending on a user’s settings, strangers could see this information, making the app unsuitable for younger teens. Also, some of the information and tips posted by users pertains to adult venues, such as bars, and could contain mature content and language (like "ass" and "bitch"). For more parent advice about location-sharing apps, check out our article.
Community Reviews
Is It Any Good?
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
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android
- Skills: Communication: friendship building, Tech Skills: social media, Responsibility & Ethics: making wise decisions
- Pricing structure: Free
- Release date: June 18, 2010
- Category: Social Networking
- Publisher: Naveen Selvadurai
- Version: 1.8.6
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 3.0 or later
- Last updated: August 23, 2016
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