Facebook has added yet another way for its users to share way too much information with each other - Facebook Places. Places is Facebook’s answer to Foursquare, a service that allows users to access their friend’s opinions about venues, find out where their friends are and leave tips and reviews about the location they are visiting at the moment for friends to find. Foursquare encourages users to report in by giving out point and badges for reporting, and eventually giving those who visit certain locations frequently the title of “Mayor” of that particular spot.
If Facebook wants to compete with Foursquare, they’ll have to offer something more than just ease of use for their built in audience. Facebook’s demo video for the new service emphasizes the potential it provides for serendipitous meet ups between users. Places users can check in, report their location and see whether any of their friends are in the vicinity to hang out with.
Now we get to the part that might make parents of Facebook using teens nervous – Places users can also “tag” friends who are out with them. Location reporting games have been controversial for a while – critics point out that providing the internet at large with your physical location at every moment of the day leaves you, and your home, vulnerable to those who might use that information for nefarious purposes. The fact that Places allows users to expose their, potentially unwitting, friends to the same kind of scrutiny makes it all the trickier for parents trying to protect their children in cyber space.
It’s nearly impossible to keep a teen off Facebook, but you can set your teen’s account, and your own, so that it cannot be tagged by other people in Places. You can also talk with your teenager about Places – a little education goes a long way when it comes to navigating the world of social networking.
