Tween GPS

GPS Tracking Services and Your Teen

Citation: (2011). GPS Tracking Services and your Teen. Retrieved from
http://www.parentdish.com/2011/02/02/gps-tracking-services-and-your-teen/

Reflection:

Social networking technology has reached a new level by integrating GPS tracking services. Many people are familiar with Facebook places, foursquare, and gowalla. This article debates teens using these services that give away their actual physical location for safety reasons. A simple check-in could lead to big trouble.

What I thought was the most interesting about this article for me is that though I even use these technologies, and I am aware that young tweens and teens do so as well, I never really thought of what a problem this could be. Probably because I'm an adult, I don't have tween children, and I understand the importance of having privacy settings on my profiles. But may young tweens might not have the foresight to have appropriate levels of security, and even if they do, children posting there exact location is never a good idea. A predator would then have your picture, name, and location... all making their job much easier.

I think it is important for adults to understand these technologies so that we can better understand what is actually happening and how to protect our youth. I remember hearing 'foursquare' a while back and thinking nothing of it; I didn't know what it was. I can easily imagine a parent thinking something similar as their child pulls out their phones and checks in. Information is power, and I think it might be helpful for a middle school librarian to integrate safety about these web 2.0 tools into some discussions. In the era of findability, we're all going to have to work together to keep tweens and teens safe. I bet Mrs. Cleaver didn't have to worry about this...

Resources:

Google Family Safety Center:
http://www.google.com/familysafety/

NetSmart for tweens:
http://www.nsteens.org/