After a string of violent attacks on teens stemming from the location-based flirting app Skout, Mobiledia questions if young users should be allowed to access location-based services.
Although Skout CEO Christian Wiklund believes Skout set up sufficient protection for its teen version of the app, Mobiledia argues that “letting strangers know where you are will always leave people vulnerable to violent outliers.”
The post differentiates between minimizing risk and eliminating risk, arguing that even if companies take precautionary measures such as banning sex offenders from sites, risk still exists for violent attacks based on location data.
The attacks come as Facebook mulls the option of opening its site to children under the age of 13.
Mobiledia suggests that even if sites improve security features, “parents may want to monitor or even outright forbid teenagers’ access to location tracking sites and features.”
But the post also suggests that there are options other than banning the sites for children, and that “educating them about how to navigate these potentially hazardous situations may start them off on a path to more sophisticated digital literacy.”
After a string of violent attacks on teens stemming from the location-based flirting app Skout, Mobiledia questions if young users should be allowed to access location-based services.
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