Zift Advisory
Meetup is a social networking app that helps people to connect people with others who share similar interests and are interested in getting together offline to hang out. It can be found in the App Store and the Google Play Store. It is rated for teen users and offers in-app purchases. Meetup is safe for mature teens with parental supervision.
What is Meetup: Local groups & events?
Meetup is a social networking app that helps people to “explore, teach and learn” by connecting with others who share similar interests and are interested in getting together offline to hang out.
This app can be found in both the App Store and the Google Play Store. It is rated for teen users and offers in-app purchases.
The app acts as a database for Meetup events, which can focus on a wide range of interests, including fitness, technology, literature, career, networking, and more. As with many location-centered applications, Meetup is far more useful and fun in cities and densely settled areas.
Residents of rural areas may not have quite as much luck finding local meetups on their topics of interest, and using this app could involve a lot of driving to other population centers.
Users can create accounts with Facebook, Google, or an email address. From there users will be asked to provide their name, their age, and gender. Users must be 18 and older to use Meetup and will not be able to select an age younger than that but there is no verification in place.
Meetup offers in-app purchases for organizers to create and lead events. These subscriptions cost between $9.99 and $89.99 for monthly or unlimited subscriptions.
Is Meetup: Local groups & events safe for my kids?
The Meetup app is not safe for kids. While the app itself is safe, the offline aspect of Meetup is concerning because it encourages kids to meet up with strangers in person. There are rare situations in which kids or teens communicating and meeting up with strangers is a safe bet. In addition to that, Terms of Service require that users be 18 years of age and older.
This app is intended for adults. For example, when searching “kids meetup”, the options that come up focus on meeting other local parents, so that users can Meetup for playdates and interacting with other adults.
If there are interests that kids and parents share, it’s suggested that parents download the app and search for meetups that can be attended together.
Parents will also want to know that users have the ability to comment on different Meetup event. This is intended to find out more information about the event but does give users the ability to communicate with strangers before meeting up with them.
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