To say no to Face book meet ups?

[Bluebelleswood]

My DN,who lives with me is a young 17, he mentioned that he will be going to a face book meet up in a city 100 miles away from where we live. He will be meeting a group he has only ever communicated with on line.
It sounds risky to me.
AIBU ?

Not so much unreasonable but i suppose it does happen, i met my ex boyfriend online and travelled up to manchester to meet him. had only ever spoke on the phone and seen photos he could of been anyone really. i was 15 at the time, we were together for 2 years on and off and he taught me alot mostly that he was a nobber could go either way, as long as she is safe then its something i would do

Cant really see an issue with it. He is meeting a group of people, not a one on one situation.

what sort of group are they, do they all have the same hobby, play the same computer game etc? I have a few Facebook friends I've never met and have only spoken to online, but they absolutely feel like real friends. Is he meeting them in a public place?

What is the group? Where is the meet up?

If its some kind of innocent hobby and they are meeting in neutral space i.e. not someones home, it sounds harmless. He's old enough to join the army so he should be able to travel to another city and get home if he is not having fun.

What risk?

I think he is old enough to go if he wants to.
I am of the age where people I know of attend these meet ups and as far as I am aware they literally just meet up and mill around in the hope of meeting 'facebook famous' peers. I.e. teens with tens of thousands of followers for no apparent reason.

Yes that's how he explained it exactly, Mimee. It just sounded odd to me, being from an earlier generation!
Thank you everyone for your replies.

Probably as dangerous as a MN meet-up

Seems mad to me too and I'm only a few years older than these people. It's like a completely seperate generation.

If you know who will be there, where they will be, and where he's staying if going overnight, it should be harmless.

Last year I went to Los Angeles to meet up with people from an online book club. It was fun!

I think that at 17, it's up to him really. Ask him to follow the usual personal safety advice that anybody does when they go on a date etc.

I was always doing that at that age. As long as he's meeting them somewhere public, is letting you know where, and keeps you updated then it's not a big deal at all.