Facebook to Implement "Safety Check" in Natural Disasters

While looking around on Mashable a couple of days ago I came across an article about a new feature that Facebook will use when a natural disaster strikes in your area. Basically what will happen is if you're geographical location on your phone and Facebook app is near the area where a natural disaster just occurred, Facebook will send you a notification that will ask you if you're okay and give you an option to mark that you are safe.

Facebook Safety Check Feature

So in reality, Facebook just turned into your mother.  

Which I actually think is great. In the event of a natural disaster, there could be power lines down or so many people trying to get through on the phone lines that you can't get through to your family and friends. This Safety Check feature gives people the option of letting everyone know that you're safe in the event that you have no other option of getting into contact with the people that need to know.

This new feature came about during the 2011 Japan earthquake, when Facebook engineers in Japan made a disaster message board, which then turned into Safety Check. Also, after Hurricane Sandy Google began using Public Alerts and Apple has Emergency Alerts imbedded into the settings of their system. So, there have always been aspects of safety, but I think Facebook may have found themselves in a game changer.

Another cool feature is that you can click on the natural disaster Safety Check event and see all of your friends on Facebook in that area and see who has clicked, "I'm safe," and who hasn't.

Facebook Safety Check Feature

I think it's a good way of putting people's nerves at ease. I know that whenever a natural disaster happens in places where I have friends and family members who live there, my first thought is, "I wonder if they're okay!" So knowing you can check out there Facebook and see that they've checked "I'm safe" is a really great tool that I'm glad social media sites are starting use.