Apps don’t bully people, people bully people
Cyberbullying is bad enough when
you know who is doing the bullying - but now new apps are concealing
the source
Secret, a six-week-old social app, connects people anonymously,
but there are fears that it could lead to cyberbullying. Photograph:
Mike Segar/Reuters
First published:Mon, Mar 24, 2014, 12:38
Silicon Valley sometimes feels like high school. It has its
alpha types and its outcasts, its bullies and its bullied. That,
anyway, is one takeaway from the recent flap over Secret, a
six-week-old social app that connects people anonymously. Secret has
apparently put the Valley in touch with its inner 10th-grader and
become an online schoolyard for all manner of gossips and trolls inside
the technology industry. The blowback has been swift.
Veronica Belmont, a video host and technology writer, promptly
hung up on the app. “Deleted the app Secret,” Belmont wrote in early
February. Aaron Durand, a photographer, soon followed. “It’s not me,
it’s you,” Durand tweeted a few days later. Many others followed suit.
“I don’t need that kind of hate in my life,” one entrepreneur told me.
“It’s like high school all over again.” If this is what happens in the
temples of American technology, think what will happen when Secret and
similar apps hit real high schools and middle schools. Parents, you
have been warned.
The founders of Secret, Chrys Bader-Wechseler and David Byttow,
told me they saw the potential pitfalls and were trying to find ways to
prevent cyberbullying over their app before it reached youngsters. They
said Secret was supposed to help people, not hurt them. And yet the
dangers of these types of apps are clear. Cyberbullying is bad enough
when you know who is doing the bullying. It can be even worse when the
source is cloaked by design. Last year, nine teenagers’ suicides were
linked to bullying on Ask.fm, a
website that lets people ask questions and leave comments anonymously.
The issue became so severe that Ask.fm hired Mishcon de Reya, a law
firm based in London, to conduct an independent review of the site.
That, in turn, prompted Ask.fm, which is based in Latvia, to create
tools that give users the ability to turn off questions from anonymous
users, block unwanted users and report offensive content. Ilja Terebin,
chief executive of Ask.fm, said the company was aware of the challenges
but that young people needed places to express their views privately.
“On one hand, we have to deliver a value for our users, which
includes free speech and uninhibited communication,” Terebin said. “On
the other hand, we must ensure that the most vulnerable groups of our
users receive sound support and protection.” But how can we offer
people - adults and teenagers alike - anonymity without encouraging bad
behavior?
A lot of experiments are underway. A new social app called
Facefeed lets people share photos, but it only allows people to discuss
the photos in a private message. Shots, a social app for selfies, has
left out a comment system altogether. “With comments, kids can be
humiliated in front of a large audience,” said John Shahidi, a founder
of Shots.
Yik Yak,
which is similar to Secret and lets people post anonymously to their
friends, said last week that it was banning middle and high school
students and that it would disable the service around schools. Yik Yak
has reportedly been used to taunt students and make bomb threats,
raising concern among school authorities.
Susan Opferman, the principal of Webb Bridge Middle School in
Alpharetta., Ga., recently warned parents in a letter: “Yik Yak posts
can be especially vicious and hurtful, since there is no way to trace
their source.” To reduce negative comments, Secret has said that it is
adding features that detect when people’s names are typed into messages
and warn those who would include them to “think before they post.”
Users also have the ability to ban those who trash-talk others.
“The majority of the content on the app is positive and friendly,” said
Bader-Wechseler, who oversees product design at Secret. “We have to be
realistic. We’re living in a world that is not a utopia, and we need to
make sure we’re taking all the right steps to make sure that the good
outweighs the evil.”
For now, Bader-Wechseler
said, the company is learning what not to do when the app does fall
into the hands of children. But it’s unclear if the app has already
been infused with the DNA of bullies and those bullied. And, if so, if
it’s possible to change that. I asked Terebin at Ask.fm if he had any
advice for Secret and other apps that allow anonymous posts. He said
these services should build moderating systems and empower users to
report bad behavior. “This means that companies must invest in their safety
protocols from the very beginning,” Terebin said.
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