One of the first columns I ever wrote at the Indiana Daily Student was about Cuddlr, an app designed for strangers to meet up and cuddle. Back then I described it as “the perfect treasure map for rapists and kidnappers.”
Stranger danger isn’t simply a funny looking man that approaches a third grader in a supermarket. Because of social media, strangers are everywhere, and most of us can easily say that we’re friends with a few on Facebook, or are followed by some on Twitter.
But also, in my naïve sophomoric mind, I was joking. Throughout the column I made jabs at the app and said it was “designed to be nonspecific, gender-neutral, age-neglecting and non-psychopath-detecting.” I asked questions like, “What if the person you meet up to cuddle with smelled bad?” and explained that there was no scratch and sniff button.
The IDS reported Thursday that four men, two of whom are IU students, were arrested on charges of child molestation. A 13-year-old girl met each man through an app called Whisper.
Much like Cuddlr, this app prides itself on anonymity and uses people’s location to connect you with individuals in their area. Although I don’t fancy walking head-on into a child molester’s safe haven, I decided to download Whisper to see what it was like.
Immediately upon opening it, a silent video pops up — “Read people’s minds,” it says. Then it goes on to explain who these “people” may be — friends, strangers, classmates, lovers, coworkers, neighbors, everyone.
According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, “Whisper stores content posted for public viewing; however, once users start to chat with each other, that data is not public content, and Whisper does not keep a record of those conversations.”
You’re asked to turn on your location to see what people are whispering. I clicked “Nearby” to see what people were posting in Bloomington.
Scrolling through, a lot of the posts were standard Tinder-esque messages. “Just wish I had a beautiful girl to spoil,” “Someone come hanky panky with meee,” “Netflix and chill with your boy?”
Some users indicated what gender and age they were — “M21 haven’t had a sleepover in a while.”
Most importantly, most of the messages were not safe for work and definitely not safe for the eyes of a 13-year-old.
A user named “some girl” posted, “Any IU Bloomington guy wanna talk? I’m 16 I’m just so done with guys in my grade actin like they 10 it ain’t gon take me anywhere in life just will hold me back.”
Now before you jump the gun, it’s not “some girl’s” fault for posting this. We grow up watching shows like “16 and Pregnant,” and we don’t blink an eye when we see 16 year-old Kylie Jenner date 24 year-old Tyga. It’s society’s fault. It’s her parents’ as well for letting her have access to an app like this.
“Totally know a guy that got arrested for hooking up with a minor on here,” followed by three emojis — the face with tears of joy.
Someone asked this individual, “Were you the minor?” and Mille, the user that initially posted, replied, “Nope, I’m not that stupid.”
BuzzFeed published a piece in 2014 that talked about how Whisper allows survivors of sexual assault to remain anonymous and confess things ranging from childhood abuse to workplace misconduct.
Obviously they didn’t know a 13-year-old girl would be molested by app users two-and-a-half years later, but the imminent dangers of anonymous digital communities are oftentimes overlooked.
All social networking apps come with positive and negative sides but there comes a point in time when you have to ask whether an app like Whisper is doing more harm than good.
jlkarl@umail.iu.edu
