3/24/2023 0 Comments After school apphack![]() ![]() “We thank you for working with us to discourage our students from using these apps to cause concern for our students and our families.” “Unfortunately, these kinds of apps are often used to create fear and disruption,” Deirdre Lavery, principal of Lee High, wrote in a note home to parents. Investigators never determined who posted the threat. Lucy Caldwell, a Fairfax County police spokeswoman, said a student saw the post and reported it to school authorities, who notified police. Lee High in Springfield, Va., leading to a police investigation. Last month, a user posted a photo of a gun on After School with an accompanying threat about something “going down” at Robert E. “I just think it’s kind of insulting, and they don’t respect people like they should,” said a 15-year-old girl who attends Yulee. One anonymous poster at Florida’s Yulee High School called a student out by name and then wrote: “I’d like to corrupt her.” Students - who shared screen shots from the app with The Washington Post - said they have seen taunts against others for being gay, people’s bodies being scrutinized and boys declaring which sex acts they would like to perform on specific girls. ![]() Recent posts to the app indicate that some inappropriate messages still get through, and students at several high schools said that bullying and harassment are frequent. If they are aware their child is using the app, parents can now set filters to block certain content. Callahan said the bar is very low for what is banned: Even a comment such as “Michael is a slow runner” would be blocked. And he said other posts are reviewed by dozens of moderators who screen for cyber-bullying and harassment around the clock users also can report individual posts to have them removed. Levy said that an algorithm automatically blocks posts with certain verbiage - like those that urge other students to harm themselves. “We want them to feel like if there’s something that they’re curious about but they don’t want their identity associated with, they can ask it.” “We wanted the users to feel very safe on After School,” Levy said. More than 50,000 users have had text conversations with trained crisis counsellors, according to the app’s creators. The app is now equipped with a warning system so that a teen who posts a worrisome message about being depressed or distraught will be sent a message asking if they would like to text with a counsellor. While After School has no information on the identity of users, it does keep cell phone data that can help police trace a post to a particular device. Students started online petitions asking Apple to remove After School from its App Store, with one saying: “with the shield of anonymity, users have zero accountability for their posts, and can openly spread rumours, call classmates hurtful names, send threats, or even tell someone to kill themselves - and all of these things are happening.”Īpple pulled the app from its store that same month, and a new version was released in April, promoting a long list of enhanced safety features, including a fast-response system that contacts authorities if a threat is detected. Kelley said the teenager made the threats because he was upset about bullying on the app, which included racial slurs. He pleaded guilty to making a terrorist threat and using a computer in a crime and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. A month after its debut, a 17-year-old at Brandon High School in Ortonville, Mich., threatened an attack in a series of After School posts, including one that read, “Id rather take my AR 15 to school and practice on my classmates than to the gun range,” said his attorney, Deanna Kelley. ![]() But there have been complaints about cyber-bullying and anonymous threats on the app since shortly after it first appeared in November 2014.
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