The chief executive of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Grainia Long joined Seán O’Rourke on Thursday morning to talk about an app called Yellow, which some people are describing as “Tinder for Kids”. (And for those emerging from a coma, Tinder is a dating app – for adults – that allows users to quickly swipe through large amounts of images of potential dates, swiping left to reject a photo and right to save any that may catch the interest.)
“We’ve had a number of cases of young people who’ve called us, who’ve been contacted by someone who they thought was another young person their age, but it turns out was an adult.”
Apps like this come and go, Grainia tells Seán, but Yellow seems to be the hot app at the moment among Irish young people. Part of the problem, she says, is that apps like Yellow can be produced so quickly. Grainia believes the law should require app developers to show much higher levels of responsibility before they put their apps online. The ISPCC gets many calls from young people who regret putting images online through apps like Yellow and who want to know how they can take their material down.
“We get calls from young people… who are victims of stalking, not just by adults, but also by other teenagers.”
Grainia stresses that the ISPCC’s concern is not about restricting the access of children and young people to technology, and it’s not about restricting their access to make friends, but they are acutely aware that there are predators out there who will take every advantage they possibly can. That being said, there are some very good social media sites out there, Grainia says, who do exercise responsibility, and they deserve kudos for maintaining privacy policies that work.
Any young person concerned for their safety can call the ISPCC on 1800 66 66 66 or text Talk to 50101.
Listen back to the item in full here.
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