GossUp
Gossup is very simple: just download the app for free from the App store and post messages and photos in the open forum?in no time. Only one location appears in the message, typically a secondary school.?Other ‘gossupers’ can indicate with an ‘up’ if they like your message. The more ups a message gets, the more it will appear at the top of the forum and the more people will read it. Everyone can write anything about anyone else anonymously. ‘Up if you think the mother of Mike is a whore’, ‘Up if you want to see the tits of Charissa a photo’ and ‘Up if you think Sander is a fucking fagot.” It’s just a random sampling of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of anonymous messages that are posted each day.
Anonymous?
The only thing you have to share is a location. It doesn’t have to be your hometown but it can be your school,?for example. Then you can easily ‘gossip’ per location and pick up messages. But that’s what makes the app so “dangerous”. Then again you might not be completely anoymous. The creators of the app know some things about you:
Gossup sees general device information (someone sends a message from x model iPhone or Samsung), a few identity clues, one’s check-in area and they have access to the multimedia files shared. Yet users apparently still seem to be or feel completely anonymous.
Bart Breij of the iPhone club writes that AppTracker Annie?shows that Gossup is currently popular in the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. Netherlands is the only country where the app has reached the top 100. The number of reviews in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store is minimal. But it could be that few students write reviews, iPhoneclub speculates.
A number of schools in Haarlem have sent a letter to parents to warn about the Gossup app and they have sent a letter to Apple. Apple removes apps especially when it comes to legal matters, such as when apps are copied. Apple also occasionally ?removes?apps for “social reasons”, when there are too many complaints. But what exactly is in the policy, is not clear.
Popular
These kind of apps are increasingly popular and attract many investors. The Secret app was also made available in the Netherlands since late May. This app provides “an exciting mix of confessions and guilty pleasures” as the site states with messages like: “Tonight I ate a bowl of ice cream and a packet of biscuits.” But also downright blasphemous, unverifiable accusations that really hurt people and businesses reputation are posted. In the Netherlands, the first launching week of Secret already caused problems. Someone posted a message suggesting that he or she was hired for a job at a well known media company by ‘delivering sexual services’. The message spread quickly and was even posted on other social media such as Twitter and the name of the company was exposed.
To no surprise this is the side effect of anonymity. The ability to react to websites under a pseudonym often leads to insults and defamation. The Secret app warns users about this and they now have the ability to remove such messages. But it will be difficult to counter misuse and prove those messages are not based on true stories.
Cyberbullying
Earlier we wrote a blog about cases where cyberbullying played a major role and it showed the different forms in which it happens increases. The popular Gossup app seems innocent, but the personal story of a Haarlem family proves the contrary. “It all started one and a half years ago with a photoshopped nude pictures of my daughter. Bullies found it funny to paste her head over a naked body of someone else and distribute that photo among schoolmates”, the father tells, who wishes to remain anonymous in fear of further harassment. ?Although it started out as a joke at the beginning, the harassment took increasingly severe forms. The photo circulated on channels like Facebook and Twitter. “My daughter was threatened and put under pressure by ?coward bullies?to share some more genuine photos of herself. The harassment put high pressure on the relationships in the family, as the performances at school of our daughter dropped, we felt completely powerless as parents”. Eventually, partly due to the intolerable situation created, the daughter moves to a different school. But what is waiting there, is a downright nightmare. Because these images were scattered over different social media people at this new school knew very well about the situation. So it all started from the beginning. “That’s what makes us powerless. Where you could once look the bullies in the eye, children are now embarassed in front of hundreds, even thousands of their peers. And by whom? You can’t seem to find out”, the father added. Through some detective work was done, the father managed to close down a Twitter account where photos of his daughter were shared.
Also our case description of Amanda Todd shows how difficult it is to do something, while consequences of cyber bullying can be devistating.
What can a parent do when a child is active on anonymous apps like this?
According to?Arnout de Vries, a researcher at TNO, it is important to give clear guidance to your child. Young persons handing in their smartphones or removal of apps is not the best solution, he says. It is also important to examine what preceded the use of anonymous apps. “The question is whether parents are the ones able to help out in these situations, because sometimes there is someone else who is more involved and has a trust relation with the child. At very severe cases also the police or someone from the school can help,” De Vries explains. For calls to the app service itself does not always lead to a desirable solution (if anything is done at all). Some service providers do take things seriously, as we gave examples on this blog from Google and Facebook over the handling of such complaints from end users. But most small app providers are just in it for the money and love the hype of attention, even if things go bad. So be aware of where your child is active.
Remco Pijpers?of ?the?My Child Online?foundation has listed tips of Dutch kids on how to talk about bullying?(pdf) and the organization encourages to talk about digital behaviours. This can be at home, at school, but also online. Remco Pijpers says: “Explain to eachother that, just like in everyday life, you also need to respect one another online: treat another, like you want to be treated yourself. Often it are the classmates that harass each other online. Then a teacher can play a key role by making them talk not only about what is not allowed, but also about good examples of online behaviour. ” Gossip through apps cannot be prevented by prohibiting the app. Eg via Twitter you can also share anonymous messages. Anonymity sometimes stimulates cyberbullying, but not always.
My Child Online suggests talking about it helps:
– Is gossip a bad thing?
– Is gossip via WhatsApp worse than gossip via Gossup, or just as bad?
– Imagine that you would be a teacher. How would you talk about cyber bullying with your students?
– When are messages considerd bullying , and when are they no more than an innocent joke?
Sources: RTL Nieuws, MijnKindOnline, Simi Valley Acorn, Telegraaf (6 juni 2014), Elsevier (7 juni 2014),