The internet and mobile devices are continually evolving. New applications and websites are developed each day and shared with the world. While many fade into obscurity or into their niche worlds, others truly take off and become more than just another app. While many of these trendier applications are meant for good, their impact and effects can be very detrimental and harmful. One of the newest applications available is known as Spillit, an application that has become as much about cyber-bullying as it has social connection. The following explains more about this new application and why parents, adults, and children should all be aware of its potential dangers.
What Is It?
Spillit is an application that has users create a login name and password to participate on the site. The ultimate goal of the page is to ask other users what they think about that individual. With a limited number of characters, other frequenters to a user’s page can answer the question. This is meant to help learn about each other and create a social connection via the page.
Harm and Problems
Though many of the questions appear innocuous, the Spillit application has many potential dangers. First, it is asking participants and users to rate or discuss another’s physical appearance or what they like about one another and what they dislike. While this information may give insight, it can also lead to cyber-bullying. It is a free for all for those with ill intentions to harm another by sharing mean or personal information across the internet. Comments and responses can become harsh, violent, or even sexual. The result is an open forum, then, for cyber-bullying and gives bullies a platform to speak their minds and thoughts. This location can also have children and teens, even adults, oversharing information that should be kept private. Also, since users have the ability to choose a username, they can get away with saying these things fairly anonymously.
Concerns
Whether an adult or a child, Spillit can be very problematic and lead to social and peer pressure. By creating an environment in which this rhetoric is readily displayed, not only are bullies given a platform, but the peers of an individual get to see exactly what is said about them. Once out in cyberspace, too, it can be difficult for the information to be once again contained. This is even more a problem for cyber-bullying victims and something that must be monitored. Predators, even those who do not wish to bully but want to stalk or do other harm, can find the information about physical locations, habits, and other places that an individual travels to or activities they are involved in. This can be a huge threat in making cyber-bullying or stalking not only done virtually but extend to the tangible world as well.
Monitor
For the aforementioned reasons, it becomes vitally important that an individual or parent monitor what they share on this site or what their children share. In so doing, they will better be able to protect them from problems and potential dangers.
Download our infographic to get advice on how to keep your kids safe and happy online: "Safety Net: A Parent’s Guide to Internet and Mobile Safety."
