The Dangers of the App ‘Whisper’ for Children

15 October 2018

Overview

Whisper is an app found on mobile and Android devices. There are no age restrictions on the app which means anyone young enough to have a mobile could be interacting with someone 50 and above. When you sign up to the app there are no age restrictions, you’re free to select your age yourself with no verification. The app is currently popular among children throughout schools, from primary to secondary. The general purpose of the app is for users to share their ‘secrets’ anonymously, however, users also share their snapchat usernames, ask questions, or share their general thoughts. Users write out what they want to post and then apply the text to a background which can either be a photo from their camera roll, a photo taken there and then, or a plain background.

The app has a section called ‘groups’ where you can create a group for you and your friends or join a group that has already been made. The names of these groups can range from ‘husband confessions’ to ‘Harry Styles’ two massively contrasting themes that give you an idea of the age range you can find on the app. There’s also a group called ‘Add to my school’ by clicking this the user types in their school and enters the group for their school with all their school friends. Users don’t need to prove they study at the school to join the group, this puts children at a massive risk to dangerous people.

There are no privacy limitations on the app, anything you put out can be seen by everyone who has the app. You also can not limit anyone from seeing what you put out.

Our Experience

We posted a picture on the app with the words ‘Hey someone talk’ on the background of some Hello Kitty trainers, we changed our username to ‘HelloKitty13’ and selected our age as 15. In the space of 30 seconds, two people had messaged us, one was from Florida, the other was less than a mile away. Both these people were 25+. In the space of 5 minutes over 10 people had messaged us, none were the same age category as us with some as old as 45+. In the space of 30 minutes, we had over 30 messages with people sending explicit messages and content.

The danger this app puts young people at is paramount. On a simple google search of the app, news story after news story could be pulled up of paedophiles using the app to target children.

Something particularly alarming was that young children were sharing their snapchat codes on Whisper, which then meant when people were adding them on snapchat they were then able to access the child’s snapchat maps, giving the dangerous person their exact, specific location.

Our Advice

Because there are no limitations or safety features of this app the only recommendation that we could make would be to avoid your child using this app at all costs. It leaves them open to strangers from around the world and within miles of them.

Whisper’s motto is: “Don’t be mean, don’t be gross, and don’t break the law.” However, it does little to enforce this and abusive, explicit messages are posted on a regular basis without being removed.

To see more watch our video below which takes you on an interactive guided tour of the app.

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