by Campus Carrier Editorial Board

A new anonymous messaging app has hit college campuses: Yik Yak. This app uses location services to bring comments to others in a similar geographic region. The founders are two Furman University students, Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington, want to connect people through anonymous and location-based posts. Anyone can post anything about a certain person, whether it’s comical, gossip or hurtful. The problem with Yik Yak is that there will obviously be issues with cyber bullying. 

This app has a community guideline saying, “You do not bully or specifically target other yakkers and there is a zero tolerance policy on using people’s full names and phone numbers.” Even with this guideline, many colleges have blocked Yik Yak because they feel that it still violates anti-bullying rules. These schools could be making a very good decision for their students. 

Posts are deleted when two or more users mark the content as inappropriate, but that doesn’t always prevent cyber bullying. Yik Yak’s guidelines aren’t always being enforced or monitored. The app can say they are anti-bullying, but an anonymous messaging app seems like a promotion for it. Mean comments can be emotionally damaging. According to the Cyber Bully Hotline, 20 percent of people cyber bullied think about suicide, while one in 10 attempt it. Those are statistics to think about next time you think about saying something mean about someone, whether it’s in person or online. 

Thankfully, this app hasn’t really hit Berry yet, but if it does, think about how bullying affects a person and don’t contribute negative comments. If you are curious to download it, there’s a solution to trying to get rid of the bullying. You can either bombard Yik Yak with positive comments, down vote the negative comments, or don’t download the app at all. 

Stop the yakety Yik Yak. Stop the bullying. You could possible save a person’s life.