吉利华(Chiliwack)学校局最近对一款电话应用程序设禁。该程序支持用户匿名评论，出现不当评论。
该款名叫Yik Yak的应用程序原本是想设计成类似学校公告板之类的功能，使得用户能在匿名的情况下发表意见。不过，也正是因为匿名，近日引发了不少问题。上周，加州就有两所学校因为有人在该程序上发表恐吓讯息而一度关闭。
目前，该程序已被吉利华电话安保系统禁止使用。不过菲沙河谷大学(UFV)社交媒体专家布达伦(Darren Blakeborough)表示，问题不是关闭该程序就能解决的，毕竟还有大量其他可匿名评论程序存在。
Have you heard of “Yik Yak”?
Posted on November 20, 2014 by Mike Hellinger
An increasingly popular mobile app seems to infiltrating some Chilliwack schools. “Yik Yak” is a social network that has been around for about a year. It allows the user to post anonymously and view all posts within a 2.4km radius. This of course can lead to some serious cyber-bullying. Rick Jones, principal at Chilliwack Secondary, says they hadn’t heard about the app…until now.
“We heard about it for the first time around noon yesterday (WED) when a student reported that she had seen disturbing remarks posted on it. We started an investigation, and found out that other schools were mentioned in the post, so we started talking to our colleagues at the other schools and it turns out they had seen it the day before.”
He says they had another incident reported this morning. Chilliwack school superintendent Evelyn Novak says it’s becoming an issue.
“We did become aware that an issue had arisen that began on Tuesday of this week regarding social media, particularly regarding the use of the app Yik Yak, and so it has impacted our 3 secondary schools. It has been shared and discussed with staff now at all 3.”
We’re not sure what the exact nature of the “yaks” were, but RCMP haven’t received notice of any actual threats. This appears to be more of a cyber-bullying issue. On the app, you can “upvote” or “downvote” a post, and if a post is flagged for inappropriate content by more than 5 users, the post will disappear from people’s feeds. The app developers are using something called “geo-fencing” to try and combat the bullying aspect that allows high schools and middle schools to be fenced off. At this point, the Chilliwack district is going to be tightening their security to block the app on the school Wi-Fi, although it can still be accessed through personal data plans.
“It is of concern to us” says Novak. “It does take time for our staff to deal with these issues and sometimes it’s difficult because the anonymity of what’s being said makes it difficult to trace. So we’re left with the impact of that on students…and some of them are not feeling safe.”
This app has caused numerous problems in the US, including one incident where a school shooting was threatened and the building had to be locked down. RCMP say while there have been no threats of that nature here, they are aware of the app, and Sgt Forbes Cavanagh says it’s a “pain in the butt” because of the difficulty tracking the activity. He says it “definitely has the potential to be a problem”.
The good news according to UFV social media expert Professor Darren Blakeborough is that the complete anonymity is a bit of a fallacy, and people can be tracked.
“They’re using a GPS, and it’s still going through an IP address. So when push comes to shove if they need to find out who made that particular yak, they can do it.”
Blakeborough says in a couple of cases in the US, students who made threats were found and arrested.
However he also says even if schools take action to limit the use of Yikyak, there are always other apps.
“Even if for whatever reason they just said tomorrow we’re shutting it down, you would think problem solved. But there’s always Whisper, Secret, Rumor, there are a host of other apps that promise the same anonymity.”
At this point the issue is not believed to be wide-spread, but Jones says that if it becomes a bigger issue, CSS will consider holding an assembly.
One local school had a pre-planned assembly today where social media was covered…it’s a good bet this app came up though. In addition to one local school alerting parents, Novak says the district is preparing a letter for parents, and they’re asking kids to be smart and ditch the app if you’re not using it for its intended purpose.