A new app lets folks walking home alert their friends and family until someone among them agrees to “virtually” walk the app-activator home. Somehow this is supposed to make the walker feel safer, because if they drop their phone, or start running from a bee, or veer off course because they smell french fries, OR they are stabbed in the neck with an ice pick, the friend at home will know that something’s wrong. (Unless the stabber takes the phone and continues walking directly to the now-dead person’s home. Then nothing will register as wrong at all.)
How many friends are willing to electronically watch the whole journey, night after night, deciding when and whether to call the police? I guess we shall see.
More disturbing is the message this “Companion App” sends our society: No one is safe unless virtually or in real life a loved one’s eyes are upon them ALL. THE. TIME.
We already assume any unwatched child is automatically in danger. That’s why we arrest parents who let their kids wait in the car during a short errand. So it should come as no surprise to find out who this app was designed by and for. As Mary-Ann Russon reports in The International Business Times, “The app was originally designed to aid students in walking home at night across university campuses.”
College students! Of course! Young people who suddenly find themselves…walking on their own. This is so unusual that even in a pedestrian-friendly place — a campus — they don’t feel safe. The app’s list of contingencies reinforces the idea that a walk from psych class to the dorm is a life-threatening event:
Those contacted then receive an SMS text message with a hyperlink in it that sends them to a web page with an interactive map showing the user walking to their destination. If the user strays off their path, falls, is pushed, starts running, or has their headphones yanked out of their phone, the app detects these changes in movement and asks the user if they’re OK.
If the user is fine, they press a button on the app to confirm within 15 seconds. If they do not press the button, or a real emergency is occurring, the Companion app transforms the user’s phone into a personal alarm system that projects loud noises to scare criminals from the scene, and gives you the option to instantly call the police.
So, Sunday morning I was on the British TV show “Sunrise,” talking about — of course — letting my 9 year old ride the subway alone, and the host said, “You can’t legislate other people.”
I thought she meant I was going to try to make a law that says parents MUST put their fourth graders on the subway.
No, she meant you can’t “legislate” other people into not murdering your child, so why risk it?
Actually…I believe we do have legislation against murder. But once again, the whole idea of a child in public, unsupervised, immediately conjured up death. Not fresh air. Not reaching a destination. Not a normal part of life. Just death.
Hence, this app. – L
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56 Comments
“Actually…I believe we do have legislation against murder.”
Oh, good. I was going to suggest that next. It seems like an obvious step.
You are going to have to be a damn good friend to drag your sorry butt out of bed at whatever time, to sit and watch a website, just to make sure someone else got home.
There is no way in hell I am going to install this app for anyone.
If you are that afraid to be out and about, by yourself………..get a gun, mace. a dog or whatever, but don’t wake me up to watch you on a screen.
I give high points to the designer of this app for amping up the fear. Scaring the hell out of people over what COULD happen is what sells products, so well done, app maker!
. It seems like we aren’t allowed to go ten minutes without being reminded that our precious loved ones might be murdered to death by a maniac at any moment.
This handy app lets us experience a state of anxious suspense every time someone goes for a walk. All it needs is a foreboding sound track like the ones in horror movies and it will be perfect.
Jill – “This handy app lets us experience a state of anxious suspense every time someone goes for a walk. All it needs is a foreboding sound track like the ones in horror movies and it will be perfect.”
I agree with you, maybe something to the order of the theme song for “Freddie Kruger-Nightmare on Elm Street” or “Jason” would fit the bill for this app. Actually I think it should be Nightmare on Elm Street since I thought that movie was better than Jason.
Fear Sells-Scare the heck out of people then sell them something to make them feel better, or at least make them feel or believe they will be safer. I remember when I was about 10 back in 1966 I used to ride the subway and bus by myself in the Bronx (NY) to go bowling with my friends and to my piano teacher’s apartment. Mom and dad has total confidence in my ability. I was even late coming home one day and they did not panic. They just knew I probably stopped off for a bite to eat at the pizza place with friends on the way. Even if this took place today my parents would not have worried as much about me because they knew I had good judgment and trusted me. That of all things made me feel “king of the hill” to be able to pursue other things with confidence. My father always told me “try it, if you make a mistake then learn from your mistakes”. I have followed that all the way to 60 years old today and you know what “it works”.
I don’t get it. From the way it’s worded, it sounds like everything useful happens on the end of the person walking home. And it could be good if you’re walking somewhere that’s maybe not so safe. But I don’t understand the need for making someone else sit at home and watch a website. The alarm and option to call police seems like enough.
This would be silly if parents are giving it to their children and insisting they use it. But there are people who *are* scared to go out alone, at night or otherwise. Should we tell them “Get over it, coward!” or should we give them a tool to help them? If the alternative is not going out at all, or forcing people to escort you places*, than this is a step closer to independence.
*And by the way, my campus offered a security escort service for people who felt nervous about walking alone at night, and that was 20 years ago. This is not a new idea, just a new implementation.
Meanwhile a couple hundred miles east: ‘One thing that always initially surprises me when I arrive in the Netherlands, but soon get very used to, is the huge amount of children cycling everywhere. Some are also of a very young age and often unaccompanied by adults, either cycling alone or with groups of friends. It is a wonderful thing to see especially during the school run which I was caught up in on several occasions. From late afternoon there was always a constant stream of children cycling wherever I was; in rural areas, in suburbs and also on the main roads in the centres of the town and cities I visited. This continued long after the school run with children coming and going in the evening by bike, quite often in large groups and it was wonderful to see the freedom so many Dutch children have compared to British children in many of the car dominated cities of the UK.’
http://hackneycyclist.blogspot.nl/2015/10/a-trip-to-netherlands.html < this guy is from London
"OR they are stabbed in the neck with an ice pick, the friend at home will know that something’s wrong. (Unless the stabber takes the phone and continues walking directly to the now-dead person’s home. Then nothing will register as wrong at all.)"
OR the attacker just goes home with them…
“College students! Of course! Young people who suddenly find themselves…walking on their own. This is so unusual that even in a pedestrian-friendly place — a campus — they don’t feel safe.”
When I was in college, the first time, Reagan was running for re-election, lotteries were illegal, and… there was a phone number women could call to obtain a security escort to walk them home. Today, that same campus has “security towers”, with a guaranteed security response time of 2 minutes or less. (Push the button, and a security guard will be there in 2 minutes.)
I’m pretty sure cell phones have been used for this purpose for as long as they’ve existed… call some one up, and stay on the call until you reach home… but the current generation doesn’t MAKE phone calls.
Also… Title IX creates a duty to ensure the safety of female students, for the school. They have to act, if their students don’t feel safe.
(Most campus rapes involve alcohol, poor communication skills, or both. The advice I gave my daughter when she went away to college? Don’t drink, and be crystal-clear about what you want (and what you don’t want.) If you do drink, make sure there’s someone who hasn’t been drinking who is looking out for you.)
If my daughter developed a fear of walking alone, my first guess would be that there was a good reason for it.
The difference between a security escort and this app is that the security escort is an actual person. So you aren’t walking home alone; you’re with someone else, who is in uniform (for what that’s worth) and you are not such an easy target for a criminal. And you have someone who can help you fend off an attacker, not just find your body more quickly. The app makes you feel safer without actually making you safer.
And if you feel safer when you’re not, your brain could process the information erroneously. In other times, you might feel fearful when you actually shouldn’t. Way to screw up one’s risk assessment.
Lithox,
You missed the point that this app contacts people, for the walker, that then go to a website and watch the person walk wherever they are going. It does not make them independent. It just makes it easier for them to depend on more people.
I wonder what happens when the app cannot reach anyone. Will the walker then not go because they are to scared?
Oh, boy!!! What a deal !!!
If something does happen, I get to watch it all as it happens.
“The difference between a security escort and this app is that the security escort is an actual person.”
Yes, and the difference between this app and TWO security escorts is that the two security escorts are TWO persons.
“If the user strays off their path, falls, is pushed, starts running, or has their headphones yanked out of their phone, the app detects these changes in movement and asks the user if they’re OK.”
This app has never been around children much.
No running?? Just walking straight with no detours? Headphones yanked out?
Honestly, I don’t want my kid dangling out their expensive smartphone in front of them, like a carrot. Put the phone away! Pay attention to your surroundings (and don’t wear headphones) and please run, jump, and change your movement all you want…and tell me about your journey when you get home.
I don’t want to stalk my children. This is child stalking and it serves no purpose.
What ever happened to “ring once and hang up when you get home”. That was always my family’s method for making sure someone arrived home in iffy situations (very late, bad storm, multi-state drive etc.). If you didn’t get a ring around the time they should have arrived you called them. If no answer within an hour you could decide if you wanted to call the troopers out to look for them.
“All it needs is a foreboding sound track like the ones in horror movies and it will be perfect.”
What could possibly be more perfect than the Friday the 13th music, with the whispered, “ki ki ki ma ma ma”, which was taken from the line, “kill her, mommy”? That would just really accentuate the deadly peril of anybody walking somewhere without a guardian.
We stopped the whole call when you get home once the kids hit high school.
When my oldest this summer took her three week trip to Thailand, inlaws and friends tried to tell us to have her call at regular intervals. One such piece of advice was, call when they leave for the airport, call when they got to the airport, call just before boarding the plane, call when they land, call when they got to the hotel, and then twice a day at preset times. Everyone was pissed that I wasn’t having my 24 yr old daughter check in with me.
She called I think three times to see how we were doing and catch up.
My phone has an app called Glympse that lets you send someone your location for 15 min. However, it’s not for fearmongering, it’s more a handy answer to texts that say “Where are you?” when you’re not in a position to answer. In fact, it can scan the text and give you the one touch option to send it to someone whenever there’s text that suggests someone is asking for your location. I use it to let my husband know when I’ll be home from work (for dinner purposes) or if I’m lost and not sure where on earth I’ve ended up. Those are good uses. Having “company” on a walk….notsomuch.
While I’m sure the app developer will ramp up the anxiety in promoting this, I actually think this app is great. Yes, most of us in the majority of our day are find walking from Point A to Point B. But some of us actually do have to walk in high crime areas. Not all students live on campus. I work for a university and a large number of our students live off campus. Thieves know that college kids are pretty easy targets and these students get robbed OFTEN. I’d say we have 2-3 alerts each week about students who have been robbed. This app won’t stop the robberies but it might mean that police get to the area more quickly. It might also make students who are anxious because a handful of their friends have been robbed feel safer. I’d love to use it if I’m working late and have to walk the 3 blocks to my car, which is in a low-trafficked area (and thus a great spot to rob someone in the dark).
Again, I don’t agree with ramping up anxiety unnecessarily, but not every safety tool is bad. There are a lot of good uses for this one.
Ridiculous. A virtual friend can only help against a virtual would-be attacker. I am so sick of ‘virtual’ and all the truly harmful stupidity it manifests. I long for the gone-by days of reality. We should be adamant in their return.
Those campus call boxes have always struck me as a sign of a dangerous path. A place to be avoided, at least at night. I wonder how many places become more abandoned because of them, and perhaps in turn become more dangerous as a result.
I was once warned away from an industrial area by grown men in an industry with a rough reputation. They themselves would not traverse the area at night. My classmates received identical warnings from guys with a different company in our industry. The, problem was the bus lines to go anywhere were on one side of the industrial area, and our beds on the other side.
The men I worked with would all get a taxi, and the taxis would go around the industrial core. The first time I was confronted with the need to make a night time crossing of that industrial area, I noticed that the neighborhood was well lit, had few places to hide, no parked cars, no moving cars. It was so dead empty at night that you could hear leaves rustling. It struck me as more dangerous to go poking into the dark areas where the payphones were located, and drunks seemed to litter the street than to enter the industrial zone, which was devoid of such people, and devoid of dark corners. It struck me that the main reason the industrial area had a reputation for night time murders may well have been that it was one place in this major city where people could easily meet to conduct illegal business without being seen. So I dared the crossing. Always alert for any sound or sight that might indicate I was not alone.
In two months I probably made a dozen or more crossings. And my classmates, who independently reached a similar decision, did about the same. I never once saw a car. I was the only one of us who encountered anyone in that neighborhood. A single stranger on foot. The stranger’s footsteps were audible from three city blocks away. It only re-assured me that this was not an area were someone could easily sneak up on me.
It was a tropical location, and more often than not when I think back to the myriad wonders of that place, I find myself reminiscing joyfully on those warm peaceful walks through the slumbering industrial zone.
“This handy app lets us experience a state of anxious suspense every time someone goes for a walk. All it needs is a foreboding sound track like the ones in horror movies and it will be perfect.”
Well, people have been complaining about the high price and poor quality of today’s films, and how lousy the theatre experience is and the expensive popcorn and fake butter… now anyone can enjoy a horror film with no trouble and very little expense, and even with homemade popcorn!
I’m available for hire as a chainsaw-wielding madman to jump out out of the bushes, or if you prefer, I can bring an axe.
Found the quote I really wanted:
Andrei Simiæ, the Gaean philosopher, has theorized that primitive man, evolving across millions of years in chronic fear, pain, deprivation and emergency, must have adapted intimately to these excitations. In consequence, civilized men will of necessity require occasional frights and horrors, to stimulate their glands and maintain their health. Simiæ has jocularly proposed a corps of dedicated public servants, the Ferocifers, or Public Terrifiers, who severely frighten each citizen several times a week, as his health requires.
— Jack Vance, WYST
“Those campus call boxes have always struck me as a sign of a dangerous path.”
I don’t have that reaction.
On the other hand, the “2 minute guarantee” part was what troubled me… what happens if they DON’T respond within 2 minutes… your next assault’s free?
“All it needs is a foreboding sound track like the ones in horror movies and it will be perfect.”
My vote is for “Come play with us” from the Shining.
If you don’t get from point A to point B in exactly the right way, we will haunt you Danny with gruesome crime scenes and creepy music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMbI7DmLCNI
“Thieves know that college kids are pretty easy targets and these students get robbed OFTEN. I’d say we have 2-3 alerts each week about students who have been robbed.”
I bet thieves especially love to target and rob the students holding out their $400 cell phones to track their every movement on this app. What’s the use of an electronic body guard when you have a target on your back?
I know 2 college students (female) robbed of their cell phones (one was punched in the face when she resisted) while walking from their off campus apartment to class in a high crime rate area. Criminals don’t steal watches anymore-no one wears them with the use of cell phones. Ask a cop in an urban area- he/she will tell you to hide your valuables, which includes cell phones, when in a high crime area. Walking around with your smart phone recording your movements screams “Rob me!” and is counterproductive to actual safety.
it’s another thing that people trust to do all the thinking for them, instead of using their own discernment. it’s giving people permission to be horribly oblivious cause the darn app is doing all the work.
lollipop,
My vote goes to the theme from the original Halloween. That piano still works on the nerves.
Is it a free app or a money-maker?
Heaven help everyone if one forgets to complete the use of the app. This forbodes far too many panic attacks.
I suppose, like so many other safety gizmos these days, there is a time and a place for such an app. But as Lenore says, the public prefers the All. The. Time scenario.
The theme from the old TV show “Tales from the Darkside” is also appropriate. As is the intro videography. Lonely places, an old farm, a distant forest. Still creeps me out.
Here’s a thought. Turn off the damn phone, and instead, pay attention to your environment.
I just read an article today on Yahoo about ways to keep your kids safe while trick or treating on Halloween. One of them, was an app similar to this one. It allowed you to GPS link with your kids smartphone and allow other specific people to do the same thing. Basically, you can designate people along your child’s trick-or-treating route who would then be able to make sure the kids are on track. One of the reasons being that if your child is old enough to trick or treat on their own, then they probably also have a smartphone.
I had to laugh at that one. Both of my children have been trick or treating on their own, or with friends, for years. Last year was the first time either one of my children had a smartphone. And that was only because my oldest was allowed to upgrade to a smartphone and my son got her old flip phone.
@Warren – personally I think a once -a-week checkin is a good idea….but twice a day?! Maddening ! And wouldn’t leave the poor girl a chance to actually enjoy the country …
hineata,
At 24 yrs old she is an adult. Besides in this day and age, there wasn’t a day go by that she wasn’t posting pics on facebook anyway.
Yeah….if she’s posting on Facebook, presumably she’s alive . Adult or not, though, Thailand isn’t Canada….parts of Thailand are probably safer ☺. But parts really are not, so nice to know people are still alive and kicking.
Crap, I have been stuck in really weird situations, usually for some reason involving taxis, mere miles from where I was at that time living. And it’s not as if my extended family could have done anything at all to help….but it was a bizarrely nice feeling that, had I not checked in within a fortnight, someone would come looking for my remains ☺.
And given my father’s personality, possibly starting an international incident but that’s another story ☺.
Not with you in this one. It’s one of those things that are nice when moving around frat houses and you lose your buddy. Or beats waiting for campus security. If they bother to show up today… Would I use it if I genuinely felt in danger, no. But if I were drunker than I expected to be and didn’t know the guy”helping” me “home” as well as I’d prefer…
(And I bet there are lots of students willing to watch a screen for a few minutes while they also avoid their calc homework, any time of day)
To watch your kid, no. As a thing people choose to empower their support network, well, probably not ideal, but whatever.
I hope, like almost all apps, it still works with your phone in your pocket…
I grew up free range in the late 90s-early 00s. I was taking public buses all over the county by age 10 and spent 3 months traveling cross country on Amtrak when I was 16 and 17. By the time I moved out at age 18, I was confident and capable young adult.
Even in that context, I can think of multiple situations in my college age years where having an app like that to check in with a friend before walking home alone at night would have made me feel a lot safer. In hindsight, I realize that my fear of being randomly attacked by a stranger was probably overblown, but as a 19-21 year-old young woman living in a college town with a lot of drunk frat boys it felt very real at the time.
In this situation, don’t people just usually call someone and, you know, talk to them and make it a bit of a conversation thing at least rather than just have an interaction based explicitly around the assumption they’ll be murdered if they don’t? I mean, sure if you do want to talk to someone on the phone because you accidentally ended up in a nighttime situation that’s a bit scary, that option kind of already exists.
” It’s one of those things that are nice when moving around frat houses and you lose your buddy.”
So you want your mom, or grandma, to be following your movements as you wander around a frat house?
“In this situation, don’t people just usually call someone”
Millennials don’t call people. They don’t talk on the phone.
Birch,
“. But if I were drunker than I expected to be and didn’t know the guy”helping” me “home” as well as I’d prefer…”
Why would you even go off with anyone you don’t trust? That makes no sense what so ever.
The late-at-night college assault thing can and does happen to young women (specifically), but an app is not going to prevent that. Having an escort is the obvious, “old-technology”, commonsense approach. Or women walking in pairs (this isn’t India, after all). It’s pretty sad that everyone is so scared of everything nowadays.
If I had to walk in high-risk areas I’d rather start carrying around one of those air-horn aerosols from a discount store and blast the bejeezus out of a would-be mugger and make them wet themselves. Way more effective than an app to scare someone off.
I have to say I don’t see a problem with this one. I went to university in the late ’80s/early ’90s and it was routine for the male students in my residence to walk the female students to and from night classes that required crossing campus. This was certainly before the helicopter era and was considered by all to be sensible.
Matthew E: an actual escort can protect you. A virtual escort can only indicate that something went wrong. the peace of mind provided is mostly an illusion, IMO.
“an actual escort can protect you.”
YMMV.
Famous (if fictional) victim Martha Wayne had TWO escorts (if you count young Bruce) and it didn’t help her, both she and Thomas ended up dead.
An escort is better than no escort. Not questioned.
An escort is better than a virtual escort. Not questioned.
But, if you don’t have an escort, then a virtual escort is better than no escort at all.
I can just see it now, an intoxicated student fumbling to shut of the app as the so called alarm is blaring, and their at home site watcher is calling the police.
End result. Student charged with public intoxication.
The first 35 seconds or so of Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCEDfZgDPS8 Short, but creepy.
I agree with Reader that just calling someone and having a conversation seems more useful than having that someone stare at a dot on a screen.
“I agree with Reader that just calling someone and having a conversation seems more useful than having that someone stare at a dot on a screen.”
Depends. Some people lose track of their surroundings when they’re in a conversation.
On what kind of places all those universities are and how dangerous campuses really are? Statistically speaking.
“it was routine for the male students in my residence to walk the female students to and from night classes that required crossing campus. This was certainly before the helicopter era and was considered by all to be sensible.”
We had no such routine. There were few girls that required escort in the night, but only few of them. The whole “girl needs male protection coming back from class” sound to me like either living in some dangerous place, in which it makes more sense to ask for bigger police presence in the night or as something not exactly egalitarian that must limit girls movement and freedom ( her decision to stay longer in lab/office is dependent on male availability and so is her movement).
She does not even get privacy in terms of movement – I used to like to take walk to think alone and unwind (and sometimes take smoke) or solve problems in my head, she has no such opportunity.
If it is that dangerous, then it really might be a good idea to ask for more cops until whole thing stops to be so dangerous. And if it is about irrational fear, then real stats should be told to students instead of limiting them by that fear.
The app in comparison seems to me less limiting to the girl, making her more independent and allows her more privacy. It is just that all those old school solution require a way higher involvement of a person that is supposed to check on you and are way more helicoptering unless the areas is really statistically dangerous.
Warren- I spent four months in Russia at 21, during which I called home about once a month, and that felt like an extravagance. It happened to be when the Chechnians took over that movie theater there, too, if anyone remembers that. My parents were fine; they’ve always trusted me to take care of myself.
This app is really creative. This has create the awareness when everytime you going out to somewhere. Thanks for sharing this
Where are all these colleges at which the the male students, all not having been taught any better, are constantly and continuously raping and assaulting women?
“Where are all these colleges at which the the male students, all not having been taught any better, are constantly and continuously raping and assaulting women?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynenGHFJ33E
I already call a friend and talk to them if I am walking, or driving, alone in a place I feel is unsafe or if I am driving tired. I would do it for them and they are happy to do it with me. I don’t think an app is necessary but perhaps an attacker would think twice if they knew people were using this app and could be identified by the person watching.