Apr 13th, 2017
Stop bullying app SimSimi
By Rachel Whalley
It’s like putting the school bully in a child’s pocket. A mobile phone app called SimSimi lets bullies send abusive messages anonymously. And it’s already spreading like wildfire across our schools – countless children’s lives are being made miserable right now.
But together we can do something about it. The app has just been banned in Ireland thanks to public pressure. Now charities here have called for SimSimi to be banned in the UK too. If thousands of us call for it to be banned, the app’s makers and the people who sell it will know they have to stop pushing it here as well.
If you believe that we all have a responsibility to stand up to bullies, then please sign the petition now. It only takes a moment:
Young people use mobile apps every day. At first sight SimSimi looks perfectly normal, even cute. But it’s a bully’s dream come true: it doesn’t cost a penny to download from Google’s and Apple’s app stores and it lets people send nasty, anonymous, messages.
38 Degrees members have many different backgrounds – not all of us are parents or teachers -but time and again we’ve come together to protect children. In 2015 9,000 of us stopped the Government from scrapping free school meals for 5-7 year-olds in England. And last November 105,000 of us halted plans to allow councils to opt out of their legal duty to protect children.
Will you sign the petition now before more vulnerable children are bullied?
PS: If you’re worried about any children you know being bullied with this app, there’s some really good advice from one of the articles on this app here.
The SimSimi app has been given a rating which means you have to be aged 16 to download it on Google Play or 17 to get it on the App Store.
To stop your kids downloading apps on their Apple iPhone or iPad, just open the Settings app, press “General” and then tap “Restrictions”. This will let you tick a box which will stop people buying apps on the device.
Android phones offer a similar capability. Open up the Google Play app and tap the menu button, which tends to be a series of lines in the corner of the screen. Press the “Settings” button and then lick “Require password for purchases”. This will let you set a password which needs to be typed in every time an app is purchased.
