App Watch: Is Poparazzi Safe For Kids?

What is Poparazzi and how does it work?

Poparazzi is the latest trending social networking platform where your friends are your paparazzi and you are theirs. It’s the anti-self club where images that appear on your Poparazzi profile are made up of images not curated by you, but photos and GIFs that your friends post.

Like Instagram and TikTok the platform has quickly filled with tile style photo feeds, post counts, view counts and reactions (using a range of emojis). The app does not currently allow comments on Pops or direct messaging services which may leave users slightly limited with how they can communicate. The app also has a layer of gamification embedded through every user having a Pop Score, designed to get their users back and Popping regularly.

Learn the Poparazzi lingo:

Pop: a still image or GIF you have been tagged in
Pop Score: points are accumulated based on how often you ‘pop’ others
Featured Pops: a library of images and GIFS of other users of Poparazzi. Anyone who uses pop could end up as a Feature Pop.
Top Poparazzi: friends that tag in you images most often.

10 reasons why Poparazzi does not meet safety by design standards that we all expect.

Setting up a profile/account requires users to provide personal information such as first name, surname, age and mobile phone number. You cannot progress to use the App without supplying this information.
A user’s profile name is their first and last number as default. Whilst this can be changed later in the process users are not informed that this information will be used to create your username.
The app accesses your phone contacts and recognises who in your contact list has already created a profile/account and makes you ‘friends’ with them.
There is no way to make your account private with all images posted to your Poparazzi feed viewable by anyone who may stumble across your account.
Users have no control over what images/gifs (pops) are shared of you.
Whilst you can delete an image posted of you, others may have already seen, saved or shared it before you get the chance to review it.
Basic digital citizenship protocols such as seeking consent and permission to take a photo and post it to the platform are completely disregarded.
Any image of you, posted by your friends, can be shared to Snapchat, Instagram or via a hyperlink to What’s App or messaging services.
Terms or service state that photos posted to the platform are the property of TTYL (app developers) and you grant them a license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and distribute.
Deleting a Poparazzi account/profile is not easy and cannot be performed through from the App itself. Users must navigate to FAQ section on the Poparazzi website to a link to steps for deleting the account.

The final word

In the hyperconnected social networking age it’s already difficult for us to stay in control of our own digital footprints. Poparazzi takes all of this control away by promoting to their users that its fun to post images of others without their permission or consent.

With respect and consent conversations finally immerging as a priority in today’s classrooms, Poparazzi is simply disregarding all efforts to acknowledge the importance of basic ethical principals and values.

The sheer premise of this app being about others posting photos of you will leave users, particularly self-conscious teens feeling the need to regularly return to the platform to check in and see what has been posted of them.

You can report cyberbullying, image-based abuse and illegal or harmful content via the Office of the eSafety Commissioner.

We recommend the following steps:

Screenshot evidence
Report the content to the app/website
Block the user
Make a report http://esafety.gov.au/report
Talk to a trusted friend/adult or chat to someone at www.kidshelpline.com.au

From The Cyber Safety Project Blog

Wil Marks

E-Learning Leader

OshClub News