The Boundaries of an App

The Internet and mobile telephony have no borders. How many times have we heard that phrase! And it would be true if it were not for some exceptions in the form of government censorship (see Turkey, Korea …) or child protection. Indeed, on physical borders we can already begin to be clear that they are accompanied by virtual borders. This is what has happened to one of the most famous Apps in the United States and misuse has led to a major debate. The App in question is called Yik Yak and happens to be a new emulation of the most famous Secret . That is, it is a messaging App that offers the total anonymity of the sender. In this case Yik Yak works on the basis of geolocation and only allows you to send and read messages when you are in a certain place with a fully delimited range. The use of this App would not be strange if, once again, users were limited to using it properly. However, it has been found that in primary schools its use went beyond communication to become a perfect focus for Huffington Post . And it is too often found that maturity and mobile telephony do not go precisely hand in hand. The fact is that in order to avoid this misuse of Yik Yak, the solution of setting borders has been chosen. That is, limiting what can be used on school grounds in what is called a “ geographic lock “. Since the app requires the phone to say what its position is for it to work, the creators have used this information to prevent its use in juvenile schools. Several schools have already contacted the developer to include them in the list of areas to disable the App and even signed an agreement with the Maponics company, which owns the locations of 100,599 schools throughout the United States (85% of the total, according to Yik Yak officials). On the other hand, the use of this App has also been limited to those over 17 years of age in order to reach a more mature public in principle and aware of the dangers and risks in the use of any mobile application. Undoubtedly, however, what reopens this App is the debate on the access of minors to mobile telephony, the uses and restrictions of an App and, of course, the behavior of minors in the school and their relationship with each other . Three fronts to analyze with many problems to solve and that can be key in the immediate future.