All you need to know about Yellow

 
 

Watch our app guide to yellow

 
 

What is Yellow?

Described as the "Tinder for teens", yellow is a very popular social media app that works much like Tinder: Users of the app are asked their gender, date of birth, location and whether they would prefer to meet males, females or both. They are then invited to take a selfie, or use a photograph from their gallery. They are then ready to “chat”.

As with dating apps, such as Tinder, users can select people they would like to get in touch with by swiping right.

The app also encourages connecting the user's snapchat and instagram accounts and many underage users share their kik and snapchat usernames which poses further risks as anyone on yellow can see those and contact them through those directly.

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Risks

  • Adult users of Yellow can view child profiles just by changing their date of birth  

  • Grooming by online predators

  • Sexting and arranging casual sex is the apps predominant use

  • Children are tempted to "get right swipes" by uploading risky images

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Safety Settings

There are essentially no safety settings. If you do allow your child to use the app (despite it being rated 17+), we would however strongly encourage close supervision and the use of profile pictures that cannot identify the user as a child. The lack of an age-verification tool poses a risk for children and opportunities for predators. Whilst not as such a safety setting, we encourage users to report age issues, nudity, scams etc. by clicking on the flag on the top left of the screen.

 

Devices

Yellow is available for Apple and Android devices, in both tablet and smartphone format. 

 
 

Age Restrictions

There is no age verification process. The app has an age rating of 17+ on the app store however settings on the app allow users under 17 to connect with people aged between 13-17. It is very easy to access the app using an incorrect date of birth. 

 

Our Opinion & Recommendations

There is very good reason why the app is intended for Adults. We strongly discourage the use of the app for minors for all of the reasons listed above. We also worry about potential mental health issues - what effect does "not getting many swipes" have? 

 
 

Yellow in the media:

 

The Irish Times, in a recent article reported warnings from the Government’s special rapporteur on child protection Geoffrey Shannon who said:

“There is a clear risk here with a significant opportunity for perpetrators to target young people.”

Promoted as an app “to make amazing new friends”, Yellow is described by a succession of Dublin teenagers – who have spoken to The Irish Times – as being “all about sex”.

“People want nude photos, of course . . . totally naked,” one girl said.

 

 

Source: Irish Times 01/12/2016