Yik Yak Yuck

It's no secret that cyber bullying is becoming an increasing problem in today's world. With the number of kids knowing how to use a cellphone and having access to social media before they're even allowed to see PG-13 movies, there's almost no way of stopping this unfortunately growing trend. We see cyberbullying on most social media sites-Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (the one I see the most on) but there's a new addition to the social media family that I think brings cyberbullying to a whole new level: Yik Yak.
Yik Yak is twitter of sorts-you leave a short message under a certain number of characters, which can be seen by anyone in your area, and it can be upvoted (like favoriting a tweet) downvoted, and replied to. The thing is, it's completely anonymous. You have no idea who is saying what, who is replying to you, or even who is upvoting or downvoting you. Yik Yak is extremely popular with college students. However, college students aren't my concern when it comes to Yik Yak. When I get on my Yik Yak feed here, I see many people making random comments about their day, a person they saw, how they're excited for a party tonight, etc. There are a few negative comments in that mix, but the student body is so large that no one person can be targeted. College students just have different things to worry about, which makes Yik Yak a pretty harmless app within large universities. The thing that worries me about Yik Yak is high schoolers getting a hold of it. Most cyberbullying stories are those of high school students who have received the grief from their peers-kids that they know personally and see every day. Statistics show that most cyberbullying experiences happen under the age of 18. This could be due to multiple factors such as maturity, free time, and familiarity with the people around you. Regardless of the reason, these kids are ruthless. Some weekends when I go home, I accidentally open Yik Yak, forgetting that I'm out of the Penn State zone and in my high school's zone. What I find on their Yik Yak feed is absolutely mind blowing. There is more name calling than I've ever seen in my life, the nastiest of comments that I can't believe someone around age 15 is saying. I've seen threats of fighting, threats of "boyfriend stealing", but the worst thing I see is students who are pinpointed. The students posting these yaks have no boundaries-they say the person's full name and put whatever horrible story they think of to go along with it. These stories could be true or could be rumors-I have no idea. On these yaks are 50+ upvotes, showing that 50 people agreed with whatever mean thing this person said. There are also comments on the yaks, telling of agreement and "thank you for finally saying this";basically congratulating the person doing the bullying. When I asked my brother, who is in high school with these students, about what the heck is going on with this app, he told me it's all transferring to their school lives. Kids have been sent to the principle's office because they've been accused of a yak. People have stayed home from school because such nasty rumors have been spread about them. Unlike with cyberbullying on other social media sites, where you can see the name and profile of the person posting, Yik Yak could be anyone talking. These students don't know who to turn to; their best friend sitting right beside them could be the person posting all the mean things.
To me, Yik Yak poses the greatest opportunity for cyberbullying yet. The threats, name calling, and rumors are just as bad, but the source isn't right there. With other cyberbullying cases, finding the source and cutting them off was easy because there name was right there. Schools were able to take care of these cases quickly and efficiently. With Yik Yak, you never know if the mean comments are coming from the same person, multiple people, close friends; basically, no one even knows where to start looking. It takes the police and tracking technology to go in and trace the comments back to the phone that it came from. The people posting these yaks feel like they will never get caught, so they keep doing what they're doing, and so far, they've had no repercussions. It's only a matter of time before we hear of suicides due to Yik Yak. Anonymity is one of the things most valued on the internet and in CMC, but when it's doing more evil than it is doing good, something needs to be done.