A new app aims to help teen bullying victims by allowing parents to filter out profanity, vulgar or threatening language and telegraphic nastiness sent to their kids via text message.
Currently available for Android smartphones and coming soon to the iPhone, Word Bully can filter out 3,600 words, acronyms, “bulli-cons” and hate phrases.
Devised for parents or guardians, you can also create custom lists of words to monitor – so none of those person-specific nicknames teens are so good at inventing or up-to-the-second nasty texting lingo gets to your kid’s phone, either.
The app also has a monitoring feature which will tell you where your kid is and allows you to whitelist and blacklist numbers.
It’s a timely release. Bullying has always been around, but if you doubt how nasty it can get now, just today the parents of 14-year-old suicide victim Jamey Rodemeyer (a teen contributor to the “It Gets Better Project”) allege teens chanted ‘We’re glad you’re dead’ at a dance following his wake.
“We feel this is an important development in child and teen safety will give parents more comfort and peace of mind,” says Wayne Irving II, CEO and co-founder of developers Iconosys, a member of the National Organization for Youth Safety (NOYS).
The Android version is available gratis here (until October 15) or you can buy it for $9.99 at the Android Market. The iPhone version is expected to launch by Christmas.
