A new mobile app recently emerged, intending to provide users with a safer way to walk home alone at night, and its popularity is growing.
The so-called Companion app was created by five students at the University of Michigan, allowing users’ friends to “virtually” walk them home at night by tracking their journey with GPS.
As a young woman who has experienced feeling unsafe walking home alone at night, I found this little app quite intriguing.
Whether I’m coming home late from campus or coming back from a night out with friends, walking alone can be nerve-wracking, to put it nicely.
The app was originally created for college students who often walk alone at night, though we all know we ought to avoid it.
The user can send out requests to different friends or companions, which hyperlinks the companion to a web page with a map showing the user walking to their destination.
Users can press an “I am nervous” button, signaling to their companions that they are beginning to feel unsafe, or immediately call the police.
But if they fall, stray off path, have their headphones pulled out of their phone or start running, the app detects this and asks the user if they’re OK.
If the user does not confirm within 15 seconds, the phone will project loud noises to scare off animals or attackers.
At first, this app seems like a fantastic way for students to get home safely and even simply feel safer while doing it.
But how does this app set itself apart from other methods of protection like talking to a friend on the phone or carrying mace?
Does this app actually make the situation safer or is it a roundabout way of ignoring the root of the problem with violence and sexual assault on college campuses?
It seems like another example of our society not stopping the problem at the root.
Though the Companion app could make students feel secure, our priority should be to make the environment on and off campus safer in the first place.
The app reminded me of a nail polish, also developed by college students, which would change color if it comes in contact with a date-rape drug.
The invention sparked heavy criticism because it could end up fueling victim blaming by putting responsibility on the woman to protect herself.
The nail polish was well intentioned, but distracts us from real solutions to the problem: ending sexual assault in the first place.
Is the Companion app doing the same thing by ignoring the root of the problem?
I can’t ever see myself using this app. But it does seem a bit more thought through than a date rape drug-detecting nail polish.
However, it certainly doesn’t solve the underlying problem nor does it act as a preventative measure against sexual assault.
It could at least make students feel more secure walking alone at night.
nrowthor@indiana.edu
@nrowthornIU
