Schools
Yik Yak App Pulled from Phones Due To Bullying Concerns
Yik Yak, which lets users post anonymous text messages to anyone within a certain radius, was disabled in Chicago after high schools, including New Trier and Lake Forest, warned parents to take it off their children's phones.
In response to complaints from high schools in Chicago and on the North Shore, the developers of the controversial app Yik Yak have pulled it from the Chicago area, according to ABC7.
Administrators at Lake Forest High School, New Trier High School and at least two high schools downtown sent letters to parents this week warning them about the app, which one principal called “vicious.”
The app lets you send an anonymous text message to other phones within a given location. Schools are banning Yik Yak from their networks, but students are still able to access it via their own cellular network.
TechCrunch reported last month that Yik Yak already had 100,000 users.
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It’s not clear how long the app will be down in Chicago, ABC7 reports. A spokesperson said the company is looking at a technical way to prevent it from being used by high school and middle school students.
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