Both are popular at high schools and colleges across the country. They launched #Life about six months ago, Anderson said, inspired by the success of other apps such as Yik Yak and Whisper, which allow users to anonymously share gossip or chatty tidbits through text. He said he worked on #Life with a couple of friends, some of whom had attended the University of South Florida. But Anderson said in a phone interview that he lives in "greater Tampa Bay," though he declined to say exactly where or provide his age. Rumors also ricocheted about the app's founder, who some students believed had fled the area. "That's all they're talking about," said Jamiia Spradley, 16, a junior. Other teens said teachers had begun to more strictly enforce the school's rule against accessing phones. "The girls know who they're sending it to." "That's a bad thing to do and stuff, but this is the guy's fault and the girl's fault," Kosior said. They also offered counseling, Parra said. They reminded students of a policy prohibiting phone access during the school day, encouraged them to delete the app, redoubled efforts to educate them about social media and Internet safety, and notified school resource officers from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Officials at Osceola immediately took steps to prevent further misuse. He expressed disappointment with the way Osceola students were using #Life and said the company quickly removed explicit content. It was an uncomfortable moment for Osceola, which espouses no-nonsense values and strong parental involvement, "like schools used to be."Ī founder of #Life, Griffin Anderson, described the app as an anonymous photo-sharing tool that lets students check out what their peers were doing. School leaders held an emergency faculty meeting Wednesday. Some people reported girls leaving the cafeteria in tears and expressing horror that images of them had been made public. School administrators "were made aware that some of the pictures were insulting or upsetting or possibly even illegal that should not be available online," school spokeswoman Melanie Marquez Parra said.īy that point, students said, word of the photos was churning through the high school rumor mill.
Later in the day, as news of the uproar at Osceola spread, the founders of #Life said they had temporarily removed the app from the iTunes store.
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