Dec 18 2021

Personal App Skout Suspends Teen Community After Rape Allegations

Personal App Skout Suspends Teen Community After Rape Allegations

By John Ribeiro

Today’s Best Technology Discounts

Selected by PCWorld’s Editors

Top Discounts On Great Products

Selected by Techconnect’s Editors

Skout, that offers a networking that is social for iPhone and Android os products, has suspended temporarily use of its teen community, after three cases of so-called rape involving grownups posing as teens in the community were reported.

The application assists users to flirt, find a night out together, or find out new buddies “at the neighborhood that is local, at a concert at Madison Square Garden or on a bus trip in Barcelona.”

Skout stated in a post on Tuesday after it found a number of underage users were entering the community meant for people older than 18 that it had set up its teen community for people aged under 18 about a year ago.

The men are accused of posing as teenagers in a Skout forum for 13 to 17-year-olds, The New York Times reported on Tuesday in each of the alleged rape cases.

Skout has posted service that is public (see above) to its web site to improve security. A 15-year-old Ohio woman stated she was indeed raped by a man that is 37-year-old whilst in another situation, a 24-year-old guy is accused of raping a 12-year-old woman in Escondido, Ca, the paper stated. A 21-year-old man from Waukesha, Wisconsin, is facing charges that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy in the third case.

“We actively monitor and display to ensure that the 2 split communities for users 18+ and for teenager users are held distinct and that behavior is age-appropriate,” Christian Wiklund, founder and CEO of Skout stated within the article.

Skout in bay area stated it makes use of proprietary technology that constantly monitors task regarding the community to spot users whoever behavior seems “unusual, improper or suspicious.” Users are prohibited for improper or behavior that is suspicious and Skout’s location-based apps offer basic as opposed to particular location information, offering each community member the option to determine if, when and where to generally meet face-to-face.

“However, it really is become clear to us that these measures are not sufficient,” stated Wiklund, such as present months, the organization has discovered of a few incidents involving a “few bad actors attempting to benefit from a few of our more youthful people.”

Skout plans to keep its under-18 community closed until it could design better defenses.

The organization said it absolutely was focusing on building better safeguards, scruff including mechanisms for age verification, and it is partnering with a danger management advisory company to strengthen its present protection measures.

SUNDANCE REVIEW: Uncle Kent

PARK CITY — Mumblecore auteur Joe Swanberg appears ahead to age that is middlebut demonstrably does not look ahead to it) in “Uncle Kent,” a diverting character research whose mildly racy comedy should always be greeted warmly by supporters regarding the scene it isn’t very likely to win converts.

The title character, played by co-writer Kent Osborne, is a not-quite-likeable animator whoever lacking social life is tweaked by a week-end check out from Kate, a stylish (however solitary) girl he came across on the web. Internet-based procrastination plays a part that is big the bong-smoking home-office worker’s life, additionally the movie envisions social interactions that most but need a broadband connection to obtain kick-started; several of its of-the-moment sources, however, just like the web-messaging website Chatroulette, may currently be stale by the time the film reaches audiences.

The quickly-dated tech theme is proceeded in Kent’s visuals, where predictably crummy videography is interspersed with even uglier footage shot by Kent himself, whom documents mundane moments with a Flip-style USB camcorder.

a main change emerge a lent L.A. children’s pool recommends a raison d’ГЄtre for Uncle Kent that reaches beyond its middling comedy of intimate frustration: Kent, having simply turned 40,explains to a buddy (Swanberg himself) just how their reluctance to possess kiddies remains a barrier to locating a relationship that is serious.

Swanberg and Osborne’s script allows the theme fall, however, by zooming in on a love which has little potential even absent the question of procreation: Kent and Kate, evidently maybe not pleased with the currently advanced level of intimate stress, arrange a Craigslist hookup with a brainy threesome-curious woman. As the encounter’s climactic moments are not shown, its awkwardness is summed up by a go by which Kent sits, ignored, tentatively keeping the base of just one of the females as she cavorts utilizing the other.

Uncle Kent treats the week-end’s intimate near-misses with an appropriate shrug, plus in the conclusion wrings more pathos out from the possibility that Kent’s pet cat isn’t that enthusiastic about their caresses, either. Here is hoping Kent’s nieces and nephews see a happier part of these uncle before he is an old guy.

Venue: Sundance movie Festival, Spotlight (Sundance Selects) Cast: Kent Osborne, Jennifer Prediger, Josephine Decker, Kevin Bewersdorf, Joe Swanberg Director-screenwriter-producer-director of photography-editor: Joe Swanberg Screenwriter-producer: Kent Osborne musical: Kevin Bewersdorf No score, 72 moments

Support | promo code

Location

Location Hours
Monday8:00am – 6:00pm
Tuesday8:00am – 6:00pm
Wednesday8:00am – 6:00pm
Thursday8:00am – 6:00pm
Friday8:00am – 6:00pm
Saturday8:00am – 1:00pm
SundayClosed

Only open the first Saturday every month.

In the News