Now I’m going to try and sit on the fence during this particular article, but I can’t help it if a few comments pop out. Years ago, when the internet was black and white, there was a website called “Hot or Not”. It allowed users to upload pictures of themselves, then visitors voted on how “hot” you looked in the photo.
This worked well for 25 minutes, until people realised the not-so-secret recipe of getting a high “hot” score. It generally worked like this..
a) If you’re female, reveal lots of cleavage and / or wear as little as possible.
b) If you’re male, hit the gym and get a six-pack, then generally show off as much of this and / or your muscles as possible.
Anyway, fast-forward to September 2013 and meet GetMeRated, a website where people can add their heavily-filtered “selfies” and either get lots of abuse or lots of almost perverted followers eager to … “chaaaaaattt”. Yes, you can chat. Believe me, in the course of writing this I’ve found that girls of 13 or younger are posting risque photos of themselves and lots of “blokes” seem to be very eager to chat to them. Honestly, it’s a recipe for disaster, and one picture that a 14 year-old girl has posted (of her legs) has already received a number of “recommendations” since I’ve written this last paragraph. Oh yes, the alarms are going right off.
So, if you want to dive into a world of “held above the head” selfie photos, explicit and unedited “recommendations”, pretty close-to-the-bone photos, no restriction on ages, a chat system and an easy way to get lots of un-ending criticism of your looks, dive in.
This girl has, and the poor dear seems to have hurt her lips in the process. Look. Every photo. She’s got her lips stuck. This can only get worse…
Wait.. she’s getting lots of negative comments! What can she do to possibly get out of this situation? Oh wait, I know..
DING! DING! DING!! Top rated member, instantly.
Oh look. Lots of comments from “men of similar age (honest, none of them faked the date of birth)” saying how nice she looks and how they’d like to “meet up” and / or do various other “activities”. Oh dear. She’s not replied to some of them.. uh-oh… what’s going to happen now?
Ahh.. that.
It’s now available on Android and was already available on iPhone and Windows Phone. That, my friends, is how to write an un-biased review. Boom.
And from the title I thought it was going to be an app to help you find a builder!
So very wrong…
And possibly in a few months time some poor vulnerable girl will commit suicide due to the abuse she has received 🙁 This sort of crap should be killed in the conception phase.
There is no possible way this is going to end well is it? either some girl will top herself of some idot will get himself nicked and on the registar.
Good work Leigh, your best, most poignant review yet. With a young daughter of an a certain age myself, this kinda thing scares the crap outta me.