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Samaritans Radar
**helen**
Deactivated Posts: 9,235 Supreme Poster
Guessing some of you might have picked this up from Twitter or the mainstream news?
https://www.samaritansradar.org/
Pros?
Cons?
Here's an excerpt from the BBC News article:
https://www.samaritansradar.org/
Pros?
Cons?
Here's an excerpt from the BBC News article:
Joe Ferns, executive director of policy, research and development at Samaritans, told the BBC the app was not designed to be a furtive tracking tool.
"Radar is only picking up tweets that are public, giving you an opportunity to see tweets that you would have seen anyway," he said.
"But imagine that a friend had posted something in the early hours of the morning, you're on the way to work or college and your Twitter feed is full of messages that are arguably less important - Samaritans Radar gives you the opportunity to see that tweet again and have it highlighted to you.
"It's not looking over your shoulder, it's not looking anything that's private, it's just giving you the opportunity to see something and act on it."
Samaritans Radar was created by digital agency Jam and uses Twitter's API. It is primarily aimed at 18-35 year olds.
"They are 'digital natives' - growing up using new technology and the first generation to grow up with computers in their home," said Patricia Cartes, global head of trust and safety outreach at Twitter.
"They are the most active age group across social platforms and spend an average of just over three hours daily on social networks."
Samaritans Radar is aimed in particular at a generation which lives its life online - and sometimes finds it easier to express its deepest hopes and fears in a tweet rather than face to face.
The app has some smart technology which will learn from its users to distinguish phrases that are really indicative of suicidal tendencies.
Samaritans is aware that there may be a "creepy" factor, with users worried that someone is looking over their shoulder as they and their friends tweet.
But the charity says it needs to be where people are in the modern digital world - and it believes helping people help each other could save lives."
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Comments
I definitely think they'd need to have a 'trial run' if that makes sense? Like, a few accounts, people that know each other, people that have never met and don't know anything about this person but have picked up a good twitter relationship.
If you report things to Twitter - you will automatically get a e-mail from Twitter, saying that a friend is concerned and that you can contact Samaritans.
You can't really pick up on everything, some people will deny being unsafe and in danger - which then makes it more difficult to establish what you can actually do.
Apologies if this makes no sense, it does in my head!!
Alarm bells clanging in my head - and not because someone tweeted something that shows they may be at risk.
I don't often say things on twitter that would generate attention from this app; however I see several problems:
Opt-in: Any of your followers can download the app and start tracking your tweets without you even knowing. You can't choose who is getting the alerts - do you really want people who you don't really know getting involved?
Responsibility: by using this app you are pretty much taking responsibility for the other persons' actions. Before, you might not have looked at your timeline for a few hours because you were busy, have come online and then talked to the other person if necessary. With this app, it alerts you instantly and would you really press the later button and walk away? No. It, to me, seems wrong to have this feeling of needing to help others right here as soon as they tweet.
Tweet content: you say something in the heat of the moment, you're just saying something without expecting a reply. BOOM your mentions column is full of people asking after you. That would give me problems...
Algorithm isn't advanced enough: people have been testing it and it just picks the word out - when the tweet has nothing to do with actually harming themselves. How many false reports will people get?
Occasionally I might post something on twitter that would alert this filter. The followers I'm closest to either know it's kind of rhetorical or they pick up on it. Anyone else? I don't know them so why should they care? I don't go to twitter with the expectation that people will read my hysterical I want to die tweets and I most certainly don't expect them to pick up my pieces. Rant over.
And Kate words it better than how I was trying to! :yes:
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So, I'm not for this but I'm not particularly against it.
Some people use twitter and other social networking sites as a cry for help sometimes. And I know from my own personal experiences, my friend who committed suicide had written a letter before hand. His mum said that he had written if no one responded, no one cared. So if this radar thing was available then, he might still be here.... But that's going off topic slightly
Yeah I don't think its a bad thing. And like the report said, they are only using what's public anyway. Anyone can read your tweets
I think it's the fact that strangers that follow you could have no idea what to say/do, attempt to talk to you and make you feel worst.
You should be able to pick what followers are able to respond etc.
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Radar only picks up on tweets which are public. If you have your account set to private it won't pick up on your tweets.
If your tweets are public then anyone can read them and anyone can respond to them, that is the point of Twitter. Some people will be helpful, some will be useless but well-meaning, some will be arseholes. That's Twitter for you.
I understand why people are nervous about it, but I think it's mostly because they don't understand Twitter is a public space. I've seen many analogies with talking in a pub or cafe and being overheard, which shows that people really don't understand Twitter and how it works. Whilst it may feel that you're tweeting to a few followers it's more like taking out a newspaper advert than chatting with your mates in Starbucks.
It's got its up's and down's, but hasn't every thing and every one in life?!
It'll be interesting to see how it goes
They have suspended the app for the time being http://www.samaritansradar.org/