A new app offering a safe and anonymous place for teenagers to post their secrets and anxieties has been launched.
‘Silent Secret’ is aimed at 11-19 year olds and was developed by young entrepreneur Seun Oshinaike as part of the Public Service Launchpad Accelerator which is supported by Ashrammoseley, part West Midlands’ housing organisation, the Accord Group.
The app was first launched on Apple’s store in November 2014 but has proven so popular it is now also available on Android. It now has over 40,000 users with more than 200,000 secrets shared.
Seun Oshinaike explains: “I wanted to build an app that uses the power of secret sharing and social networking to empower teenagers in a fun and relevant way.
“Through research we realised that social media may have brought millions of teenagers together, but it has torn many others apart too. Once, bullies taunted their victims in the school playground; today they use smartphones to do so from afar. Media reports of “Facebook suicides” caused by cyberbullying are all too common.
“Character assassination on Twitter is common along with other forms of e-torment. We saw a need to build an app that bridged the gap in providing a safe anonymous space for teenagers to share their feelings without fear of being cyberbullied, improving health and wellbeing of teenagers and connecting teenagers to support organisations.
“The Silent Secret team includes 12 teenage co-founders who collectively own 15% of the company and are the driving force behind the app from its design to its functionality and are at the heart of all our decision-making. We built the app from bottom up, with teenagers for teenagers.”
Jas Bains, Chief Executive at Ashrammoseley, said: “We knew that Silent Secret would do well, but it’s exciting to see their hard work pay off. We invested in them because we saw a great team that had hit on a fantastic idea that was proven to work”.
The Silent Secret team has worked in collaboration with Childline to develop a ‘how to be safe’ policy, ensuring the app is a safe and trusted space for young people to share openly without fear of being bullied or abused.
Download the free app on www.silentsecret.uk or by visiting the app store or play store.
Extra Benefits for Those Developing Apps
If you are researching or developing an APP you could be entitled to a research and development tax credit that is worth thousands of pounds. Check out DSM R and D Tax Credits to find out what you’re owed.