I’ve-Been-Violated App Reports Sexual Assaults Directly to Police

I’ve-Been-Violated™ is a new, free app now available on the Apple store. The app intends to help victims of sexual assault record video and audio evidence.

Citing “recent surveys” that suggest 85% of sexual assaults are not reported to appropriate authorities in a timely manner, the app is “part of a suite of apps provided by the Affirmative Consent Division of ISCE.edu” — as We-Consent LLC — in order to “help change the context and conversations around sexual consent on college campuses.” As described by the creators:

The I’ve-Been-ViolatedTM App is the first app of its kind to allow a victim of sexual assault to confidentially record contemporaneous evidence (with video and audio) of an incident. The evidence is double-encrypted and stored offline. The app also, utilizing geo-coding technology, stores information about where the user was when he or she recorded the video. As a legal safeguard, the video record that the user creates is only available through appropriate authorities (i.e. legal, health, school) or by court order and is never directly available to the user.

Users of I’ve-Been-Violated™ are instructed to get to a safe location and then “tell [their] story by following the on-screen instructions. The app will prompt you on what to say while recording video and audio.” The evidence is then stored for use by authorities once the user has alerted them to the alleged crime.

We-Consent LLC also provides The No App, which is described as an “anti-bullying, anti-harassment, protection app for a child or anyone that wants to deliver a strong, clear NO message. It also functions as a panic button for the user by sending an alert to a parent or other designated person when he or she feels endangered.” It “repeats a NO video message delivered by a police officer and records a video of the person being told no (which might be used as evidence against that person).”

Keeping the evidence encrypted and stored out of the reach of anyone but authorities mitigates some of the potential for abuse, but only time will tell whether these tools can actually benefit a campus culture already steeped in fear of fellow students.

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