Direct messages (DMs) on social media apps can be a scary place — you never know what you’ll find in there. For many people, this is where they are sent unsolicited nude pictures.
According to research data and analytics group, YouGov, a staggering 41 percent of millennial women have received an unsolicited dick pic in the past.
Enter: SafeDM. This new app is a content-blocking filter designed to make the Internet a little safer.
It works as a plugin that scans messages and automatically deletes anything that resembles a penis, as reported by Triple J’s Hack.
The app, which launched last week on Valentine’s Day, has specifically been developed for Twitter but the hope is that it’ll be available on other social media platforms in the future.
Before the launch, co-founder Kelsey Bressler tested the app’s effectiveness by asking for nude pictures to be sent to a certain Twitter handle.
I'm soliciting dick pics at the handle @showyodiq .
This is not a joke.
I am testing a filter that is under development which will automatically detect dick pics in DMs and handle them on behalf of the user (delete, delete&block).
18+ , consensual, human dicks only please.
— K E L S E Y (@raeBress) September 5, 2019
According to Hack, after being sent approximately 4000 nudes Bressler discovered that the filter works on roughly 99 percent of penises. It’s not perfect but a pretty good result considering it’s early days for this technology.
For Bressler, the app was created as a form of consent. It gives people the power to choose whether or not they consent to receiving sensitive images or not.
“We’re not trying to stop anyone from sending nude photos,” Bressler wrote on Twitter.
“What we are hoping to address is the unsolicited variety. The difference is consent, and the reason [why] our filter has an on/off switch.”
For more information or to sign up for the filter, visit SafeDM.