Harper Nichols
Senior Kimberley Montalvo shows the tracking screen of her Splashin' app where group members can see the location of other group members throughout the day.
As the school year winds down, a tradition among seniors comes to light once more: senior assassin, a game where seniors attempt to eliminate each other through a combined game of chase and water wars. However, this year, seniors have decided to use a new app for their game called Splashin’. This app allows students to record their eliminations, as well as track the location of their target. Splashin’, while on the surface appearing as a fun app for seniors to use for their senior assassin tradition, is actually a danger to students when the wrong people discover the app and those using it.
One factor that makes this app unsafe is the general lack of internet safety when recruiting seniors into the app. In order to gain more members within each assigned group, students often post the codes required to join groups across various platforms. However, anybody can see these posts, therefore giving them the ability to join as if it were simply handed to them. This is something that makes this method of performing senior assassin extremely unsafe, as anybody with ill intentions can join without any trouble.
Another safety concern with Splashin’ involves its primary use, location tracking. While this feature allows users to track their target’s location and make it easier to eliminate them, it also poses a danger to students when strangers decide to join. A feature that makes this a greater danger is the ability to sign up for premium, which allows individuals to see the locations of everybody within the group. This, while fun when used by seniors within senior assassin, can become extremely concerning and even dangerous when those who are not associated with the senior assassin tradition decide to join.
While students on the app moderate the groups that they own, and allegedly fact check new members, it is extremely easy to make a fake ID to get into a group, as one of our staff members found out. This gives both students who are not seniors–as well as anybody who wants to ruin the fun and cause harm to participating seniors–the chance to join the app without any repercussions.
Overall, Splashin’, while a fun app to use for the senior assassin tradition, is something that can quickly become extremely dangerous when precautions are not taken. From the flaws within its location tracking, to how easy it is to create fake identification, the app may not be the best choice for this tradition. Instead, students can use an app such as Snapchat to host senior assassin, as you are able to choose who can see your location on the app, as well as make group chats where you can send in your eliminations once they happen.