It can be pretty rough being a college kid these days. With greater visibility into crime on campus - from mass shootings to sexual assaults - safety concerns are understandably on the rise. So what's a student to do to keep safe nowadays?
Well, the easiest answer is to turn to innovation for help. Just look at these seven tech options that fit naturally into college students' lives - all while enabling people to dodge risky situations whether they're on and off campus.
RapidSOS
RapidSOS, which has Harvard and MIT ties, has recently been garnering national attention for its app. Many 911 calls fail to go through or drop before first responders can identify a caller’s location. And so, using any means possible - via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, for example - the RapidSOS app will send critical data to emergency dispatchers. It can be used not only on campus, but also anywhere domestic or overseas, which is ideal for study abroad.
Kitestring
If college kids are going anywhere alone, it can be nerve-wracking. So before they go out for a run or decide to walk to a friend’s house late at night, they can use Kitestring to make sure they safely arrived at their destination. With the app, they can put in preset emergency contacts and whenever they’re venturing somewhere on their own, they can put an estimate of how long it will take them to do so. Kitestring will send a text after that allotted time is over, and if users doesn’t respond, it will alert their emergency contacts that something may be up.
BulletBlocker
Although this Lowell-based company has been developing bulletproof products for years, recent school shootings have inspired it to create items to keep students safe. In addition to bulletproof clothing and inserts, BulletBlocker now offers backpacks that will stop various types of ammunition in their track.
iBackPack
Like the BulletBlocker, iBackPack offers bulletproof bags. However, these latter backpacks are on a whole new level of awesome. The company, which is still riding its Indiegogo campaign, offers bags outfitted with all kinds of power sources, Wi-Fi, speakers and an anti-theft tracking device. Basically, this is any college kid’s dream bag that also happens to be bulletproof.
Guardly
While Guardly boasts a number of different features to increase safety, one of the coolest is it’s Indoor Positioning System. So instead of generic GPS - which if you’ve ever had Uber pickup pin fails, you know can be unreliable - this app can zero in on exact floors and rooms inside buildings. That means students, faculty or staff members can be automatically and precisely located whenever they’re reporting they’re in danger.
bSafe
This app is like others on the market in that it lets students alert friends and family when they’re in trouble. But, unlike other apps, bSafe has additional features that could get them out of potentially risky situations to prevent danger altogether. For instance, if someone is on a date and is getting weird vibes, the app can make fake calls to give them an out. At the same time, if they’re out and about and don’t want to walk somewhere alone, they can use the app to find friends near them who’d be willing to accompany them.
LiveSafe
LivSafe takes a two-pronged approach to campus safety. On the one hand, college kids are able to report incidents, attaching photos and videos for more insight into what’s happening. And on the other, students can look on a map and keep tabs on what their peers are reporting. That kind of transparency lets them know high-risk areas, which helps school authorities, administration and students.
Image on file.
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