A new app is aiming to make safety a priority in meeting someone online, by checking users’ names against a list of sex offenders.
Taken Mate, a new identity verification app, launched in February and is currently hosting a competition between UF student organizations to earn downloads, said Justin Parnell, who created the app.
Using social media accounts, users link anything from their Facebook accounts to LinkedIn as a way to get connected with others through the app, Parnell said.
He said user’s information can only be changed on the original social media platforms, and everyone’s names are run through a sex-offender database to prevent registered sex offenders from using the app.
The purpose was to create safer first interactions for people who meet online, he said.
Since the app’s launch, Parnell and the company’s marketing director, Michael Marasco, have visited Florida college campuses to promote it and receive feedback from students.
“The internet has the undesired consequence that people can misrepresent themselves,” Marasco said. “We want to prevent that from happening.”
The winner of the competition will get a $1,000 donation toward its philanthropy from the organization.
Users, who can also use the app through an Instagram account, will be able to use it through Twitter as well by the end of March, Parnell said. The linked accounts just show others that users have profiles on those social media sites.
“It’s to show you what I look like on social media to make sure I am who I’m saying I am,” Parnell said.
Noah Amico, a UF architecture sophomore, said he often uses Craigslist to purchase and sell items. He said he hasn’t had a bad experience, but knows meeting strangers can be risky.
“At times the app would be helpful just to know who you are actually meeting up with,” the 20-year-old said.
