PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Authorities in Bucks County are reminding teenagers that it is a crime to intentionally file a false report with an app that is designed to protect schools and other students.
The reminder came after two recent investigations resulted in charges.
District Attorney Matt Weintraub said overall, the Safe2Say Something app has been a valuable tool, but he explained there have been a handful of cases where people have abused the platform.
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"In most instances, by people who are trying to either get themselves out of school or a classmate out of school, for their own nefarious and selfish purposes,” Weintraub said.
“We need to make sure that people know number one, the Safe2Say program maintains its integrity and is being used for its designed purpose, and number-two and probably most importantly, that we’re keeping people safe, and abuses of this program will not be tolerated.”
According to Weintraub, false reporting on Safe2Say Something is a crime.
Most recently, a 14-year-old and an 18-year-old have been charged with felonies. The 14-year-old is accused with making multiple false reports from January through March.
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The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office runs the app. It allows students, teachers or school administrators to report potentially unsafe activities.
The attorney general’s most recent yearly report is from the 2019-2020 school year. The report says that of the 23,745 tips from across Pennsylvania, 1,261 were designated as false or a prank. Less than half of those false tips were labelled as deliberate abuse of the system.
Bullying and thoughts of suicide were the top uses for the app.
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Weintraub described that anonymity through the app is protected, unless they can prove someone made a false report on purpose.
“Then yes, we’re going to pierce that anonymity and hold somebody criminally accountable, but for only that reason," Weintraub said.