App created by UNC-Chapel Hill grad joins growing list of safety connections for young people

A UNC-Chapel Hill graduate hopes an app she created will help the school's students and other young people stay safe. ​​​​​Grooop is the latest entry in that space.

Many college campuses have blue light call boxes, but in surveys, most students say they have never used one and would never use one. UNC also provides students with its own app, Live Safe, and offers students the opportunity to request an escort from police-trained peers any time and any where on campus.

Nina Barnett's Grooop allows users to alert family and friends about their whereabouts via a smart phone. The app allows users to communicate with their family and friends about their location, if they are secure or if they are in a situation and need immediate help.

During a demonstration for WRAL News, Barnett's father immediately contacted her when she sent an alert from her app.

"My dad just texted and said, 'Are you OK?'" she said through laughter.

The UNC Live Safe app offers similar functionality. It lets users call 911 quickly, report suspicious activity anonymously, through text, photo or video messaging, and submit details of their location via GPS.

Barnett said she created Grooop during her sophomore year at UNC after she learned that students she knew had been victims of violent crimes

"I had friends who had been sexually assaulted," she said. "I had friends that were held at gunpoint."

Barnett said she hopes the app will make it easier for users to feel secure.

"I really crated a positive connotation around safety rather than the worst case scenario or putting fear in people's minds," she said.

Kailan Skinner, a UNC senior, said the app makes her feel safe.

"I was alone (and) it was late at night and I just felt uneasy," she said while recalling a recent incident in which she was walking home from the library. "I uploaded my alert and my mother texted me and said, 'Are you OK?' and my friends were like, 'Where are you?'"

During that episode, Skinner had several friends who arrived in minutes to walk her home from the library.