The app Saturn bills itself as a time-management tool, helping high school students in 17,000 schools keep track of their classes, sports practices, and extracurriculars.
But that innocuous-sounding mission hasn鈥檛 stopped districts around the country鈥攊ncluding , Louisiana鈥檚 , and 鈥撵谤辞尘 .
The app鈥攚hich has been growing in popularity, experts say鈥攕parked a spate of news stories about its security flaws in August, after a father鈥檚 described how easy it was to get into the app and access significant information about his child鈥檚 classmates.
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But experts say flaws in the app鈥檚 verification process still make it too easy for people鈥攑otentially including predators鈥攖o pretend to be students at a particular school. Those problems have continued, they say, even though Saturn recently tightened its privacy measures in response to criticism from educators, parents, and experts.
On Saturn, students鈥� schedules and social-media accounts鈥攊ncluding TikTok, Instagram, SnapChat, and Venmo鈥攁re visible to anyone on the app who is part of their school community, unless the user specifically opts out. Experts are skeptical most users will take the steps necessary to shield their data.
Another red flag, according to experts, is that the app doesn鈥檛 offer parent or teacher safety controls, because it鈥檚 made solely for students, not for educators, parents, or schools, .
鈥淚f it鈥檚 for the purpose of keeping a school schedule all in one place, wouldn鈥檛 it make sense to connect with schools?鈥� said Laura Ordo帽ez, the head of digital content and curation at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that studies the impact of technology on young people. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the purpose here? [They] are coming to the table as a time-management, schedule-management app, but there鈥檚 the social media aspect. Are they trying to really be more of a social media app?鈥�
A spokesperson for Saturn said that students can make their profiles private, which conceals their schedules and social media links to anyone who they don鈥檛 voluntarily 鈥渇riend鈥� on the app. And even if students鈥� schedules are public, they are only available to other students at their school, as determined by the apps鈥� verification process, the spokeswoman explained.
鈥淥ur users do visit the preference page and some make the choice to make their schedule information private,鈥� the Saturn spokeswoman said. 鈥淯sers also have the ability to block specific other users from viewing their schedules.鈥�
But experts aren鈥檛 convinced that students logging in to Saturn would understand that they needed to manually turn those protections on. And they aren鈥檛 sure it鈥檚 a great idea for a large number of people鈥攅ven if they really are just fellow students鈥攖o have a breakdown of what classes, sports, and activities individual students go to on a daily or weekly basis, along with social media links.
That鈥檚 potentially dangerous information in the era of school shootings and other safety problems, Ordo帽ez said.
鈥淵ou can be mad at someone, and you can know exactly where they are, at what time,鈥� Ordo帽ez said. Saturn is 鈥渟upposed to be building community, but high school is a volatile time. We know that there鈥檚 not only the good happening in high school, there鈥檚 the bad, there鈥檚 the negative, there鈥檚 the volatile.鈥�
鈥榊ou may be talking to a bot or worse鈥�
The app, which has been around since 2018, seems to be catching on a bit more recently, Ordo帽ez said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 starting to have some popularity, it鈥檚 starting to pop up,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think parents are starting to see it and then teachers are starting to see it.鈥�
Unlike some free platforms that have a premium, monetized version, Ordo帽ez did not find paid features in her review of the app. Often, apps that don鈥檛 have paid features profit from selling user data, she said.
Saturn鈥檚 website says the app would 鈥淣EVER sell your data to other parties,鈥� in an FAQ posted to its site. But its privacy policy is 鈥渧ery vague in its wording, as all apps are,鈥� Ordo帽ez said.
Since the app isn鈥檛 intended for parent and teacher use, it doesn鈥檛 have any parental controls. In fact, parents can only access their child鈥檚 data if the student emails Saturn to authorize it.
On its website, the company says it is not partnering with schools because it sees a market niche in connecting directly with students. 鈥淲hile many companies are working on building tools that they sell directly to schools and teachers, few have been building with the students at the center of their mission,鈥� Saturn鈥檚 website says.
But even though the app says it鈥檚 just for high schoolers, it鈥檚 not hard for bots鈥攐r even potential predators鈥攖o get around that stipulation, Common Sense reported. To get onto the app, users must enter a birthdate that shows the person using the app is at least 13 years old, but not an adult, and provide a phone number.
Developers tightened those safety controls after parents expressed concerns the app could be used by predators. Now Saturn works to confirm that its users are truly high school students at the school they say they attend by checking to see if a user鈥檚 phone contacts are similar to, or include some of the same numbers, as those of others at that school, or by using a school email address, the platform鈥檚 website says.
But the company appears to acknowledge the challenges in verifying users this way.
鈥淲here you go to school may impact how we are able to verify you,鈥� . 鈥淎t many schools, email verification is not possible because the school doesn鈥檛 allow outside apps to use student emails for authentication. We cannot guarantee that every user is verified or that the processes will always catch individuals who try to use Saturn in violation鈥� of its community guidelines. Those guidelines discourage activities like harassment, promoting self-harm, bullying, threats of violence, hate speech and more, the website says.
Since it鈥檚 not always possible to verify a person鈥檚 identity with a school email address, 鈥渢he person who you鈥檙e talking to [on Saturn] may be a bot or worse,鈥� said Stacey Hawthorne, the chief academic officer for Learn21, a nonprofit organization that works with schools on improving their use of education technology.
Saturn also has a feature allowing users to message one another. The platform also does not appear to monitor or moderate content on its own, instead leaving it up to users to flag inappropriate messaging.
鈥淭hat seems insufficient, especially when it鈥檚 kids using it, who would be a more vulnerable population,鈥� said Cathryn Shelton, an assistant professor of educational technology at Northern Arizona University.
Saturn countered that it works to 鈥渕aintain rigorous content moderation processes in Saturn鈥檚 public channels, and also rely on user reporting,鈥� the Saturn spokeswoman said.
鈥淐ontent types that we moderate for include bullying/harassment, hate speech, violence and threats of violence, and self-harm, among others,鈥� she said. 鈥淪aturn reserves the right to remove content, and suspend or remove users from the app. While we do not support functionality for administrators to directly monitor content on Saturn, we take measures to make Saturn a safe and positive environment for all our users.鈥�
Shelton also finds it 鈥渋cky鈥� that an app like Saturn鈥攁nd Gas, which was popular among high school students last year鈥攃an 鈥減ush its way into schools,鈥� she said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 literally infiltrating the school ecosystem, where it鈥檚 not welcomed, not invited, and causing potential harm as well.鈥�
