“Here we go, you can all go to the Crush app. You all click on the link and download it.” Live on TikTok, this Saturday evening, Ophenya – content creator followed by 5 million subscribers on the platform and 800,000 people on Instagram – extolled the virtues of a dating app for teenagers. A purple flame for the logo, the concept is simple: “Find who you secretly crush on”. For Ophenya, Favorite TikToker of the youngest, particularly for his commitment against school bullying and “Cupid 3.0” according to his own bio, the concept is simply brilliant. “Everything is positive, there is no negativity.”
No negativity, we won’t put our finger on it. On paper, Crush helps young middle and high school students find who in their class or in their establishment has a weakness for the other. To do this, users respond to anonymous surveys of their peers. “Always positive,” underlines Marc Allain, the creator of the application guest on the Ophenya video. The application is also intended to be secure, promises the 24-year-old young woman. “There are no possibilities to send direct messages,” insists the founder.
But since the promotion, there has been a surge on social networks. A regret for the co-founder. On the phone, Marc Allain assures him: the idea started from a good intention. “There is a personal element” in its creation. Victim of school bullying during his adolescence, the founder wanted to find a way to fight against the exclusion of young people. “We didn’t present it as such because it’s less sexy, so potential users wouldn’t have gone for it. Above all, I wanted something cool and fun with friends.”
“The worst he can do is respond to anonymous surveys”
However, there is indeed a hiccup. On the Crush application, the young user reveals a lot of information about themselves: their age, their location, their establishment, their educational level, their accounts on social networks… and more if they have affinities. A significant mine of information for any careless person who downloads it. This would for example be the case of Anthony, 12 years old, in 5th grade at Leonard de Vinci college in Levallois-Perret. Except that this young man – who secretly loves Marion – has never been educated in the Hauts-de-Seine establishment. Not because he lives somewhere else, but above all because he doesn’t exist. Anthony is only our fake profile to immerse yourself in the application.
In two minutes, watch in hand, the registration is done. Only a few questions to answer to identify us, without saying too much about us. But nothing more, no verification. As is often the case, these applications without any security run the risk of malicious intrusion. If it is not a journalist who is too curious in the best case scenario, we could also imagine the presence of pedophiles on the platform. However, the co-founder of the application Marc Allain assures him: “Even in the worst case if Michel, 45, arrives on the application, the worst he can do is respond to anonymous surveys on people he doesn’t know just by their first name.”
User age adjusted
To access these famous surveys, you must add at least four friends. Then scrolls through a list of questions: who do you like to play sports with, the person you would write songs for, the person you would like to see in our private messages, the person you secretly admire. Among the answers, the names of our friends. Tess, Melanie, Emma. Spoiled for choice for Anthony, our fake profile. But without going as far as the fake account, the application offers meetings for young people between 10 and 21 years old, i.e. between minors and adults who could be up to eleven years apart. Faced with this fear from Internet users, Marc Allain wanted to readjust his approach. Since this Tuesday morning, the application is only dedicated to 13-18 year olds. “Unfortunately, there was no technical solution to ensure the minority of users,” he explains, once again recalling the desire to create indirect contacts.
Let’s add to this the costs generated by the application which at first glance is free. However, little by little, everything pays off. To find out who sent us a flame and talk to them, but also to respond to new surveys without waiting an hour. For the modest sum of €3.99 per week, the “Divinity” mode offers two name revelations, a secret crush alert or a more frequent appearance in the survey of others. A significant sum for young adolescents, the majority of whom only have pocket money.
A success with Ophenya fans, but a lack of transparency
In addition to the risks of the application, the link between a popular content creator and a publisher poses a problem as the dangers of the platform are not well explained to its young community. “I would never have released an application with the slightest risk. This is why I explicitly refused to add private messages,” Marc Allain now defends. However, prevention is missing during live performances. On Saturday evening, Ophenya further invited its subscribers to go to the application and leave positive ratings. Since then on the App Store, Crush has received an excellent rating of 4.7 stars and rises to eighth place in the “Social Networks” category. The comments are unanimous. Most of them seem to come from Ophenya subscribers. “I find this application truly incredible.” “Ophenya, your app is great, I hope this app will help a lot of people.” “Thank you genius and thank you Ophenya for this application”.
If Ophenya is not the founder strictly speaking, her role is not really transparent. During his live performance, he was not notified of the slightest commercial collaboration. Yet, since the law of June 9, 2023 aimed at regulating commercial influence, commercial partnerships must be clearly explained. The videos of the live and the interview with the founder of the application, Marc, have disappeared from Ophenya’s TikTok account. Contacted by 20 minutesthe content creator did not respond to our requests regarding her choices.
An empty structure for the moment
There remains one last fear for users: the origin of the application. On TikTok, everything was scrutinized. Marc Allain’s LinkedIn, his Epic App site, his title of “developer”. The latter assumes this application, he is its father. Its name appears well on the App store. As for his business called “Epic App”, specialized in application development, it would only serve as a structure to host its future applications. But for the moment, its turnover does not allow it to structure it any further. Hence the few inaccuracies on its site. “It’s just a poor victim page with empty information,” explains Marc Allain, whose application is still in the process of being registered. ” It takes time “.
App fears don’t come out of nowhere. Crush is not the first platform to emerge to offer young people meetings. Last August, the Teen Meetings site offered conversation spaces for 13-25 year olds… spaces that were too free and where sexual predators sometimes appear. At the time, on France Info, Secretary of State for Children Charlotte Caubel had recalled the need to regulate these sites. “Since the summer of 2022, we have had a law which requires sites to obtain authorization from parents so that under 15s can register on these sites. We are committed to ensuring that the decree implementing this law comes out very quickly.”