Brighten App To The Rescue: How To Fight Bullying By Sending Compliments

A young man has released an app that could help fight bullying. The Brighten app sends out compliments to social media users and its impact could bring positive changes.

Austin Kevitch was still in high school when he thought of an app that would allow the anonymous sending of compliments among its users. It was his friend Oliver Pacchiana's death which motivated Kevitch to make the app a reality.

Pacchiana's Facebook page was filled with heartwarming comments from family and friends, but he was no longer there to read them. Kevitch said he learned a lot of new things about his friend from the comments. Some of the messages posted on the page were even life-changing.

"Just hearing one of those comments could change your life," Kevitch, now the CEO of the app Brighten which is based in Santa Monica, California, told Huffington Post. "It was a wake-up call that the world needs something like [Brighten]," he added.

Kevitch's Brighten app was released in 2015 and has been downloaded more than a million times since then.  Compliments referred to as brightens, as well as the snapshot of the sender's smile can be sent anonymously using the app. Other users, however, reveal their identities when sending the brightens.

Brighten will soon join forces with Kind Campaign, a platform against bullying, in a bid to combat the problem among girls, as per New York Times. It will also participate in a social media campaign tagged as "Be Cool Be Nice." The campaign was hatched by Kendall Jenner and Willow Smith to promote kindness in the society.

Dr. Malcolm Smith, an anti-bullying proponent, may be hesitant about the anonymity function of the Brigthen app but he is optimistic about its goal of putting social media to do good, according to Real News. Brighten recently partnered with Sandy Hook Promise, an anti-gun advocacy group. The app will be introduced to over 1,700 schools to help the group in its campaign against social isolation.