Appreciate A Mate on National Compliments Day

New app for young people counters cyberbullying; spreads positivity online

An Australia-based international research centre has today released a new iPhone app aimed at tackling cyberbullying by spreading positivity onlineamong young people aged 13–17.

TheYoung and Well Cooperative Research Centre’s‘Safe and Well Online’ research team has worked with young people to create the Appreciate A Mateapp – now available for free download from iTunes.

Appreciate A Mate is a friendly app that instantly generates messages of appreciation. You can shake it, swipe it and mix up the colours on over 50 positive messages. The app makes it easy for young people to share positivity online.

“We’re really excited to launch ourAppreciate A Mate app on National Compliments Day,” said Associate Professor Jane Burns, CEO of Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre. “This new app – based on evidence that gratitude is good for you – gives young people a simple digital tool to share compliments with each other, starting a positive cycle of online communication.”

This innovative campaign takes a new approach to tackling cyberbullying and the issue of poor self-esteem in young Australians. Partner The Butterfly Foundation provided expert advice to assist with understanding how the campaign could bestpromote positive body image, build self-esteem and reassurance, with hundreds of young people also influencing the campaign in real and tangible ways.

“Young people told us the building blocks of self-esteem were acceptance and feeling valued by the people closest to them – their friends and family. This is entirely consistent with international evidence. They gave us feedback on the campaign idea and even wrote the messages that you see in the app,” Associate Professor Burns said.

Fourteen-year-old campaign collaborator Lotte Beckett said:”I think Appreciate A Mate is a fantastic way to improve the mental health of young people, and change the way we think about the effect our words have, in both a broad and personal context,” while co-collaborator Belle Campbell, also 14,noted: “Appreciate A Mate is the perfect way to channel the influential powers of social media into a healthy and supportive tool – it’s engaging and easy for young people to utilise.”

“The Appreciate a Mate app is very quick and simple to use to compliment your friends or family. Real positive messages create positive self-esteem and boost confidence. How you feel about your body is connected to how you feel in general – a simple message or compliment from a friend can make all the difference,” said Christine Morgan, CEO,The Butterfly Foundation.

Young and Well CRC partner and campaign Project Manager, Bernadine Brewer of Sydney-based digital consultancy Zuni, said: “Working with Digital Arts Network, we built on this insight by tapping into young people’s current online habits to create a campaign that facilitates positive communication between peers. By providing young people with a tool that works for them and how they prefer to communicate, we have an opportunity to really influence a change in online behavior.”

The campaign kicked off in July 2013, with hundreds of positive compliments spreading their way across websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. The compliments were in the form of beautiful illustrated images with positive sentiments like ‘Don’t Ever Change,’‘Your smile makes me smile’ and even ‘Your face makes Facebook better.’

Since then, almost 26,000 of these images have been created and shared by young people across Australia.

“The campaign reached and exceeded our targets so quickly and young Australians were asking us when they could download Appreciate A Mate as an app,” explained Bernadine. “We were delighted to be able to take the campaign one step further by releasing the new iPhone app and we’re hoping to flood the internet with positivity in 2014!”

Appreciate A Mate is the second in a series of campaigns from Young and Well CRC’s Safe and Well Online project, building on the success of 2012’s campaign, Keep it Tame, which focused on promoting respectful behavior online. Dr Barbara Spears from the University of South Australia, who leads the research for the project, explained that the five-year study will give insight into how young people interact with digital campaigns and how effective messages delivered online can be in influencing or changing attitudes and behaviour.

The project is an initiative of Young and Well CRC and is led by the University of South Australia in conjunction with the University of Western Sydney, Zuni and the Queensland University of Technology. Safe and Well Online builds upon the original Smart Online, Safe Offline initiative developed by National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.

Appreciate A Mate is available to download now for free from the App Store. Android and desktop users can access the campaign on www.appreciateamate.com

About the Young and Well CRC // youngandwellcrc.org.au

The Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre is an Australia-based, international research centre that unites young people with researchers, practitioners, innovators and policy-makers from 77 partner organisations. Together, we explore the role of technology in young people’s lives, and how it can be used to improve the mental health and wellbeing of those aged 12–25. The Young and Well CRC is established under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Program.
YoungandWell Cooperative Research Centre