Ugly Meter App ~ Trick App or Possible Cyberbullying Tool

At the end of last week, I came across some articles about the new release of the Ugly Meter app that is available for the iPhone and iPad on iTunes for $.99.  The Ugly Meter app, Version 2.76, created by Dapper Gentlemen was released on November 29th, and adds a Bully Mode with meaner insults.  This app is rated 9+.

Photo by: David Goehring

For those of you not familiar with the app, you take a picture of a person’s face, and it scans the photo.  Then the app uses the Ugly Scale to rate this picture and assigns it a number from 0 to 10.  The rating of 0 is the Best rating and 10 is the worst rating you can receive.  Along with the rating you will receive a narrative statement, the higher the number the meaner the insults become.  Then the results can be posted to Twitter or Facebook, if the user chooses to do so.

The results are random, and this app is intended for use as entertainment.  However, as a parent, you know how impressionable our children can be, and they may take the rating seriously.  This article is intended to make you aware of the application, and to remind you to check your iTunes statements to see if your children have downloaded this $.99 app.

If your child happens to find themselves affected by the Ugly Meter, you may want to have them view this YouTube Video below.  This video explains the app and shows that it is a trick app and how you can change the outcome of the results.  It also shows a picture of Brad Pitt getting a score of 8 which means he’s ugly, and the statement received was, “If ugly was a crime you’d get the electric chair”.  Of course we all know that Brad Pitt is not generally perceived as  ugly.  It may help your child realize that the results are not real.

(Please note that this video was created when the app was a Free App, but now it costs $.99)