If there was one topic that dominated the college news scene in 2014, it would be sexual assault. Between coverage of the Columbia student who carried around her mattress to protest her alleged rape, and the fallout surrounding Rolling Stone’s story of a University of Virginia student’s assault, the rampant issue seemed to speak for itself this past year.
An alarming number of students are victim to sexual assault on college campuses, whether it’s an attempted or completed assault. But the startling fact most people forget is that the assault statistics only speak for reported cases. Too often, attacks go completely unnoticed.
That’s why Sexual Health Innovations created Callisto, a sexual assault recording and reporting system that functions in the form of a mobile app. Starting in 2015, student survivors who might otherwise be too traumatized to come forward to family or the authorities, can report assaults through a confidential digital portal.
Schools that register to use the system are given their own Callisto website. Students who’ve been the victim of assault can then visit their school’s website, record what happened using an online form, and upload electronic evidence in the form of photos. Callisto saves the report and lets you decide if you want to take any action. Then, you have the option to directly submit the report to your chosen authority.
Callisto’s main purpose is to ease the potential fear or trauma that would normally detract a victim from reporting their case through confidentiality. It also aims to draw larger trends across all reports and chronicle what happened, in case a survivor’s memory of the event fades over time.
So far, the platform seems to be getting a ton of support. Earlier this month, Google pledged over $250,000 to fund the system.
Though we wish sexual assault wasn’t a problem to begin with, the unfortunate truth is that it won’t disappear all at once. But nonetheless, Callisto’s effort to ease the reporting process is key.