Paris (AFP)

"Street Alert", "Guard your body", "Sekura" ... Mobile applications to fight against street harassment have multiplied, allowing women to call for help thanks to an "alert" button which indicates their position.

But the modalities of use, even the very existence of these devices raise questions.

"I do not feel safe in the street at all. At least if I issue an alert, I know that there are people who can react directly", says Sophie, 22, a student in Toulouse.

On her phone, the young woman always keeps open the latest app, "The Sorority", free like the various offers in this sector.

Available since September 1, it allows you to generate a shared alert afterwards with users.

Those who are nearby can thus know if one of them needs help and geolocate it.

"To create a climate of trust, we only accept women and ask them for an identity document and a selfie to manually verify the identity of each," assures AFP Priscillia Routier Trillard, creator of this app which claims nearly 4,000 downloads in two weeks.

The applications offer various functions, from an audible alarm supposed to scare off attackers to the census of "places of refuge".

This is the case with "Garde ton corps", available since August 10, which has established a partnership with around thirty bars, restaurants and hotels in France to date.

The latter undertake to welcome anyone who feels insecure on the public highway.

"The idea of ​​listing safe places came to me after I was refused access to a bar, one evening when I felt followed, because I was not wearing the + right outfit +", says its founder, Pauline Vanderquand.

- "Machiavellianism of the aggressors" -

But be careful, warns Diariata N'Diaye, a pioneer in this field, "when developing this type of application, it is important to master the subject of violence. Because we can easily offer a feature that works against the user."

"It is very dangerous to put a person in a vulnerable situation in contact with strangers, it is to underestimate the Machiavellianism of the attackers, who are happy to download this type of application, even if it means stealing an identity" , warns this slammer and activist who launched "App-Elles" in 2015 based on her experience in the field and her experience as a victim of violence.

"It can also be dangerous for the person who wants to help a victim," she argues.

Its app allows users, anonymized, to record the contact of three relatives who are the sole recipients of alerts.

The latter can then locate the victim and access the audio recording of his phone.

Are some apps dangerous for their subscribers?

The manager of the development of the "Handsaway" application, Lucile Dupuy, tempers.

"Our vocation is not to encourage users to intervene in the emergency of an attack. It is a tool to unite and report on the frequency of sexist and sexual attacks", argues- she.

But the device can be misused: thus "Handsaway", launched in 2016 and with 110,000 claimed users, had to suspend its service on June 8 after being inundated with false alarms and sexist and sexual messages, according to this manager.

Activist within the Stop street harassment collective, Marine Stoll wonders about the very existence of these apps.

If "the companionship of the street allows some to feel more secure", it is "not normal to need an accompaniment of this type in order not to be harassed and to live his life normally", pleads t -she.

Rather than deploying mobile applications, which will not "solve the problem in the long term, we must inform and raise awareness from school," said this volunteer.

© 2020 AFP