Anonymous Question Apps (NGL, CuriousCat, Sendit)

Apps like NGL ('Not Gonna Lie'), CuriousCat, Sendit, and similar generate a link teens post to their Instagram or Snapchat that solicits anonymous questions or messages. Marketed as compliment platforms, they function in practice as anonymous-harassment vectors: a substantial share of received messages are insults, sexual comments, threats, or coordinated mockery. Several have been the subject of FTC complaints and class actions; teens keep using them anyway.

App stores; the links promoted via Instagram Stories and Snapchat stories. Submitted messages sometimes get re-shared (creating a feedback loop of more anonymous attention).

Anonymous-message apps have cycled in teen popularity for over a decade (Formspring 2010, Ask.fm 2013, YOLO 2019, NGL 2022). Each generation produces the same harassment dynamics; each iteration rebrands.

• 'Anonymous' on these apps is often technically not — the operating company has logs and has handed them to law enforcement in serious cases.
• Pleasant compliments are rare. The dominant content category in academic studies is mockery and harassment.
• Some apps include AI-generated 'compliments' that the company sends to make new users feel rewarded — a documented dark pattern that keeps usage up while the harassment continues.

• Anxiety and depression from sustained anonymous mockery.
• Sexual harassment, including content from adults targeting teen accounts.
• Suicidal ideation in teens who internalize the harassment as truth.

• Delete the apps. The use case (compliments) is illusory; the harm is real.
• Don't post the link. If a friend posts theirs and asks for engagement, the household answer is 'No, those apps are bad news.'
• If harassment crosses into threats or sexual content involving the teen as a minor, report to NCMEC and police — the 'anonymity' is breakable in serious cases.

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