What is the Saturn app? Why student scheduler has parents, schools worried

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Saturn app, which combines an online student calendar with social media functionality, has exploded in popularity ahead of a new year of school.

It’s currently ranked No. 5 under social networking apps in the Apple App Store, behind Threads, WhatsApp, Facebook and Telegram.

But school districts and law enforcement agencies across the country are warning parents to talk to their students about the app, and some school districts — such as the school district in Volusia County — are blocking the app from school networks and devices.

Seminole Public Schools also sent parents a warning letter about the app this week.

The reason? The districts fear predators can use the app to find out school and student information.

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What the Saturn App does

Saturn was created in 2018 as a community app to help students interact with other students in their schools.

The Saturn app touts itself as the ultimate high school scheduling app. Once logged in and verified with a school, students input their class and activities information, share their schedule with friends, post events in the Bulletin section, and see who is in their classes.

It has a chat function for friends and groups. Students can also link their other social media accounts to Saturn and share information from those accounts.

The Saturn app says you can only access your own school. You cannot access information for another school, even if you are in the same school district. It’s also only for high school students.

Where does Saturn get its information?

According to the Saturn website, it collects data on schools provided by students, but also public information listed by school websites and the U.S. Department of Education. It relies on students to provide updated information on schools.

Students build their schedule in the app by choosing a period, choosing a class from a bank of subjects, and then choosing a teacher. The app doesn’t specify whether a teacher teaches that subject, so you could build a schedule that has completely bogus classes.

Saturn says students can restrict people from seeing their schedule and also block users.

Why are school districts and law enforcement officers concerned about predators?

There were early concerns that anyone could log into Saturn with a Snapchat account, create a bogus schedule at a school and then use the app to get information on other students and also communicate with them.

On Aug. 13, Saturn announced it had strengthened its verification process. To verify, users must provide a school email address. Until you have one, you are unable to see any information on the app. You can build a schedule, but you can’t see who else is in the class or access any other features. You also can’t chat with other students in the school or post any other information. You can’t even view school news and events.

News 6 attempted to create a fake account on the Saturn app but without a school email address, we were unable to get past the verification locks.

Eventually, a user that fails to verify an account is removed, according to the Saturn website.

Can anyone get a school email address?

This depends on the school or school district. Some are concerned that people who used to attend a school could use their old school email address to access a school on Saturn. You should check with your school district to see if inactive email addresses are deleted at the district level once a student leaves a school.

The Saturn website also says that teachers and school district employees are not permitted access to the app, but it doesn’t say how it distinguishes a student email address from an employee address.

For instance, in Orange County Public Schools, student email addresses are assigned with student numbers and don’t specify the school. It’s not known how Saturn further verifies if the student attends that specific school.

What other concerns are there?

Law enforcement and schools are concerned that someone with ill intentions could see a student’s schedule, such as a student who is bullying or stalking another student.

Saturn says it strictly enforces its community guidelines, moderates public forums, and has ways for users to report any inappropriate content. The website also says that it will report emergencies to local law enforcement if it believes there is a risk of “imminent harm.”

This goes back to the question of verification, though. How does Saturn verify that a student with a student email address attends the school they claim to? If a student who attends one school is stalking a student at another school, how do they properly vet that information?

News 6 has emailed more questions about the verification process to Saturn and is waiting to hear back.

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