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Ugly Meter iPhone App: New Weapon for Cyberbullies?

Ugly Meter iPhone App: New Weapon for Cyberbullies?

Have the beauty wars taken an ugly turn? That’s what some are saying, now that there’s a new iPhone app that rates the attractiveness of faces.

The “ugly meter” app is marketed with a lighthearted touch: “Do you ever wonder if you’re ugly and your friends just don’t tell you?” asks the pitch for the app on the Apple website. “Do you have an ugly friend, and you just don’t know how to tell them?”

But critics say it’s a sure bet the app will be hijacked by cyberbullies bent on making life miserable for their targets.

“If you’re 25, 26, or 28, this sort of thing could be quite funny or amusing,” said Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute in Washington, according to Fox News. “But in the hands of a 14- or 15-year-old, it could be quite the reverse, and particularly if someone is submitting someone else’s photograph and then circulated that photo around school.”

The 99-cent app lets you snap a photo and then it instantly analyzes the symmetry of the facial features, spitting out a score from one to 10. The higher the number, the uglier the face. Along with the rating, the app spits out a nasty one-liner about the face. Score a perfect 10, for example, and the app displays the message “You’re so ugly, when you walk by the bathroom, the toilet flushes,” according to Aol’s switched.com.

Good idea or bad, just how accurate is the app?

Not very, if you believe results of informal tests published by the Daily Mail.

Christina Hendricks, of “Mad Men” fame, scored a perfect 10 out of 10 - meaning the curvaceous cutie couldn’t be homelier.

And Brangelina didn’t do much better. Brad Pitt scored an eight, and Angelina Jolie came in at two.

Ugly.

[Thanks: http://www.cbsnews.com]

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