Recently spotted on social media and then applauded by the media is the revolutionary product of an anti-date rape nail polish that women can wear to stop date rape. When The Register first saw this on Facebook the Register thought this was an amazing invention, it could even help save lives. But after doing some research on the new nail polish that was given so much attention The Register found out it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Just seeing it on social media says it may need to be looked into to make sure it really works. Well it works but not to the best of its ability.

The Washington Post was very clear that it had to be a fake saying “The vast majority of date rapes don’t involve the four drugs the nail polish detects.” But after looking at other sources the Washington post got it wrong. The nail polish can only detect three types of date rape drugs: rohypnol, xanax, and GHB, which isn’t great. The more drugs it should be able to detect the better, and then the nail polish can be more helpful in a date rape for women. The Washington Post also said “a chemical test used by the new nail polish often fails to detect drugs in question, while turning up false positives for lots of other benign things.” One thing is for sure, this nail polish needs to go through much more testing before it should be sold to the public.

The creators of this anti-date rape nail polish are four male undergraduates from North Carolina State University. They have named their product Undercover Colors. The Register feels like if this product is for women then women should have helped produce this nail polish because these men are getting criticism for making a product for women. Many people have made comments that this invention could actually hurt women by placing the blame on them for the date rape because they didn’t do anything to prevent it. “Rape Crisis does not endorse or promote such a product or anything similar. This is for three reasons: it implies that it’s the woman’s fault and assumes responsibility on her behalf, and detracts from the real issues that arise from sexual violence. For us, we work with victims to make them realize that they did nothing wrong,” said Katie Russell from Rape Crisis England & Wales (newsweek.com).

This could then lead to women having mental issues or suicidal thoughts. But it is good that young men want to target sexual assault because most young men these days see women as sexual objects and don’t give them much respect.

On newsweek.com they sum up the men’s goal saying “they aim to combat sexual assault by combining modern chemistry with traditional cosmetics.” The product is simple. After applying the bright colored nail polish, you dip your fingers in a drink containing the drugs that the nail polish can detect then the nail polish will turn black in response. But nail polish might not be the only thing that can become a date-rape-drug detector. psfk.com says “other things like this are being produced like color changing coasters, straws, and cups will be available next year.” These products should not come out so soon if the nail polish isn’t exactly the best thing to prevent date rape right now. But the enthusiasm is good because now the public can be more aware and stop date rapes.