Last Updated on 13/11/2020 by TheDigitalHacker
Founded in 2018, WhiteHat Jr is an ed-tech startup that aims at imparting coding lessons to young minds in the form of one-to-one video classes with instructors. They have had unconventional and boastful advertisements claiming that your kids could become the next Ratan Tata, Elon Musk by learning coding and app development from a very young age.
Note: The billion dollar app was URL was never shared to anyone. All they shared was “Weight on Moon” which can be calculated using simple equation. The equation is known to everyone for decades and has been part of general study.
According to them, their students made mobile apps worth billions and have become a favorite of the coders and problem solvers at Silicon Valley.
And it turns out these apps are as simple and trivial as calculator apps, simple animation apps.
They also claimed that specific students are selected for silicon valley program but the selection of criteria is not mentioned clearly.
On social media pages like facebook, WhiteHatJr. has been claiming and appreciating the apps made by their students but they do not share the link of those apps.
Probably because real developers from the industry will criticise for their poor standards and money making machine.
If these apps are indeed worth as much as they say it is, why don’t they show it to the world?
Why keep the code and the app private?
Will those million dollar app make money by itself or will make money when it will be released to the public?
Ever since BYJU’s acquired the company, its campaigns and advertisements have gotten more pointless using business influencers and pioneers like Ratan Tata, Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai for their profit.
The hidden secret behind youtube
Parents, students and professionals have tirelessly tried sharing videos on youtube mentioning issues regarding WhiteHatJr but they failed.
We have observed 2 sharp methods WhiteHatJr uses to remove content from the web that doesn’t support their favour “Selling fake dreams to parents”
- File a Defamation and get it removed
- Files a Copyright and get it removed if the person has shared any content which has WhiteHatJr. logo.
The only way we have seen the video get reinitiate on the platform when he/she gets featured by a big publishing company.
The censorship on youtube
Youtube being one of leading platform in the video industry also ran in favour of WhiteHatJr. and removed the videos that weren’t favouring WhiteHatJr in copyright strike.
When the issue became too big that it got the person featured on forbes, they reinitiated the videos.
The real numbers of people fighting for this issue is still unknown as people are scared of getting their account banned, in the worst getting publicly attacked by WhiteHatJr employees.
Not to forget, one of the women employee holding a director position in the company also filed a women assault case to the police but police simply ignored as the story she narrated was completely in the other side and unreal.
These ignorance of police of fake stories like above is good but things like “Women Assault”, “Police Case”, “Defamation” really discourages people to share their experience on social platforms.
How it affects people?
The target audience for the WhiteHat Jr classes is young children, of the age group ranging from 6 to 14 years of age. Not that coding is not important for them, but the claims that you need no prerequisites for learning app development is illogical. You need to know the basics of coding before you proceed with complex applications, which include app development, web development, data storage, and server deployment among many others. The teachers employed are apparently “professionals”, who are unaware of terms like ‘GitHub’; ‘LeetCode’, and ‘Cloud Computing’.
These courses are meant for rich parents; WhiteHat Jr. charges an enormous amount and uses free platforms like Code.org, which is free for anyone and existed way before WhiteHatJr. It is funded by Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants.
Every parent wants what is best for their children. Coding is a very important field in today’s world, and most parents do not know much about it. However to provide the best for their kids, and out of the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), many are taking loans to support kids education that is pointless and of poor quality.
In India, it is a very prevalent trait to show-off one’s child’s achievements. Not understanding what it means, parents claim their children to be superior to others. No one wants that, and this competitive mentality causes parents to spend huge amounts on WhiteHat Jr. Courses, which are pointless and selling false future hopes.
Parents from the middle class and poor families would find it hard to pay for these courses, and it would create a rift between children and their friends from well to do families.
Who are the teachers?
BYJU’s WhiteHat Jr. has a 100% qualified women workforce to teach coding the students. The bewildering part is these ‘qualified’ educators have no clue as to terms and ‘words’ often used by coders to refer to something or to mention something. While ‘GitHub’, ‘server’, ‘internet storage system’, and ‘LeetCode’ have no meaning for these educators, ‘Cloud Computing’ does not exist at all. It is just storing data in the sky.
The company says that by hiring women, they are creating job opportunities for women, and that s a noble cause indeed. However, hiring people with such educational qualifications seems like just hiring women because they seem to be better at keeping the children calm during the video sessions. It sounds like virtual babysitting.
Most importantly, WhiteHatJr does not teach kids how to solve problems that can solve problems of society. Almost all the apps made by the kids revolve around basic mathematics and application development which can be easily learned from the internet for free.
WhiteHatJr. has more number of sales employees working than no of tutors on their platform
What does that mean? That WhiteHatJr. is more focus to money or focused to improve the quality of education in India?
Extensive steps were taken by WhiteHatJr to suppress awareness regarding their faulty workforce
People with experience in the field of software development and application development have found major faults and flaws in the working and advertising of the company. A major name that comes up is Mr. Pradeep Poonia, a software engineer with Cisco, who had outright spoken against the misleading adverts done by WhiteHat Jr.
The company took steps, and all of Mr. Poonia’s Youtube videos were taken down. He said his two Reddit accounts have been suspended permanently, one Twitter account, two Youtube accounts, 16 videos removed from Youtube, and one Quora account temporarily suspended.
The reason for deletion and suspension was found and clear, WhiteHatJr. filed a copyright claim against the video as it shown the reality which wasn’t in the favor of WhiteHatJr.
WhiteHatJr. is misusing the power of copyright and removing any content on the internet which criticizes it. This is not at all right, and they have no one to answer to. Mr Poonia questions the startup’s credentials, and asks, “Who is Wolf Gupta?”. This name has been often used by the company, but his real identity remains a mystery.
Pradeep Poonia is not the only person on social media who have written against the startup. From parents to celebrities, many have questioned BYJU’s and WhiteHat Jr’s tactics. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha and poet-lyricist Neelesh Misra were among those who tweeted about WhiteHat Jr.
What steps have been taken by the authorities?
The Advertising Standard Council of India has received several complaints against the advertisements put up by BYJU’s and WhiteHat Jr. These have been called dubious and unsustainable by several consumers, and ASCI asked WhiteHat Jr. to remove them.
The aggressive claims made by the ed-tech startup on social media have come under ASCI’s scanner too.
“ASCI has processed 15 complaints against seven advertisements of WhiteHat Jr,” Manisha Kapoor, secretary-general of ASCI, the advertising self-regulatory body, tells Forbes India. Five of these advertisements, she points out, were in potential violation of the ASCI code. The advertiser, she lets on, agreed to immediately withdraw the advertisement when ASCI asked them for their response.
“One such advertisement was taken up suo motu by ASCI as well,” says Kapoor. For two advertisements, ASCI didn’t find any violation, and complaints against them were not upheld. One of these advertisements, could be in potential violation of The Emblems and Name (Prevention of Improper use) Act, and the complainant was directed to approach the government for this potential violation, she adds.
WhiteHat Jr. had no choice, and they were forced to withdraw these ads. However, it is not uncommon for people to fall prey to such duping, and these startups earn a lot from fooling people.
Parents always want to give their best for their children, and WhiteHat Jr. is playing on these fears and affections to earn profits in millions and make a name for itself. We have to alert the public about such possible frauds so that they know where they are spending. It is, after all, hard-earned money, and care needs to be taken before spending it.
#1 WhiteHatJr. ad that shows investors fighting to invest in the app! Since when an app that calculates man on moon started getting funding!
#2 Pradeep Poonia videos that were reinitiated after Polonia got featured on Forbes mentioning the same reason
#3 Screenshot of images in which they shown students selected for silicon valley program. What does the silicon valley program really mean?
Getting a paper certificate by WhiteHatJr or giving one macbook to a random student, marketing that to every student claiming “Your kid will get macbook”?
#4 Comment on Ravindran’s video where he said “We are trying something new and we are experimenting, We may commit mistakes”. If it’s new the price of the product should be way lesser as it’s not proven to be effective. It’s more like “We want money even in experimental stage”
#5 what is the long term vision, there is no long term vision. Every student’s LTV is around 5L as they have divided the whole course in 5 different parts.
A student can only be eligible to apply for the silicon valley program once he has completed at least 2 courses of WhiteHatJr. The students who already have that knowledge cannot jump to the program and the only way to be eligible to pay WhiteHatJr and be eligible.
As per WhiteHatJr., 50,000 + students are joining the course every month. That means that 50,000*1,00,000= 5,00,00,00,000 rupees are being poured into WhiteHatJr’s pocket to make their kid eligible just to apply to that program.
Is it really a thing?
Is silicon valley really 40 classes away?
OR It is 40 classes away to be eligible to apply their so called “Silicon Valley Program?”
Does the real silicon valley, California has any program like the “Silicon Valley Program” for kids?
No, there is no program with the name. And the name is being used by WhiteHat Jr. to lure in the parents who have heard the name silicon valley before and have the money OR can take a loan for a bank to afford their courses.
Are the Coders even real Programmers?
As per information found by the opening on several platforms. WhiteHatJr. doesn’t require coding experience.
The question is, “If the teacher does not know to code, How the code student will write will make a proper application?”
“Remembering things and pouring on a paper” may get the students passed but being in business requires more than coding. It requires basic of taxation, accounting, business opportunity understanding, team management, leadership skills that are/were never found in any chapter of whiteHatJr’s curriculum.
All most of parents get is
- An app that can be shared with neighbours
- A royalty that their kid made
- Headache and psychological trauma among parents who cannot afford the course
- The word “Ooh CRAP” among real developers who understand the poor level education whiteHatJr. is offering.
- See the what real web developer, mobile developers, and ML AI engineers say on Quora: link to post where 290+ including ML, AI, experts are shared their though)
Note: Quora general public answers aren’t generally censored.
Applications created by WhiteHatJr students removed by Google PlayStore
In the latest development against WhiteHatJr, it looks like Google removed the applications created by several students from Playstore while the reason behind removing them seems to be up for speculation, our guess is that the applications failed to meet the standards required.
Application made by Meaidaibahun
We do not want to discredit the efforts made by the students for creating these applications but instead we want to create awareness about the actual scenario taking place behind the smokescreen of glamour and esteemed Silicon Valley made by WhiteHatJr. for parents who are enticed with the probability that their child can become a young prodigy if they enrol him/her at a young age.
Does being eligible means your kid can go to Silicon Valley?
You know the answer.
Does enrolling for WhiteHatJR. course means your kid can be better than Elon musk?
You know the answer again!
Question: Why does whiteHatJr. uses Ratan Tata’s photo in their ads even when he has almost nothing to do with software engineering?
Because parent’s know who Ratan Tata is and they want to see their kid become Ratan Tata a day.
But, Does that mean enrolling their kids to WhiteHatJr. course will make them the next Ratan Tata?
You know the answer.
