By: Cecilie Helm Darling
Posted: 9. May 2025
Media: TechTruster - Femtech news
all.u.me is a piece of smart jewellery to help harassment cases. It's mainly aimed at young women who feel harassed in public places and at private parties.
“Text me when you’re home” is a message that has become all too ingrained in the lives of notably young women in recent years as more accounts of violence against women reach the general public.
WHO estimates that around 736 million women, almost one in three women around the world aged 15 or older, have experienced physical and or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their lives.
If you or your daughter or girlfriend has ever felt unsafe on the street, on a train, or even in your own home, an all.u.me piece of jewellery might be a comfort tool for you and them.
”Women spend an insane amount of mental capacity avoiding violence and harassment. We consider which way to go, whether it is too dark to go for a run, and how some men may interpret our clothes choices. Sometimes we walk the streets with our keys between our fingers or pretend to be talking on the phone to protect ourselves when we feel unsafe,” says Dorte Knudsen, the founder of all.u.me, and continues,
“We become smaller versions of ourselves when we repeatedly get comments about our appearance. I want to turn things around. all.u.me is a way to express that we are all responsible for people being free to do and wear whatever they want.”
Turning good intentions into actions
Most bystanders witnessing harassment don’t intervene for various reasons.
“We may not notice the signs of harassment or be unsure if the victim wants our help. But even if we are certain of these factors, most of us are uncertain how to intervene efficiently and safely,” Dorte Knudsen points out. That is precisely the obstacle she wants to remove with all.u.me.
As the first European-based smart jewellery to help in cases of harassment, all.u.me can solve all three obstacles to helping a person who feels harassed.
The jewellery is not only for situations of violence or rape. It can also be activated as a means of prevention if you feel unsafe about how a harasser will react if you object to the harassment. Even though the smart jewellery to help in cases of harassment is mainly targeted at teenage girls and young women, all.u.me also makes jewellery targeted at minorities, teenage boys, and young men.
A web of volunteer helpers
The all.u.me smart jewellery to help in cases of harassment and its app can alert volunteer helpers as backups nearby via a smartphone app when the person wearing the all.u.me jewellery presses a hidden button in a situation where they feel unsafe. The sooner you intervene, the easier it is – if you know how to de-escalate safely.
“Pressing the jewellery three times sends a message to the 20 geographically closest people who have downloaded the app to be backups. The first five persons in proximity accepting to help you get out of the situation will receive information about your location and a picture of you so they can recognize you,” explains the founder of all.u.me, Dorte Knudsen, to TechTruster.
You can sign up as a jewellery user or as a backup in the app. When you register as a backup, you must complete a three-minute training in the app. The training will show you how to help safely and securely for you and the person who activates the distress alarm.
The volunteer tool – the 5 D’s
The backbone of the backup training consists of the so-called “5 D’s” – distract, delegate, document, delay, direct. The 5 D’s is an invention of ‘Right To Be,’ an NGO enabling bystander intervention.
“By distracting, you intervene in a de-escalation manner. You can ask for directions or pretend you know the person who called for help so the two of you can safely walk away from the situation. For example, you can say, “Hi, [the caller’s name] – wow, I haven’t seen you in ages! Do you have time to grab a quick cup of coffee?” explains Dorte Knudsen.
She acknowledges that de-escalating doesn’t come naturally for most people and takes practice.
If you don’t feel safe intervening alone, you can delegate by finding someone to act for or with you, for example, someone next to you or working at the location. If necessary, you can delegate to the police.
Acknowledge what you saw
If you see harassment from your window or on the street, for example, you can document the situation using your phone. Dorte Knudsen points out that it must be up to the caller to decide how or whether to use the documentation you provided. Delay refers to what you can do after a harassment incident.
“Most harassment victims would greatly appreciate it if you acknowledged what just happened to them. Tell them you saw what happened and that it was completely unacceptable. Just a caring, “Are you OK? Shall we go sit for a bit?” and ask how you can help will help the victim stop feeling shame and guilt about what happened,” says Dorte Knudsen.
The last D – direct – refers to expressing your disapproval in a short but direct confrontation. “Say “stop” or “that’s not OK,” and then exit,” says Dorte Knudsen. She hopes that people will improve at acting in social situations or at work if someone, for example, shares jokes about blondes.
An effective tool in cases of harassment
Dorte Knudsen underscores that it is important not to take chances.
”Observe and consider your options. Some days, you have more surplus than others. You can always use one of the other Ds and ask others for help. It is not just one D for any given situation. It can be a combination or any of the other D’s,” says Dorte Knudsen.
Knowing the 5 D’s method has proven to be an effective tool for bystanders to intervene and help turn good intentions into actions.
Since December 2024, 80 pre-launch volunteer men and women between 15 and 25 have been testing all.u.me in Copenhagen, and several hundred are backups on the app.
In a follow-up survey with the participants with Right To Be, 98.8% of people being trained in the 5 D’s felt there was at least one thing they could do the next time they witnessed harassment. Similarly, the follow-up survey showed that 76% of participants who saw harassment after attending the training reported that they intervened.
“I expect our training and workshops to show the same results,” says Dorte Knudsen.
A norm-changing goal
With the slogan “The beauty of feeling free,” Dorte Knudsen’s goal with all.u.me is to help create a world where everybody feels free to be who they are.
The primary purpose of all.u.me is to prevent escalations when someone feels harassed and to make people act when they see another person being subject to threats or harassment. Not only when a jewellery user activates the alarm on the smart jewellery to help in harassment cases.
“I hope that all.u.me will be a tool to change people’s perception and habits in society in general, and minimize situations where someone feels threatened. I would much rather work with the culture. Today, many bystanders are passive when witnessing transgressive behaviour,” says Dorte Knudsen.
Beauty meets practicality
The beauty of it all is that all the good intentions and actions behind all.u.me are wrapped in a beautiful, relatively small piece of jewellery. It comes in silver or gold, with a gemstone functioning as the distress button while masking the Bluetooth antenna. It is waterproof, so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to put it on. The battery lasts for three to four years. It is currently not possible to replace the battery.
”I got the idea when I was investigating the market for assault alarms. They were all ugly and made of plastic. Some of them even hung from a conference lanyard. Not a living soul wants to wear that,” exclaims Dorte Knudsen, “We want to create something beautiful people want to wear. We actually claim that an all.u.me jewellery is the first real wearable in the world,” says Dorthe Knudsen.
The pieces will cost between 599 Danish kr and 999 kr. The app subscription costs 19 DKK a month. If you buy the jewellery and app as a present for someone, you can prepay for the subscription for either six or twelve months, or choose a lifetime subscription. The subscription covers the costs of maintaining the IT system, supporting the call button, and expanding the all.u.me community nationally and internationally.
all.u.me can be bought from mid-May 2025 at https://all-u-me.com/collections/sll.
Dorte Knudsen encourages companies, organizations, or brands interested in workshops, volunteering, or design collaborations to reach out. Not surprisingly, Dorte Knudsen also attended the annual exhibition Meaningful Menopause Jewellery at Copenhagen Business Academy earlier this year.
