A popular anonymous messaging app for US high school students called After School, which was axed in December due to bullying incidents and gun threats, has made a comeback, this time with additional safety features.

For one, the company behind the app is paying a third party to provide people who will vet each and every post submitted. This will be quite a task, given that before it was removed, students were posting at as much as a thousand times an hour during peak time.

It also has a 24/7 Live Chat for “at-risk” users which will pop up if a user types in certain key words such as “kill myself” or “just not feeling it today”; a response system that contacts local authorities and school administrators if a potential threat is detected; a Parental Review Board; and the option to report inappropriate content.

Before it was pulled, creators of the app, which has the tag line “Anonymous confessions and message board for your school” said it had “a loyal group of hundreds of thousands of highly engaged users across 50 per cent of all high schools in the US”.

In a statement, the company said its goal “is to allow students to talk about the issues that are actually important to them… We felt they couldn’t do this in existing forums because of judgement from peers, parents, and teachers.”

“The entire team has stepped up to the challenge and we have been working tirelessly to improve After School,” it added.