In case it passed you by, it was bullying prevention week last week in the US, with the not-inconsiderable combined political mass of Barack and Michelle Obama thrown behind the campaign as they hosted a live conference on the subject on March 10th. The conference included sessions and discussions on cyber-bullying, campus bullying and pioneering new programs to combat harassment of young people, and announced a new website: stopbullying.gov. To give a sense of the scale of the problem, almost a third of young people or 13 million students are bullied each year, with victims more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol and have mental health issues; themes unfortunately all too familiar with young people in the UK.
Opening the conference, Obama said:
"If there is one goal of this conference, it is to dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up, it's not. Bullying can have destructive consequences for our young people."
The conference announced a number of intelligent measures being taken by the US federal government: for a round of them, take a look at Anne Collier's excellent post on NetFamilyNews.org. Focussing here on cyberbullying, social networks were stepping up to the mark:
1. Formspring intelligent filter. First up, Q&A site Formspring - that hotbed of anonymous hatespeech - finally owned up to some kind of responsibility for the hurt its platform can cause. Partnering with MIT's media lab, it is has developed a filter for finding "problematic content" and putting a stop to online bullying. The site has limited the number of questions that can be asked on a formspring to prevent harassment. Users also have the option to require anyone having a question to have formspring.me account.
The filter reportedly detects questionable content on the site by using natural language recognition to determine the meaning behind words better. (I'd be interested to know how this filter may differ from our friend Crisp Thinking's moderation tool which perhaps Formspring could have installed from the start? But that's by the by ...)
Facebook
Never one to let a week go by without a major change or two, this week the platform announced two changes to its reporting mechanisms.
2. Suicide reporting
Firstly, in response to several cases where users announced their intention to commit suicide on the platform, it has launched a system which allows users to report friends they think may be contemplating suicide. (eModeration sees and responds to *a lot* of these threats on many sites we monitor, especially those aimed at young people.) The reporting page asks for the address (URL) of the Facebook page where the messages are posted, the full name of the user and details of any networks they are members of. Suicide-related alerts will be escalated to the highest level, for attention by Facebook's user operations team, which will triage the reports, deciding whether to call police or forward the report to the appropriate suicide prevention organisation, such as The Samaritans in the UK.
This is a welcome recognition of a growing problem. However, the system will always be open to abuse by users, who may overwhelm the site with bogus reports: and in any case, since there is no certainty of the speed of Facebook's response, we would always take a belt and braces approach and follow Facebook's own advice to also report any threat which appeared imminent directly to local police.
3. Additional reporting links
You'll now be able to report content on profiles, groups, pages and events.
4. Social reporting
Another change to reporting will allow users to report cyberbullying directly to a trusted adult, in addition to Facebook itself. Clicking "report" on a photo, for example, will allow you to clarify whether or not you actually appear in the image and whether it's a form of harassment. Selecting the latter option will allow you to forward the picture to a trusted friend like a parent or teacher, in or out of the Facebook network, who can take appropriate action in the real world.
"Social reporting'' aims to involve adults who know the students involved and can intervene before cyberbullying spirals out of control. This is a really important step in recognising that online bullying is usually a reflection of what is happening offline, and it will take real life intervention to control it.
Facebook's director of European policy, Richard Allan, said: "Often the best way of sorting offensive content is for friends to flag those things to each other." For more serious concerns, Facebook can put users in touch with police or charities that can help them, said Mr Allan: "In the real world you have a sense of when you need to escalate something to the right organisation. If someone is calling you names, it might not be appropriate to go directly to the police."
This may also help address CEOP's concern that Facebook's response centres may not have enough staff to cope with reports from its 500 million global users.
In a statement from Facebook:
"In the next few weeks, we will incorporate new educational videos, external resources from renowned experts, downloadable materials for people to share and discuss, and more...We're also looking to teens to get their perspective and advice on using technology wisely."
Not everyone has greeted the changes with open arms. Some still fee that Facebook isn't going far enough. This, from Boston.com:
"The link to report abuse is not prominent enough. Despite what Facebook claims is its "real-name'' culture, bullies can easily set up fake accounts. And Facebook still does a poor job keeping children under 13 from joining in the first place; as many parents can attest, the age restriction is easily circumvented. And however firm its policies, Facebook still relies on users to enforce them. This is a reasonable philosophical stance, but it also spares Facebook the trouble and expense of more closely monitoring the vast social environment it has created."
5. Going after the bullies. This one went largely under-reported, but was picked up by the indomitable Mary Kay Hoal on her Yoursphere blog. In a trial by Thames Valley police (UK), police will be working with teen volunteers to investigate reports of cyberbullying and harassment on Facebook made by parents and schools.
The whole point behind the program is to "nip the problem in the bud and prevent it [cyberbullying] from becoming something more serious" says Dave Thomas, the mastermind behind the plan.
If cyberbullying is found to have taken place, the culprit will be sent a message on Facebook warning them they are breaking the law and could be prosecuted for their actions. Their parents will also be alerted to their activities.
This trial could be rolled out across the Uk is successful, and I look forward to hearing more about it. It sems like a good combination of real-life intervention and teen education. What do you think of the measures taken against cyberbullying? Know any more good examples?