Script-Based Story Matching for Cyberbullying Prevention

While the Internet and social media help keep today’s youth better connected to their friends, family, and community, the same media are also the form of expression for an array of harmful social behaviors, such as cyberbullying and cyber-harassment. In this paper we present work in progress to develop intelligent interfaces to social media that use commonsense knowledge bases and automated narrative analyses of text communications between users to trigger selective interventions and prevent negative outcomes. While other approaches seek merely to classify the overall topic of the text, we try to match stories to finer-grained “scripts” that represent stereotypical events and actions. For example, many bullying stories can be matched to a “revenge” script that describes trying to harm someone who has harmed you. These tools have been implemented in an initial prototype system and tested on a database of real stories of cyberbullying collected on MTV’s “A Thin Line” Web site

Approaches to automated detection of cyberbullying:A Survey

Research into cyberbullying detection has increased in recent years, due in part to the proliferation of cyberbullying across social media and its detrimental effect on young people. A growing body of work is emerging on automated approaches to cyberbullying detection. These approaches utilise machine learning and natural language processing techniques to identify the characteristics of a cyberbullying exchange and automatically detect cyberbullying by matching textual data to the identified traits. In this paper, we present a systematic review of published research (as identified via Scopus, ACM and IEEE Xplore bibliographic databases) on cyberbullying detection approaches. On the basis of our extensive literature review, we categorise existing approaches into 4 main classes, namely; supervised learning, lexicon based, rule based and mixed-initiative approaches. Supervised learning-based approaches typically use classifiers such as SVM and Naïve Bayes to develop predictive models for cyberbullying detection. Lexicon based systems utilise word lists and use the presence of words within the lists to detect cyberbullying. Rules-based approaches match text to predefined rules to identify bullying and mixed-initiatives approaches combine human-based reasoning with one or more of the aforementioned approaches. We found lack of quality representative labelled datasets and non-holistic consideration of cyberbullying by researchers when developing detection systems are two key challenges facing cyberbullying detection research. This paper essentially maps out the state-of-the-art in cyberbullying detection research and serves as a resource for researchers to determine where to best direct their future research efforts in this field

Refining the Blunt Instruments of Cybersecurity: A Framework to Coordinate Prevention and Preservation of Behaviours

Background. Cybersecurity controls are deployed to manage risks posed by malicious behaviours or systems. What is not often considered or articulated is how cybersecurity controls may impact legitimate users (often those whose use of a managed system needs to be protected, and preserved). This characterises the ‘blunt’ nature of many cybersecurity controls. Aim. Here we present a synthesis of methods from cybercrime opportunity reduction and behaviour change. Method. We illustrate the method and principles with a range of examples and a case study focusing on online abuse and social media controls,relating in turn to issues inherent in cyberbullying and tech-abuse. Results. The framework describes a capacity to improve the precision of cybersecurity controls, identifying opportunities for risk owners to better protect legitimate users while simultaneously acting to prevent malicious activity in a managed system. Conclusions. We describe capabilities for a novel approach to managing sociotechnical cyber-risk, which can be integrated into typical risk management processes, to allow for side-by-side consideration of efforts to prevent and preserve different behaviours in a system, by examining their shared determinants

Cyberbullying and the Middle School Adolescent: Educator Perceptions

Victimization and perpetration of cyberbullying are ongoing threats to school systems across the United States. Cyberbullying is a vast problem for adolescents, due to constant access and availability of technology via the online environment. This mixed methods study was based on the theoretical framework of Bandura’s (1989) theory. This study investigated the perceptions of middle school educators concerning cyberbullying via educator surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gather mixed methods data. This study took place in four middle schools in upstate South Carolina within District X. One hundred three educator participants took the survey, 12 educators participated in focus groups, and eight educators were interviewed. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of middle school educators regarding cyberbullying, build on previous literature, and add related knowledge to current research. Results showed that educators are aware and extremely concerned about cyberbullying at the middle school level. Educators perceived parental awareness, parental involvement, and parental monitoring could directly impact cyberbullying. Additionally, educators saw a need to educate students, parents, and teachers to impact cyberbullying. A future study that examines parent perceptions with regard to student monitoring would be beneficial as well as a larger sample size

Fighting Fire With Fire: The Use of A Multimedia WebQuest in Increasing Middle-School Students’ Understandings of Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying, the use of personal and information and communication technologies to harass or intimidate others, is an increasingly pervasive problem in schools. This mixed- methods study explored the effectiveness of a multimedia WebQuest in teaching 156 middle-school students about the dangers of cyberbullying and examined the role of gender in learning about cyber-harassment. Set within a constructivist framework, the study provides an innovative, technological intervention for cyberbullying education for use with adolescents and is instrumental in reshaping public policy surrounding cyberbullying education and prevention. The dissertation study occurred in two phases. Phase I, WebQuest Construction, was qualitative in nature and employed stakeholder focus groups to assess middle-school students’ knowledge and awareness surrounding cyberbullying. Data from the focus groups informed the construction of the WebQuest. The second phase, Data Collection from Students, was quantitative in nature and was composed of a pre-test, WebQuest treatment, and post-test. Data analyses for Phase II included paired-sample t tests, repeated-measures analyses of variance, and descriptive statistics that focused on three dependent variables, namely awareness, safety, and knowledge. Findings indicated statistically significant increases in awareness and knowledge from the pre-test to post-test among the middle-school aged participants, while the slight increase in safety from pre to post-test was not significant. The findings support the need for school communities to begin engaging in conversation surrounding the best ways to teach students about cyberbullying’s dangers through the use of technology and issue a call for a re-examination of constructivist learning theory

The social cognitions of victims of bullying:A systematic review

The nature of the relation between victimization of bullying and social information processing is unclear. The prevention hypothesis predicts that victims focus more on negative social cues to prevent further escalation. In contrast, the reaffiliation hypothesis predicts that victims focus more on positive social cues to restore the social situation. Alternatively, the desensitization hypothesis predicts that victims become increasingly insensitive to social cues because of a numbing effect. This systematic review examines evidence for these three hypotheses on the relation between victimization and social information processing. The focus is on two phases of social information processing: encoding of social information (attending to and registration of social cues) and interpreting social information (making sense of multiple social cues simultaneously). These phases are important prerequisites for behavioral responses. The systematic search led to the inclusion of 142 articles, which were published between 1998 and 2021 and received quality assessment. The studies included on average about 1600 participants (range: 14–25,684), who were on average 11.4 years old (range: 4.1–17.0). The topics covered in the literature included attention to and accurate registration of social cues, peer perception, attribution of situations, empathy, and theory of mind. The results were most often in line with the prevention hypothesis and suggested that victimization is related to a negative social-cognitive style, as shown by a more negative perception of peers in general and more negative situational attribution. Victimization seemed unrelated to abilities to empathize or understand others, which contradicted the desensitization hypothesis. However, desensitization may only occur after prolonged and persistent victimization, which to date has been sparsely studied. The reaffiliation hypothesis could not be thoroughly examined, because most studies did not include positive social cues. In bullying prevention, it is important to consider the negative social information processing style related to victimization, because this style may impede the development of positive social interactions

Violence Against Women: Using Interactive Performance to Inspire Change

Rates of gendered violence are high in the Australian city of Hume. To help create a shift in generational attitudes towards this problem, we worked with Good People Act Now (GPAN) to create educational materials on this subject, targeting local youth. We researched effective strategies for anti-violence programs, and we chose interactive performance, developing a script on how texting can be used to inflict violence against women. These materials were presented at community events; audience feedback was collected to improve the presentation and to inform a future video production. Additionally, recruitment materials were created and a website updated to disseminate the materials and increase GPAN membership

"In the Face of Xenophobia: Lessons to Address Bullying of South Asian American Youth"

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: This curriculum provides educators with a set of tools and lesson plans that can be utilized as part of an anti-racist pedagogy. It serves as a resource for addressing issues of racism, harassment, and bullying in the Trump era of heightened nationalism and white supremacy, allowing students to understand the historical origins of xenophobia and teaching them the meanings of key terms such as xenophobia and microaggressions while also putting emphasis on South Asians in America, who are underrepresented in both the Asian American community and American society in general. South Asians in America have also had a long history of being targeted by xenophobic attacks, including in the last decade. The South Asian American Digital Archive would be an excellent online repository for students to explore as part of the curriculum