The end of trolls; 14-year-old Trisha Prabhu plans to solve the problem of cyberbullying. The teenager was selected as a global finalist at the Google Science Fair 2014, with the project Rethink που κινείται γύρω από μια απλή ιδέα: προτρέπει τους εφήβους να ξαναδιαβάσουν επιζήμια messages before sending them into the digital world.
"Prevent cyberbullying at its source"
Prabhu hypothesized that teens might be less willing to troll someone if a mechanismnoticethe bell rings for them. To prove her theory, she created the “Baseline” and “Rethink” systems, which ask users to post a series of predetermined messages. The difference between the two είναι ότι το τελευταίο σύστημα προειδοποιεί τους χρήστες για πιθανά προσβλητικά μηνύματα και προσφέρει την ευκαιρία επανεξέτασης πριν την αποστολή. Η Prabhu τότε διενήργησε συνολικά 1.500 ανώνυμες δοκιμές με εφήβους ages from 12 to 18 After sorting and processing the results, he discovered that 67% of people using the “Baseline” system posted the malicious comments. In contrast, less than five percent of participants who used “Rethink” posted the messages.
The young woman is now working on a prototype that will show how the "Rethink" system can be integrated with today's plethora of social networking sites. "My design includes a sophisticated framework with a sensitive filtering system that really captures harmful 'messages,'" says Prabhu.