Detecting and Responding to Safety Issues in Online Educational Virtual Worlds Diego Fernando Gutierrez Aponte -- Student ID: Deborah Richards -- Supervisor

Abstract 2 Children and teenagers are increasingly spending more time on virtual worlds (VW) for educational purposes and to have fun and build friendships. Online activities have some threats though and virtual worlds are not the exception. This project studies the literature of issues related to online virtual worlds, especially educational ones, and their consequences to then compare current solutions designed to detect and respond to them. Finally, some recommendations are provided to attempt approaching in a more efficient and effective way those issues and provide therefore safer educational and non-educational virtual worlds. ITEC /06/2012

Outline 3  Main issues in Online Educational and Non-Educational Virtual Worlds.  Consequences  Comparison of current solutions to the issues  Potential technology-based solutions  Conclusions ITEC /06/2012

Issues in Online Educational and Non- Educational Virtual Worlds 4  Cyber bullying Figure 1: Bullying content/uploads/2012/04/bullying.jpg content/uploads/2012/04/bullying.jpg Figure 2: Cyber bullying 2/02/main_cyberbullying.jpg 2/02/main_cyberbullying.jpg

Findings on Cyber bullying 5  Perpetrators think they cannot be caught.  Fake or real stories from the victim go public (e.g. gossips and rumours).  It may happen 24/7.  Photos and videos might be more distressful than comments.  It may affect also children with special needs. ITEC /06/2012

Means and devices used for cyber bullying 6  Instant Messaging IM (computers, tablets and smart phones)  Forums  Chat rooms  Social Networks  Web pages and blogs  Wikis  Text Messages (SMS & MMS via any mobile phones). ITEC /06/2012

Types of Cyber bullying 7  Flaming  Online Harassment or Cyber harassment  Denigration  Impersonation  Masquerading  Outing and Trickery  Exclusion/Ostracism ITEC /06/2012

Cyber threats 8  Figure 3: Cyberthreats ( fear-safeguards-against-cyber-bullying-are-not-enough/) fear-safeguards-against-cyber-bullying-are-not-enough/ ITEC /06/2012

Types of cyber threats 9  Direct Threat: threats that show in a clear and specific way the intention of hurting someone else or themselves and have a current plan to implement or execute it.  Distressing Material: threats where there is not a concrete plan that hints where this potential event may occur ITEC /06/2012

Cyber stalking 10 Cyber stalking is indeed very similar to cyber harassment and cannot be clearly defined by some authors; however, it is suggested that cyber stalking involves much more threats than harassment. To make this clearer, some authors suggest that cyber stalking is linked with problems in relationships. ITEC /06/2012

Consequences 11  Life threatening consequences  Legal consequences  Other consequences ITEC /06/2012

Comparison of Current Solutions and Strategies 12 Non-technology solutions Policy-based solutions Raising Awareness Contacting Parents and school Promote appropriate use of technology Activities to teach students, teachers and parents. Supervision ITEC /06/2012

Comparison of Current Solutions 13 Technology Solutions  Saving the evidence  Ignore block and/or react  Request to the admin of the website or social network to remove offensive material.  Filtering websites  Monitoring and tracking ITEC /06/2012

Comparison of Current Solutions (Technology and Non-technology solutions) 14 Hybrid Solutions  FearNot!  Superclubsplus project (Australia)  Know IT All (KIA) ITEC /06/2012

Know IT All for Parents 15ITEC /06/2012

Potential technology-based solution 16 Potential strategies  The dialog agent system ITEC /06/2012

Possible Solution 17 Recommendation/prototype  Ultimate Recommended Solution against Cyberbullying  Unstructured Information Management Architecture UIMA : texting analytics to detect cyber bullying.  Filtering of websites out of the educational VW unless request.  Online counsellor, such as expert psychologist on cyber bullying and its consequences.  Finally, take actions on the educational VW and further actions if necessary on the real world. ITEC /06/2012

Conclusions 18 Summary and final remarks  Cyber bullying is as much as common than traditional bullying.  Parents are not entirely aware of their children activities on virtual worlds.  Governments around the world are starting to create regulations that cover cyber bullying.  Technology and non-technology based-solutions are complementary to prevent, detect and respond to the issues. ITEC /06/2012

Future Work 19  We acknowledge that there is a need to make more efficient and effective solutions.  Technology based-solutions may need more focus on cyber bullying rather than cover just specific aspects of e- safety.  Researchers may attempt to work on solutions for children and teenagers with special needs who might not have the same capacities to detect and respond to cyber bullying attacks. Furthermore, the solutions may need specialised multimedia material to engaged them into technological solutions advised for expert supervision. ITEC /06/2012