Instagram Cyberbullying: CU's 'Bully Alert' App Is Fast, Accurate

BOULDER, CO – Parents can get a heads-up if their child is being cyberbullied on Instagram, thanks to a new free Android app developed by computer scientists at University of Colorado.

A new scanning system developed by the university's CyberSafety Research Center quickly scans "massive amounts of social media data" in real time to root out nasty messages and comments quickly and send alerts to parents or network administrators.

The approach can pinpoint cyberbullying as it starts and bring it to parents' attention. The app's development was published in a computer science study that developed artificial intelligence that can monitor Instagram in realtime via a system that resembles "hospital triage" and flags questionable posts.

The researchers tested the methods on real-world data from Vine, a now-defunct video-sharing platform, and Instagram, which make their data publicly available.

According to the CyberSafety Research Center:

At a conference in April, the group calculated that their toolset could monitor traffic on Vine and Instagram in real-time, detecting cyberbullying behavior with 70 percent accuracy. What’s more, the approach could also send up warning flags within two hours after the onset of abuse—a performance unmatched by currently available software.

“As parent, I know that a lot of times we are not in full knowledge of what our children are doing on their social networks,” said study co-author Shivakant Mishra, a professor in computer science. “An app like this that informs us when something problematic is happening is invaluable.”

The group released "BullyAlert" a free app for Android phones that allows parents to receive alerts when their kids are the objects of bullying on Instagram.

“As parent, I know that a lot of times we are not in full knowledge of what our children are doing on their social networks,” said Mishra, a professor in computer science. “An app like this that informs us when something problematic is happening is invaluable.”

Right now, the app only works for Instagram, but CU researchers hope to expand it to include other social media platforms.

Rahat Ibn Rafiq, a CU Boulder graduate student in computer science, is the lead author of the new study. Other co-authors include CU Boulder Associate Professor Qin (Christine) Lv and Homa Hosseinmardi of the University of Southern California, a press release from CU said.

You can download the Android Instagram app here.

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