The tragic case of the ‘Blue Whale Challenge‘, a creepy “game” triggered online by a young Russian guy, Philippe Budeikin, leading to suicide, has in the last few weeks rekindle the issue of cyberbullying and topics thereon: sexting, hate speech, child pornography and grooming, emulations that unfortunately are on the net. The awareness that technology cannot be the scapegoat of discomforts coming from elsewhere is well known, but likewise it cannot be denied that web and high-tech devices are the “highways” through which content and actions can run undisturbed and much more quickly. Yet the answer can come just from technology.
Kaitiaki in Maori means ‘guardian’. The word is right on the money to recap the service offered by a new digital platform, born in Italy in Udine, which aims to help solving (or at least to undermining) the problem of cyberbullying.
“Hate messages posted online are a social issue with deep origins, and must not be confused with the social network through which they are conveyed. – says Fabrizio Macchia, COO and co-founder of the company – If socials are powerful “loudspeakers” of the message, they can also be used to stem and control the spread of the issue.”
Katiaki is an online app that, activated by parents, monitors children’ social profiles, recognizing abnormal behavior or attacks, and sending alert notifications. It’s not intrusive: privacy is protected and nothing private can be seen by parents, the same application through its “intelligence” is able to locate through the analysis of texts, posts, images, videos exchanged, visited pages and several social networks what can be deemed as signals to be attended to.
Even a case like the blue whale challenge one, could be contained with a technology like Kaitiaki: the application understands the text and recognizes behavioral patterns at risk and anomalies in the profiles; analyze images and videos, find nakedness, inappropriate phrases, other “abnormal” situations; learn new behavioral patterns, useful for solving new cases.
“The virality and speed of spread of phenomena such as cyberbullying, can only be controlled by online tools as effective and rapid in action – continues Macchia – in order to provide help to those in need and allow parents to intervene in time. Using artificial intelligence to intervene quickly and non-invasively, respecting the privacy, seems to be the most effective solution”.
Until today, to counteract the spread of phenomena such as cyberbullying, sexting, hate speech, preventative or supportive tools, mainly linked to education on the informed use of social networks; or responsive to the occurrence of the event, have been identified. There was no instrument that would allow targeted intervention in real time right when cyberbullying is taking place.
“Katiaki is currently in free trial and on invitation – continues Macchia – will be released on the market at the end of 2017. Along with this application we are also developing Kaitiaki EDU, a tool for schools and associations, intended to make awareness on the meaning and consequences of what guys write online. Very often we deals with a lack of awareness rather than a violent intent. Even Kaitiaki EDU is currently in free trial version”.
Katiaki, an innovative startup for social vocation, was chosen by the European Investment Bank Institute to be among the finalists of the Social Innovation Tournament 2017 competition with more than 300 participants from 31 European countries.
