New Media: beating cyberbullies at their own game

With advances in technology, individuals can use it for good or for evil. An unfortunate result of online communication is cyberbullying.

Today CNN is featuring a success story in which a bulled teen was able to turn the tables by using new media aganst her attackers. A video of a student being filmed was posted on Social Media sites YouTube and CNN ireport. The video received many views, including one by a local reporter, who notified the authorities. A clip to the video can be viewed here.

Cyberbullying is a term that can relate to many things: A chat room discussion. Fake profiles on a social networking site. Unflattering video or image posts. Hurtful instant messages. These are all ways to harass, ridicule, embarrass or threaten another person.

The problem is that what used to happen on school grounds has spread to the masses. Cyberbullies can enroll other students to join in that may normally not be an active participant on school grounds. The end result that unseen people who wouldn’t normally bully don’t take it as seriously because there is an sense of anonymity behind a keyboard or mobile device. As we’ve seen in recent headlines, the end result of Cyberbulling can be deadly.

A national law enforcement survey released some alarming statistics. Their poll of children and teens found that one in three teens and one in six preteens have been victims of cyber bullying. Estimates show that more than 13 million children aged 6 to 17 were victims of cyber bullying. Read more for some additional alarming statistics:

– One-third of all teens (12-17) and one-sixth of children ages 6-11 have had mean, threatening or embarrassing things said about them online.

– 10 percent of the teens and four percent of the younger children were threatened online with physical harm.

Most alarming statistic? More than 2 million of those victims did not report the cyberbullying.

Through social media, the victim was able to use the same tools in order to report the problem. Well done.

Oops….the problems with paid searches

Google proudly distinguishes itself as a company that does not participate as “a pay to play” search engine. If a link appears in a query for a Google keyword search, it’s because Google thought it was a relevant result for the end user’s needs. Yes, the company permits advertising on its site, but ads must be relevant to the current search (more on that below), nuisance pop-ups or fly-ins are not allowed, paid links are clearly identified, and a maximum of three links can appear before unpaid results. Placement samples are shown below:

Advertisers select the queries that paid links should match, and Google then decides placement by an auction. In turn, auction results determine the charge for the ad’s click-through rate If the click-through rate of an ad falls under a certain level, Google pulls the ad.

Sounds fool proof, right?

Wrong.

Even on Google’s blissfully end-user friendly search engine, snafus can result. A few years ago, a search about a horrific murder in which the victim was found in a suitcase yielded Google adword results for a suitcase company. Let’s pray that a copycat criminal wasn’t shopping online that day!

Google has since fixed its technical algorithms so that another similar unfortunate mix of search terms will not occur. But what this example tells us is technology’s failure to react to behavior or intent of the consumers.

Never fear, as this year Google announced a new beta search product that will match an ad with the context of the end user’s current search, in addition to the option for results to factor in the user’s online history not directly related to the current search. Although Google has an in-depth privacy policy, this type of behind the scenes advertising has privacy watchdog groups nervous.

So now it seems Big Brother Google is watching us. Let’s hope he doesn’t have a suitcase.