Instagram has announced that it is stepping up its anti-bullying efforts by using AI to detect signs of bullying in photos and captions …
Instagram last year began using machine-learning to identify words and phrases in comments that might indicate bullying, and The Verge reports that the company is now aiming to do the same visually.
Today, it announced that it will use AI to “proactively detect bullying” before sending content to human moderators for review.
The new feature will roll out to users in the coming weeks, launching in time for October’s National Bullying Prevention Month in the US and just before Anti-Bullying Week in the UK. The same technology is also being added to live videos to filter comments there as well.
The potential for social media to be used for bullying has prompted most platforms to create anti-bullying initiatives.
It isn’t clear what visual clues the system might look for, though the company did give one example.
A spokesperson gave the example of the AI looking for split-screen images as an example of potential bullying, as one person might be negatively compared to another.
Instagram is also launching a ‘kindness’ filter, which overlays photos with kind comments in multiple languages.
The official website of the US anti-bullying project is stopbullying.gov. It says that early intervention by adults has been shown to be effective.
When adults respond quickly and consistently to bullying behavior they send the message that it is not acceptable. Research shows this can stop bullying behavior over time.
Parents, school staff, and other adults in the community can help kids prevent bullying by talking about it, building a safe school environment, and creating a community-wide bullying prevention strategy.
The UK site is bullying.co.uk, with a week-long push in November. The site explains Instagram’s advice on responding to bullying.
Bullying or abuse on Instagram can happen in many ways. It can be either negative comments, fake profiles or hacking of accounts. Instagram take all of these violations very seriously and have plenty of advice on their pages if you or someone you know is being bullied or abused on Instagram. Their advice initially is to block and unfollow the person who is being abusive. However, if it continues or it has gotten worse, you can use their in-app reporting tool. This page has details on how to report the abuse directly to them.
Instagram says the anti-bullying work is part of its overall Digital Wellbeing program.
