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Advances in Human Factors in Cybersecurity pp 337–345Cite as

“Is This Cyberbullying or Not?”: Intertwining Computational Detection with Human Perception (A Case Study)

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Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 501))

Abstract

Cyberbullying refers to bullying that occurs through the Internet or text messaging. Understanding the nature of cyberbullying and its implications has become an important issue in society. In an attempt to assist with intervention and prevention efforts, the development of computational systems for detecting acts of cyberbullying has become a common trend. However, prior research notes that such systems are typically vulnerable to inaccurate detections, in particular false-positives. Given the prevalence of cyberbullying across age demographics, understanding how humans identify such activity is important for informing and improving such prevention/intervention efforts and reducing system vulnerability. A study was conducted that asked 180 participants to evaluate three excerpts taken from the social media site Formspring. Participants indicated that the use of profane words, and the determination that someone was harmed by the content of the social media post were the most likely determinants that cyberbullying occurred in the post.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge and thank April Kontostathis from Ursinus College for granting us permission to use her FormSpring dataset to conduct this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Edward Dillon & Juan E. Gilbert

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT, 06824, USA

    Jamie Macbeth

  3. Department of Psychology, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 29634, USA

    Robin Kowalski & Elizabeth Whittaker

Authors
  1. Edward Dillon
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  2. Jamie Macbeth
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  3. Robin Kowalski
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  4. Elizabeth Whittaker
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  5. Juan E. Gilbert
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edward Dillon .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Soar Technology, Inc. , Orlando, USA

    Denise Nicholson

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Dillon, E., Macbeth, J., Kowalski, R., Whittaker, E., Gilbert, J.E. (2016). “Is This Cyberbullying or Not?”: Intertwining Computational Detection with Human Perception (A Case Study). In: Nicholson, D. (eds) Advances in Human Factors in Cybersecurity. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 501. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41932-9_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41932-9_28

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-41931-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-41932-9

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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