Cyberbullying is one of those problems that has always seemed to be a step ahead of the people trying to stop it, but a new anti-bullying feature from Instagram is aiming to stop harmful posts before they ever get sent.
The feature is called feed caption warning, and it takes a look at the caption on a photo or video while the post is still in the editing phase. If you try to post a caption that is similar to captions that have been flagged as offensive before, and AI will notice and you’ll get a pop up asking you to reconsider what you’ve written.
You can still post it anyway, but the results from the testing phase have been encouraging, and show that people will generally change their caption if prompted.
Earlier this year, Instagram launched a similar feature that monitored what was posted in the comments sections of posts. They also announced that they were testing a feature called Restrict, which would stop restricted people’s comments being displayed to everyone unless approved.
Cyberbullying in Australia is a serious issue, and it’s not just on Instagram. About one in four Australian students between years four and nine reported being bullied frequently. On top of that, 84% of students who were bullied online were bullied face to face as well.
It’s a problem that’s on the rise as well, with the reported accounts of cyberbullying doubling between 2017 and 2018.
While the numbers are grim, innovations like this are a key step in tackling the problem. We’ll never make any progress if we don’t start somewhere, and if the testing is any indication, feed caption warning could be a major triumph once it’s rolled out around the globe.
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