Reasons of manage Bullying, harassment, violent content, hate, porn and other problematic content on digital media
According to the United Nations survey, 70% of teenager have experienced cyberbullying or comments involving hate speech (Liam, 2016). Thus, it is easy to find that cyber bullying and cyber hatred are relatively common global problems.
Bullying, harassment, violent content, hate, pornography and other problematic content circulated on digital platforms can have a serious impact on the psychological, academic, and social impact of individual victims (Sonia, 2017). In addition also can influence the real society. Specifically, it can lead to anxiety, lower academic performance, and poorer relationships with family or friends. The victims probably began to be irritable and irritable. The suicide of 14 year- old Australia child star Dolly Everett can be seen as an incident caused by online violence and hate speech (Ben, 2018). When such incident become more common, then they will lead to social unrest. That is an important reason why these contents should be managed.
Since the essence of the Internet is an open global platform, which overcomes the barriers of time and physical distance. Thus, there should be multiple parties involved in solving such problems on the Internet. The following article will introduce what they can contribute to the management of this type of Internet content and the existing methods for dealing with such content from four aspects: users, big tech companies, national governments and international organizations.
Users
Users themselves, as the main body of publishing such content, play an important role in managing such harmful content that contains bullying, online violence and hate speech. According to surveys and studies, users’ anger and low morality are the reasons for their inappropriate speech on online platforms (Jiping, Wenqing, Wei, Ling, Xingchao, 2021). Especially for teenagers whose emotions and world values are still unstable. Therefore, if cut off the release of such remarks from the users themselves, then should focus on improving the moral quality of Internet users. In addition, users themselves should cultivate appropriate ways to deal with bad emotions instead of just venting on the Internet. For example, develop some other hobbies or other sports.
It can be seen that some primary schools in Australia have opened relevant courses and trained teachers on interactive technology (including email and chat room) in order to encourage child to use the Internet correctly and avoid cyberbullying (Damian, 2008).
Big tech companies
As the main body of the development of the Internet platform, big tech companies should be responsible for technical assistance in addressing the issue of the Internet inappropriate speech. This means that they can use some technical methods to make such bullying, harassment and violence content do not appear on the platform. It even directly bans users who often post such remarks.
For example, the DFA algorithm is used to identify messages or platform content that contain sensitive words, and separate them finally achieved to shielding (Fei, Yuxiang, 2018). Also, there are many examples of such recognition algorithms applied to Internet platforms. It can be understood that the development company of Tiktok use OCR text recognition technology to review the published content pictures and text. This means that a lot of bullying, violent and pornographic content with sensitive words is blocked by technology before it is published. However, there are still some loopholes in technical audits, and there will also be cases where normal content publishing is blocked. In addition, once publishers have control over what technology blocks sensitive words, they can also avoid those words when they post bullying, violence and pornography. Therefore, technology cannot solve all problems, and still need other means to managed and controlled together.
（Tech company can ban the account that publish things against the rule）
National governments
There has been a lot of controversy over the involvement of the national government in platform management. In the view of most Western countries, the involvement of the national government in management will make the platform more political and endanger freedom of speech. In China, by contrast, the national government has ultimate control over the content of the platform. Comprehensive consideration, the national government should be properly involved in management. They can provide support for controlling cyberbullying and online violence in legislation and policies aspects.
The passage of the Anti-trolling Bill by the Australian government is a case in point. The bill emphasizes that if the platform fails to remove relevant content in a timely manner, the new law will have the right to expose anonymous perpetrators, and the perpetrators will face fines of up to 11,000 Australian dollars. At the same time, the platform may also receive corresponding fines for poor supervision (Anti-trolling Bill, 2021). Similar legislation on cybersecurity can be found in other countries around the world. Through this act, the government declares that the Internet is not an extrajudicial place and the action on the Internet is also regulated.
International organizations
International organizations have a role to play in the face of global issues. Given the nature of Internet platforms, there is reason to believe that international organizations have an active role in regulating cyberbullying, violence, and hate speech. International organizations are conducive to promoting exchanges and cooperation among countries, and can summarize the methods of countries to deal with such inappropriate content on the Internet and provide solutions for global cooperation and exchange of related issues.
UNESCO developed the Internet Universality Indicators (IUIs), an innovative tool to help Member States and all stakeholders assess their Internet environment, bridge the digital divide and promote Internet development (UNESCO, 2019). By assessing countries, we can have a clearer understanding of their own Internet environment and existing problems. Through the exchange of international organizations, they can learn from each other’s strengths and make up for their own shortcomings to formulate a plan in line with their own national conditions to achieve the management of Internet bullying, violence, pornography and other undesirable content. The World Internet Conference International Organization was established in Beijing, China in 2022. The organization includes Internet technology groups and related professionals from various countries. Thus, it can take responsibility for interconnection. This organization is conducive to the cooperation and development of technology companies in various countries to break through national barriers and promote the positive development of the Internet environment.
Looking Ahead
The Internet platform is a global platform, and the management of online violence, harassment, and hate content requires joint efforts from multiple parties. As a user of online platform, people must control the emotions and improve the personal quality. At the same time, use technical means, national legislation and cooperation between countries to conduct supervision and jointly promote the development of Internet platforms. Existing technical means and policies cannot completely solve the problem. Recognizing and making decisions about violence, bullying, pornography, and hate on the Internet is just the beginning of addressing it. In this era of the Internet becoming a mainstream medium, we still need to work hard to overcome the negative effects it brings.
References
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Mum’s sad last moments with Dolly. (2018, May 1). News.Com.Au — Australia’s Leading News Site. https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/dolly-everetts-parents-reveal-what-led-to-their-daughters-death/news-story/b7984758aa1ce96def787ad0c20cde93
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