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

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