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South Asian Teenager Creates App To Stop Cyber-Bullying
When there's an app for every human need, sometimes the actually productive apps get lost in the fray.
That's changed with ReThink, an app that will shape cyber-bullying and how we interact online. And it was created by Trisha Prabhu, a 15-year-old high schooler from Illinois.
Photo Credit: MTV
The app is extremely simple: install the ReThink keyboard and write your message, and then an alert pops up asking "Would you like to pause, review, and ReThink before typing anything that might be offensive?"
Prabhu was spurred to create the app when she heard about Rebecca Sedwick's suicide after being cyber-bullied by two classmates. Sedwick was only 11 years old, and her death left an impact on Prabhu, who was 13 at the time.
“How can a girl younger than myself be pushed to take her own life?” she asked. “I was shocked, heartbroken and angry to learn about this incident and set out to find a long-term solution to cyberbullying. I knew I had to do something to stop this from ever happening again," said Prabhu.
Two years later, Prabhu decided to research and hypothesize about why some teens send such abusive messages online.
“I hypothesized that if adolescents (ages 12–18) were provided an alert mechanism that suggested them to re-think their decision if they expressed willingness to post a mean/hurtful message on social media, the number of mean/hurtful messages that adolescents will be willing to post would be lesser than adolescents that are not provided with such an alert mechanism,” said Prabhu on her Google Science Fair application.
Her research evolved out of a simple question: "Are you sure you want to send that message?"
The confirmation prompted 93 per cent of teen users to stop their insults. She was able to test out her theory last year with a test group of 150 boys and 150 girls who were given five different messages based on real examples of cyber-bullying.
The main group was willing to post more than 67 per cent of the hurtful messages. But the ReThink group was initially willing to post 71 per cent, which dropped to 4 per cent after they were given a prompt to reconsider their message.
Since then, Prabhu has presented her ReThink app and research at the Google Science Fair in 2014 and has been conducting TEDx tours around the world. This app has also earned her fans in Selena Gomez and Bill Nye.
Photo Credits Buzzfeed India
Prabhu hopes that parents and teens will download the app, which is currently available via the Google Play store for free. It will be available for iPhones and desktop devices in a few months. Kudos to Prabhu, whose research is truly changing the way we interact online for the better.
Main Image Photo Credit: Buzzfeed India
Rumnique Nannar
Author
Rumnique Nannar is a new journalist with a passion for all things pop culture, film, and art. Rumnique was born in London, with a predilection for devouring English chocolate with her Vogue, ANOKHI, and Glamour magazines in tow. She is currently in her Journalism Masters at UBC. Connect ...
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