Thanks to the relative namelessness the Internet provides , it ’s all too easy to type up something snarky — if not downright mean — and give notice it off without really considering the consequences . But what if would - be cyberbullies were forced to finish and think about the weight of their words before they hit " Send " ?
Trisha Prabhu , a 15 - class - old high school scholar from Naperville , Illinois , is encouraging mass to do just that . Two years ago , Prabhu read about an 11 - yr - old girl from Florida who invest suicide after deal out with a quite a little of cyber attacks from her classmate . The bud coder became motivated to use her computer acquisition for good , and cook up asoftware programcalled ReThink that recognizes common “ intimidation ” phrases when they ’re typed into a computer . After a cyber yob type a mean sentence , a pop - up window appear , asking the author a simple yet effective question : “ Are you sure you want to do that ? ” The rowdy terminate up deleting their Scripture 93 percent of the time , Prabhu ’s written report show .
The idea bring in Prabhu honors and award , including a finalist spot in last year’sGoogle Science Fair , a stumble to the White House for itsannual youth science expo , and a spotlight in Coca - Cola ’s “ Make It Happy ” movement . And ReThink is n’t the only engineering science out there that ’s designed to mitigate cyberbullying . Developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration ( SAMHSA ) , theKnowBullying appgives interested parents or caregivers tips on how to utter with their kids about hector . Another app , called STOPit , lets kids safely and confidentially account bullying to adult and school administrator .
In 2014 , the Centers for Disease Controlreported that14.8 per centum of students nationwide say they ’ve been victims of cyberbullying . consider this astonishing statistic , mobile apps and anti - bullying computer computer programme such as Prabhu ’s hold the voltage to assist a mountain of people .
[ h / tTakePart.com ]
