Illustration on digital bullying by Annlaug Auestad
U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle popped up on Facebook to deliver the message about cyber-bullying. The video, exclusive to Facebook, serves as a promo and curtain-raiser for the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention, which takes place Thursday. In the video, President Obama jokes about not bugging the viewer for a friend request but instead bringing to light the upcoming conference. “This isn’t an issue that makes headlines every day, but it affects every single young person in our country,” he says in the video.
Facebook’s changes boil down to two main aspects: an improved safety center with more multimedia resources, and better, more social tools for reporting offensive or bullying content.
In addition to reporting harassing or TOS-violating content directly to Facebook, users now have two important options that are more social and more community-centric. Within the reporting options interface, the targeted user can choose to privately message the user who posted the stressful or offensive content. If the user wishes to report the content to Facebook, he or she can also choose to include a trusted authority figure, such as a teacher or parent, as a contact in that incident report.
As for the Safety Center upgrades, Facebook will be bringing “new educational videos, external resources from renowned experts, downloadable materials for people to share and discuss” and more resources within the coming weeks. The company is also asking teens to contribute feedback on smart, safe uses of technology.
Source: Mashable
