Cleaning Up The Internet
Bullying, violence, humiliation and harassment: they don’t just happen out in public spaces. Behind closed doors, on young people's computers, in chat rooms, and social networks growing numbers are being subjected to cyber-bullying. A special cooperation between advertising agency Baumann Ber Rivnay Saatchi & Saatchi and the StartupSeeds program for nurturing technology-oriented youth, resulted in a particularly creative solution to this destructive phenomenon.
A special Chrome plug-in recognizes offensive words (in a similar way a word processor detects spelling mistakes), and offers the user positive alternatives just before they hit the 'send' button. This way users will get a chance to think again before sending offensive messages and better understand the power of words.
Advertising agency BBR Saatchi & Saatchi recently hosted a workshop for the StartupSeeds teens (aged 13-18), in which they were introduced to the basics of advertising. The main objective of the workshop was to come up with a solution to the dangerous phenomenon of cyber-bullying. The decision to invite the teenagers stemmed from the fact that they understand best what it feels like to be in such a position and would be best suited to identify, tackle and fight the problem.
Out of dozens of ideas, one was chosen that addressed the offending party, the cyber bully, just before they write the offensive message on platforms such as Facebook, blogs and forums.
Together, we can clear the Internet of negative and violent messages, and help turn it into a more pleasant place for everyone.
Download the plug-in at: http://goo.gl/1XJuW
