Cilter - Protecting children online
Project Overview
A child-protection software is being developed for smartphones that detects/blocks cyberbullying, self-harm and grooming behaviours online in messaging apps and browsers. To maximise the detection capabilities of harmful content, parents and caregivers are invited to submit verbatim examples of harmful language that their kids have experienced. The collected data will be fully anonymised and cannot be linked to the kid, parent, or caregiver in any way.
Project Goals
The goals of the project are to develop a market-ready smartphone solution that will make children safer online by early detection of cyberbullying, so parents and caregivers can intervene; attempts by online child abusers to groom children, so parents and caregivers can report to law enforcement; and, facilitate early intervention where a child is exposed to or searching for self-harm material. Once created, Cilter will be a parental control and it will assist guardians with ensuring their kids’ smartphone use is safe. At the end of the day, it will be an embedded feature at the OS level of the device.
Research Areas
Cyberbullying, Online-grooming, Suicide/Self-harm, Operating Systems, NLP and Computer Vision (AI)
Principal Investigators
Prof James O’Higgins Norman and Dr Brian Davis
Research Team
Dr Joachim Wagner, Dr Vitor Horta, Dr Sinan Asci, Dr Sayani Basak, Dr Brian Davis, Prof James O’Higgins Norman, Dr Megan Reynolds