UTAS researchers working on “chatbot enabled Cyber Safety for Adolescents” project

A team of University of Tasmania researchers hope that the wider implementation of a chatbot software program could help teenagers deal with issues such as cyber-bullying and grooming.

Generic adobe stock image of teen at computer screen

Teenagers may soon be able to get advice on issues around cyber-bullying, grooming and image-based abuse via an online chatbot.

The “Chatbot enabled Cyber Safety for Adolescents” project is the brainchild of University of Tasmania senior lecturer Joel Scanlan.

The project was funded by the eSafety Comissioner through the Australia government’s Online Safety Grants Program.

While he is currently writing the final report for the research phase, Dr Scanlan said he hoped to eventually roll out the software in schools.

“It was sort of a two-phase project where we did a co-design with a bunch of grade 12 students and a bunch of pastoral care students at a college in Hobart,” he said.

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“Then we ran an evaluation with a bit over 200 grade 11 and 12 students at the start of April.

“That wasn’t a deployment in a real setting where it was at their school, and they were using it in a normal process; it was more of a ‘here’s a chatbot you can interact with, here’s a few scenarios’.”

Through that research process, Dr Scanlan said it was “pretty clear” that students were aware of and worried about a range of cyber threats.

“They’re concerned about things like identity theft because they’ve seen a lot of press about the Medibank and Optus breaches.

“But they’re also aware that they, as a group, could be targeted for grooming; they are concerned about their peers maybe leaking their images.

“Online harm isn’t one thing.

“They’re very aware it’s grooming, image-based abuse, there’s identity theft, there’s bullying and other things.”

Dr Scanlan said that those with eating disorders were often affected by image-based abuse online.

“A lot of teenage girls go online to find hints and tips on eating disorders from a negative perspective, not to get help, but to actually find out how to avoid eating.

“But there are definitely four or five key areas of harm.

“They do get a bit of education in schools, but the point of the chatbot is providing them a way to get support on some of these without it being in that controlled environment and when they want it.”

Despite the promising early research results, Dr Scanlan said the broader implementation of the chatbot project was “very much a fingers-crossed scenario”.

“From a research perspective, we’re not trying to make the one chatbot to rule them all.

“We’re trying to answer questions about how it can be effective so that other people can then grab that knowledge and implement it.

“I’m not interested in making a start-up; I’m more interested in research, and then other people can do that.”