ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: DESIGNING CYBERBULLYING PREVENTION AND MITIGATION TOOLS Zahra Ashktorab, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017 Dissertation directed by: Professor Jennifer Golbeck College of Information Studies Professor Jessica Vitak College of Information Studies While cyberbullying is prevalent among adolescents, attempts by researchers to evaluate mechanisms for it's prevenion and mitigation have been largely non- existent. In this dissertation, I argue that the complex nature of cyberbullying, made more challenging by the affordances of diverse social media, cannot be solved through strictly algorithmic approaches. Instead, I employ multidisciplinary meth- ods to evaluate data generated by teens on social media and work with teens to develop and test potential cyberbullying mitigation solutions. I further argue that solutions focused on improving users' well-being after being targeted online offer designers a valuable tool in fighting back against the harm caused by cyberbullying. Based on the interdisciplinary studies conducted in this dissertation, I offer design recommendations for cyberbullying prevention and mitigation tools. I address the mitigation of adolescent cyberbullying through a multi-methodological approach: 1) data-centric exploratory study of discourse occuring alongside cyberbullying 2) an experimental design of reactions to positive messages in response to cyberbul- lying 3) human-centered participatory design to design cyberbullying mitigation prototypes and 4) a longitudinal study evaluating the effectiveness of cyberbullying mitigation tools. I offer design recommendations for building and administering cy- berbullying mitigation tools. This dissertation begins with a data-centric study to understand why users are motivated to post and interact through ASKfm, a social media platform that affords cyberbullying and how anonymity and the site's other affordances affect these interactions. I discuss the unique affordances specific to semi-anonymous Q&A social media platforms and how such affordances enable users to engage in self-disclosure and gaining social support on sensitive topics. I then present two studies to first determine if users will be receptive to anonymous positive messages responding to bullying messages, then to administer positive messages or Cyberbully Reversal Pings to Ask.fm users who have received bullying messages. I then use a human-centered approach methodology to co-design cyberbullying proto- types with teens. I use the design recommendations derived from the participatory design study to test the impact of a cyberbullying mitigation system. I address technological mechanisms to mitigate sadness and decline in well-being caused by negative online experiences and cyberbullying. I administer cyberbullying mitiga- tion through technology-mediated memory; in other words, I use positive posts and images participants have previously shared on social media to remind them of exist- ing social support in users social networks. The studies in this dissertation comprise of a mixed methods approach to understand social media platforms on which cy- berbullying occurs, work collaboratively with users to design mitigation platforms and ultimately evaluate a cyberbullying mitigation platform with real users. These aforementioned studies result in design recommendations for building cyberbullying mitigation tools and design recommendations for designing a study to evaluate a cyberbullying mitigation tool. DESIGNING CYBERBULLYING PREVENTION AND MITIGATION TOOLS by Zahra Ashktorab Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Advisory Committee: Professor Jennifer Golbeck, Chair/Advisor Professor Jessica Vitak, Chair/Advisor Professor William Kules Professor Katie Shilton Professor Kathryn Wentzel c Copyright by Zahra Ashktorab 2017 Dedication I dedicate this thesis to my loving mother and father, Dr. Farideh Chitsaz and Dr. Hassan Ashktorab. ii Acknowledgements I owe my gratitude to all the people who have made this thesis possible. First and foremost I'd like to thank my advisors, Dr. Jessica Vitak and Dr. Jennifer Golbeck for their continued support and feedback throughout this process. Without Dr. Vitak's extraordinary theoretical ideas and guidance, and Dr. Gol- beck's computational expertise and direction, this thesis would have been a distant dream. Id like to thank my committee members, Dr. William Kules, Dr. Katie Shilton, and Dr. Kathryn Wentzel for their valuable feedback. I would also like to thank my colleagues for providing much appreciated as- sistance throughout the various studies in this dissertation. Id like to thank Leyla Norooz for being \researcher number 2" during coding of qualitative data during the last phase of analysis of this dissertation and providing her valuable expertise of qualitative data analysis. I owe my deepest thanks to my family - my mother and father who have always stood by me and guided me throughout this journey, and have always encouraged me to be the best at whatever I love to do. Words cannot express the gratitude I owe them. Id like to thank my little brother, Yusuf, for making me laugh, bringing me so much joy, and always encouraging me to accomplish my dreams and goals, no matter how difficult. Thanks to my sister, Parnak and my brother-in-law Hesam for your continued support throughout these years. Samaneh, thank you for always being there for me. iii Table of Contents List of Figures ix List of Abbreviations xi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Dissertation Overview . .3 1.2 Contributions . .6 2 Literature Review 7 2.1 Chapter Summary . .7 2.2 Social Media Use by Adolescents . .7 2.3 The State of Cyberbullying . .9 2.4 Bullying and Intervention . 12 2.5 Existing Cyberbullying Mitigation Tools . 13 3 Motivations Behind the Use of Semi-Anonymous Q&A Social Media Plat- forms 15 3.1 Chapter Summary . 15 3.2 Introduction . 16 3.3 Related Work . 19 3.3.1 ASKfm: Description of Platform . 20 3.3.2 Discourse on Semi-Anonymous Social Media . 21 3.3.3 Anonymity, Disinhibition, and Online Behavior . 22 3.3.4 Positive Outcomes of Anonymous Disclosures . 23 3.4 Study I: Discourse Discovery on ASKfm . 25 3.4.1 Data Collection . 26 3.4.2 Topic Modeling to Discover Discourse Types . 28 3.4.2.1 Classifying Discourse Types . 34 3.4.2.2 Anonymity and Discourse Types . 36 3.4.3 Limitations . 36 3.5 Study II: ASKfm Use Motivations . 37 3.5.1 Participant Demographics . 38 iv 3.5.2 Experiences with Bullying and Cyberbullying . 38 3.5.3 ASKfm Interactions . 39 3.6 Discussion . 40 3.6.1 Emergent Behaviors on ASKfm . 40 3.6.1.1 Self-Disclosure on Semi-Anonymous Q&A Websites . 41 3.6.1.2 Social Support on Semi-Anonymous Q&A Websites . 42 3.6.2 ASKfm Specific Interaction Types . 46 3.6.2.1 Self-Directed Anonymous Questions . 46 3.6.2.2 Transition from Anonymity to Visibility . 47 3.6.2.3 Built-In Filtering . 48 3.6.3 Design Recommendations . 49 3.7 Conclusion . 52 4 Design Heuristics for Cyberbullying Mitigation on Self-Anonymous Websites 54 4.1 Chapter Summary . 54 4.2 Introduction . 55 4.3 Related Work . 56 4.4 Peer Support . 56 4.5 Well Being and Social Support . 58 4.6 Experimental Design: Is Anonymous Support Effective? . 59 4.6.1 Results of the Experiment . 61 4.7 Main Study: Cyberbully-Reversal Ping Pipeline . 64 4.8 Construction of Cyberbully-Reversal Pings . 66 4.8.1 Mediation . 67 4.8.2 Preventative Advocacy and Advice Giving . 67 4.8.2.1 Advocacy and Advice Giving for Self-Harm . 68 4.8.2.2 Advocacy and Advice Giving for Bullying . 68 4.8.3 Befriending . 69 4.9 Identification of Cyberbullying Targets . 70 4.9.1 Method 1: Identifying Cyberbullying Targets with Self Harm Detection and Bullying Detection . 70 4.9.1.1 Classifier . 71 4.9.1.2 Heuristics for Determining Target . 72 4.9.2 Method 2: Identifying Cyberbullying Targets with Bullying Detection . 73 4.9.2.1 Classifier . 73 4.9.2.2 Heuristics for Determining Target . 73 4.9.3 Design Iterations . 74 4.9.3.1 The Challenge of Evaluating Cyberbully-Reversal Pings 74 4.9.3.2 First Iteration: Method 1 Anonymous + All Posts . 75 4.9.3.3 Second Iteration: Method 2 Anonymous + All Posts 76 4.9.3.4 Third Iteration: Method 2 Anonymous + Recent Posts 76 4.9.4 Evaluating Success of Cyberbully-Reversal Pings . 77 4.9.4.1 Response Rate . 78 4.9.4.2 Types of Responses . 78 v 4.10 Discussion and Design Implications . 78 4.10.1 Considering Recent Interactions . 79 4.10.2 Befriending Pings are the Best type of Pings . 80 4.10.3 Gender-Neutral Language is Important . 81 4.11 Ethics . 82 4.12 Conclusion . 83 5 Designing Cyberbullying Mitigation and Prevention Solutions through Par- ticipatory Design With Teenagers 84 5.1 Chapter Summary . 84 5.2 Introduction . 85 5.3 Related Work . 87 5.3.1 Participatory Design and Youth . 88 5.3.2 Designing Cyberbullying Mitigation Tools . 88 5.3.3 User-Centered Design and Cyberbullying . 89 5.4 Method . 90 5.4.1 Survey Details . 91 5.4.2 PD Sessions: My Design Partners . 93 5.4.3 The Design Activities . 94 5.4.3.1 Session I: Focus Group . 94 5.4.3.2 Session II: Scenario Centers . 95 5.4.3.3 Session III: Bags of Stuff/Low-Fidelity Prototyping . 97 5.4.3.4 Session IV: Mixing Ideas . 99 5.4.3.5 Session V: Evaluating Prototypes . 99 5.5 Results . 99 5.5.1 Negative Experiences on Social Media Among Design Partners 100 5.5.2 Design Applications . 101 5.6 Discussion . 107 5.6.1 Defining Cyberbullying . 107 5.6.2 Designing for Support . 108 5.6.3 Designing for Prevention . 109 5.6.3.1 Cyberbullying Prevention by the Bully . 110 5.6.3.2 Cyberbullying Prevention by Victim .