Progetti di ricerca

This project aims to develop a virtual companion for Social Media users that educates and supports teenage school students facing the threats of Social Media. These include discrimination and biases in general, possibly escalating to hate speech, bullying, fake news… Leggi tutto and other toxic content that can strongly affect the users in their real lives. The companion will raise awareness of potential threats in Social Media while still providing a satisfactory experience through the use of innovative gamification strategies and educative information selection algorithms. Using carefully designed gamification strategies, based on the concept of interactive counter-narrative, together with a learnt model of diffusion of biased and/or toxic content in Social Media, the companion will learn and revise its user interaction strategies in order to support the development of coping strategies in the targeted learner group. These strategies will be refined and personalized for different users and their social niches, pursuing the dual aims of (A) improving and creating healthy social relationships between the users, peers and the targets of bias, as well as, (B) increasing their understanding of the social effects of toxic content in Social Media and the user's role in its propagation. Experimentation will use data harvested from real Social Media and re-enact these examples in restricted and controllable conditions (e.g. schools, classes).