In an effort to protect its users, Instagram has announced two new anti-bullying tools that will help prevent people from bullying others as well as protect those who are on the receiving end of such aggressive online behavior.

Online bullying, or cyberbulliying, isn’t new. In one way or another, people of all ages have been on the receiving end of bullying or harassment at one point in their lives. Teens are more susceptible to this. According to a survey conducted by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 14.9 percent of teens aged 12 to 18 across the country were bullied sometime before 2017.

Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, in a blog entry, said teens are the ones who receive the most amount of online bullying, yet they remain the least likely to report about such aggression. As part of the company’s commitment to “create a safe environment on Instagram,” Mosseri said it is launching two new tools aimed at fighting against online bullying.

Think twice

The first tool is meant to discourage Instagram users from posting comments that would otherwise be offensive. This new feature uses AI to detect if a certain user’s comment contains offensive language or content. If the AI detects the presence of such, it will notify the user that the comment might be offensive, and will ask if him “are you sure you want to post this?”

Mosseri said early tests showed that the new feature successfully encouraged people to undo their comment, delete it, and share something less hurtful instead.

This finding is backed by research. According to a 2001 study titled “Peer interventions in playground bullying” (via Stopbullying.gov), when someone intervenes, “bullying stops within 10 seconds 57 percent of the time.” Although the setting is different, the principle remains the same: Instagram’s new feature will stop online bullies from posting something hurtful before they hurt someone.

Stay safe

The second tool works to keep those on the receiving end of online bullying safe from their bullies. It allows Instagram users to “restrict” people. Once restricted, a person can still make comments on the post of those who restricted them, but his comment will only be visible to him unless the one who restricted him makes it visible to others by approving it.

What’s more, restricted persons will not be able to see if those who restricted them are online, or if they have opened their messages. In short, this new feature keeps a person’s online presence hidden from those they restrict.

This feature is very useful for those who don’t want to block, unfollow or report their bullies, but want to stay safe from them.

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Instagram is using machine learning to detect bullying in photos and their captions. Carl Court/Getty Images
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