Issue SnapShot

Cyber-bullying | 2013
Atlantic Canada
Cyber Research + Insights Halifax | Ottawa | Calgary | Vancouver

2013 MediaBadger Public Affairs Ltd. | Cyber Bullying SnapShot Research

Parents often assume that their children use only the social media channels they are aware of. Yet, our research shows that children use many other channels outside of Facebook to communicate with their peers. As this graph shows, channels such as Tumblr or 4Chan are for more used by teens in Atlantic Canada than Facebook. These channels are not always accessed on a home PC or laptop, they may be accessed through a friends computer, smartphone, public library or other public location. Images, video and text can be easily uploaded to a service other than Facebook and deleted from the originating device, thereby obscuring the full range of ways they use the home PC or tablet. Data analysed were generated between January 2012 and March 2013.

No longer is it about one home computer, even if a home has only one computer. Logs are easily erased or altered so parents may not know what other online channels their children are using. Teens have access to tablet devices (e.g. iPad) or friends PCs, public libraries and Internet cafes among other sources. While desktop computers are currently dominant, mobile phones are second and, increasingly, tablet devices are in use. it is likely that highly mobile devices will be the key source of bullying in years to come. In addition, teens are savvy to creating multiple online accounts and email addresses, sometimes as single-use email addresses. This further complicates the ability to source or follow a teens activity online.

2013 MediaBadger Public Affairs Ltd. | Cyber Bullying SnapShot Research

Understanding what types of content are shared online is critical - it helps in determining what to look for, trending topics and issues and which devices parents or guardians may want to keep an eye on. Most people over 40, our prior research shows, tend to focus on text content, whereas youth increasingly prefer images and video with very little text other than tags to sort the content and hashtags to dene the content being shared so others can follow a topic or easily search for content. There may be correlations between pornographic content and hashtags to sourcing teen content. This warrants further research.

Here we looked at the percentage of occurrences of key hashtags/tags/keywords used by teens as drawn from a sample size of 5,000 tweets and public blog postings from 1 January to 31 March 2013 where they could be identied as Atlantic Canada in source. We compared the data between boys and girls. As can be seen, boys are more aggressive in their terminology. Is this reective of easier access to pornographic content? Do these terms, given their prevalence, indicate sexuality is a key component to online bullying? Further research might indicate some answers.

2013 MediaBadger Public Affairs Ltd. | Cyber Bullying SnapShot Research

Methodology & Approach

In 2012, as cyber-bullying became a part of the national narrative on issues of youth and mental health, MediaBadger undertook an analysis of social media use in Atlantic Canada. The study focussed on teens using publicly available online sources - no private information was collected. Sample Size & Proles Our sample size for this project was n=2,500 veriable individual accounts harvested from a public crawling and collection of data from January 2012 through March 2013. We did not identify individual names or proles, only gender and verication that the users were located in an Atlantic Canadian province. Violations of Child Pornography & Other Laws MediaBadger ensured all data analysed were generated by users under the age of 19. No instances of child pornography were viewed and if any instances were to be found, they would be reported to the appropriate authorities. No data collected or analysed were kept or stored in any manner, whatsoever. Privacy Protection Only publicly available information is collected and analysed. At no time is personally identiable information collected or analysed. Any personal identication is deleted from analyst review and is not stored in any form, digital or analog at any time on any device or format. At no time is personal information resold or provided to a third party. Quality of Information Collected Statement The information gathered and analysed is believed to be true and accurate at the time of collection and analysis. MediaBadger cannot guarantee that the original information has not been changed since the time of collection. We are not responsible for

the policies, warranties or guarantees of third party services or sources of data. All information collected from third party is subject to change without notice at any time, including location of and storage of data. MediaBadger is not responsible for what information or the accuracy of public information collected by other services in any form. No information is kept by MediaBadger once analysed except in nal analytical form for the purpose of creating visual interpretations of data. Some methodologies are proprietary to MediaBadger. Overview | How We Collect Information for Analysis MediaBadger has developed a proprietary search engine to access publicly available information from the Web, including social media. The data are analysed via proprietary text analytics software and human analysts. Reports are compiled and delivered to clients. At times, when possible, images, video, text and links to content will be shared with clients. For more information and our blog with other research, please visit www.mediabadger.com We thank you for your interest in this research material.

2013 MediaBadger Public Affairs Ltd. | Cyber Bullying SnapShot Research

About Us
Established in 2009, MediaBadger is an innovative Canadian company extracting digital intelligence from online public sources - in other words, we mine the Internet and extract critical intelligence to support strategic decision making. We have extensive experience with social media and can work with data in multiple languages, including French and Spanish. To date, we have completed more than 280 projects for our clients in Canada and around the world. Our work has helped our clients realise signicant time and cost savings while giving them greater condence in their decision-making and a new perspective on their activities and policies. Our Clients Include:

Contact Us: Giles Crouch

CEO

E: giles@mediabadger.com T: 902.406.7622 M: 902.448.0488 W: www.mediabadger.com

Halifax | Ottawa | Calgary | Vancouver

2013 MediaBadger Public Affairs Ltd. | Cyber Bullying SnapShot Research