With the rise of social media and the increase of communication online, the presence of cyberbullying has also become prevalent in society. Instagram recently announced the launch of their new bullying detecting technology to continue their efforts to combat cyber bullying on the platform.

Following the exit of the co-founders–Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger–Adam Mosseri, the new chief of Instagram, launched the feature as his first announcement for the app since accepting the new position. Instagram claims the new feature will add-on to the technology already set in place for detecting bullying in the comment section.

The social media platform is now using machine learning technology to detect bullying that occured not only in the comment section but also in photos and captions. These photos will then be sent out to Instagram’s Community Operations to put them up for review.

In their press release, Mosseri stated, “This change will help us identify and remove significantly more bullying—it’s a crucial next step since many people who experience or observe bullying don’t report it.” Mosseri added that the technology is also set in place to protect teen users who he claims, “experience higher rates of bullying online than others.”

PV Sophomore, Naomi Hains was bullied from the eighth grade to the beginning of her sophomore year. Hains was bullied even before she got social media through the spread of rumors between her peers. Hains recalled how much worse the bullying got when she got social media. “People posted about me on their finstas, commented and DMed mean things. People would send around embarrassing pictures or videos and spread rumors about me too,” she said.  

To Hains, the new technology added to Instagram’s platform is a huge step towards helping teens who are bullied. She discussed how it was really hard for her to report her bullies in fear of coming off as weak or making the problem worse. Hains stated she could not report some people because she did not follow them. “Even if you tried to report a post, for me, I usually wasn’t even following that account that was posting things about me. If Instagram can detect bullying and delete those posts, that would be amazing,” Hains added.

Although Hains had a positive outlook on Instagram’s response to cyberbullying, she emphasized the idea that social media platforms can only do so much to prevent bullying online. “If people really want to bully someone, they will find a way to bully them, it doesn’t matter. What needs to change is for people to be aware of all the bullying and take a stand against it, even if you aren’t the person being bullied,” Hains said.

In honor of National Bullying Prevention Month, Instagram also announced their “Kindness Camera Effect” feature in partnership with dancer and online influencer, Maddie Ziegler. The new filter can be accessed by anyone who follows Ziegler on Instagram. When the filter is on selfie mode, hearts appear on the screen, but when the camera is flipped, nice comments and messages in a variety of languages appear. One can then tag their friends and give them a heartwarming message.

Muskan Basnet, a fan of Ziegler’s career and social media presence, commented on the new filter. “When I saw Maddie’s filter on her instagram, I was intrigued because it was really interesting to see the positive filter that allowed me to interact with my friends and send them a positive message on social media where things tend to be negative,” Basnet said.