Tag: online safety

Singapore – In line with Safer Internet Day, Bumble has announced the launch of its newest feature, ‘Deception DetectorTM,’ as part of the company’s continued commitment to building friendly, secure, and genuine interactions throughout the last decade. ‘Deception DetectorTM’ uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect and minimise spam, fraud, and phoney profiles, proactively addressing these issues before members become aware of them. 

Within the first two months of using this technology, Bumble saw a 45% decrease in member reports concerning spam, fraud, and phoney accounts.

According to Bumble’s research, participants worldwide cited the possibility of fraud and phoney accounts as their top concerns when it comes to online dating. Moreover, almost half of the female respondents (46%) expressed concern about the reliability of the online connections they had made on dating apps. These worries and anxieties can keep people away from making deep connections that could greatly improve their lives. 

Bumble Inc.’s Deception DetectorTM introduces a quick and reliable machine-learning approach that is used to assess the authenticity of profiles and connections on all of its platforms. In testing, Deception DetectorTM blocked 95% of the accounts that Bumble Inc. classified as frauds or spam. This AI-powered automated technology works in tandem with committed human support, demonstrating the dedication to creating a safe and empowering community. 

Speaking about the launch, Lidiane Jones, CEO at Bumble Inc., said, “In recent years, the online landscape has evolved significantly and we see a growing concern about authenticity. Bumble Inc. was founded with the aim to build equitable relationships and empower women to make the first move, and Deception DetectorTM is our latest innovation as part of our ongoing commitment to our community to help ensure that connections made on our apps are genuine.” 

She added, “With a dedicated focus on women’s experience online, we recognize that in the AI era, trust is more paramount than ever. We are being thoughtful about how to best use new models to reduce the anxiety of making connections and support our community, with AI standing as a main area of focus.” 

Sydney, Australia – G Squared, a digital consultancy, has recently launched Burrow, a specialist 24/7 community management and social surveillance firm. Burrow will work with firms, managing their social media platforms and tackling online brand threats through continual monitoring. 

Thirty community managers will work from G Squared’s Sydney command centre to facilitate this. 

More than eight years after G Squared first introduced its round-the-clock social media monitoring, the company has adapted to the increasing need of its corporate clientele to safeguard its brand’s image. As such, Burrow has become a stand-alone business, offering services that go beyond traditional community management and social monitoring strategies. 

Michelle Yanez-Olivares, the community operations manager at Burrow, is in charge of the group of community managers. Olivares oversaw businesses like Athlete’s Foot, Hype, and Platypus in her role as head of customer experience at Accent Group before joining G Squared.

Speaking about the launch, George Pappas, co-founder of Burrow and director at G Squared, stated, “Enterprise organisations recognise the importance of having Australian-based community managers to ensure their social channels are properly monitored around the clock to limit the potential for brand damage. Burrow goes beyond the traditional service offering, using the latest technology, engagement techniques and data to ensure brand reputation remains positive. Even more importantly, Burrow identifies and addresses potential risks to protect brands from negative interactions or incidents before they become business critical issues.” 

He added, “Having seen exponential demand for after-hours and always on community management and social monitoring, the time is right for Burrow to emerge as a dedicated brand alongside G Squared. In Michelle, we have someone who is highly experienced in managing teams and developing strategies to mitigate brand risk online.” 

Meanwhile, Olivares said, “Burrow is a trusted and experienced partner for brands wanting to ensure an always-on relationship with consumers, while at the same time ensuring reputational damage is limited and brand advocacy maintained. This is especially important outside office hours, such as evenings and weekends, where our team can pick up and escalate high-risk activity before it snowballs and impacts brands.” 

Singapore – Singaporean parents are increasingly concerned about their child’s safety on the internet, according to Google’s ‘APAC Kids and Families Online Safety Survey’, which mainly reveals that seeing inappropriate content online is the most experienced online safety issue by Singaporean children, with one in two children having encountered it at least once in the past year.

These findings come at a time where children in Singapore are spending more time online than ever before, with four out of five local children now spending one to six hours online daily for education and entertainment.

Notably, data from the survey suggests that the top three types of inappropriate content reported by parents were misinformation at 55.4%, deceptive ads and spam at 50.7%, and violent content at 48.7%.

However the survey also revealed that Singaporean parents are becoming less confident in discussing online safety with their children. This year’s survey found that only 79% of respondents feel confident in engaging their children on this topic, down from 83% last year.

Factors for this decline in confidence may include difficulty of finding age-appropriate and easy-to-understand examples of online safety issues and the rapidly evolving nature of the online world. In addition, nearly half of the parents surveyed said they struggle to find the right time to talk to their children about online safety.

Despite these gaps, more than half of respondents said they are willing to allow their children to spend more time online and expect to change digital rules for their child’s Internet use as they grow older. This also draws concern as parents are faced with the need to develop new rules – sometimes before even putting the fundamentals in place – which makes the online journeys of children increasingly challenging to manage.

Speaking on the results, Norman Ng, regional operations lead, trust & safety global engagement at Google Singapore, said, “Our survey results highlight the urgent need to make online safety a central part of their conversations at home. We understand that each family’s relationship with technology is unique, and we encourage parents to make good use of tools such as Family Link and Be Internet Awesome to aid their digital parenting.”

“As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. We remain committed in stepping up our efforts in working collaboratively with industry partners and experts to ensure digital literacy remains more accessible for all,” he added. 

Lastly, the survey also indicated several suggestions and tools that parents can use to a create safer experience online such as age-appropriate content restrictions via Family Link, blurring graphic content through SafeSearch, child-friendly app settings or versions such as Youtube Kids, and online education and safety resources like The library of Digital Safety Resources and the Be Internet Awesome program.