Trisha Prabhu, an Indian-origin girl came up with a brilliant new tool that could help reduce cyberbullying and trolling.
The 14-year-old hypothesized that adolescents might be less willing to troll others if an alert mechanism would be in effect, the Verge reported.
To determine the veracity of her theory, she created the "Baseline" and the "Rethink" systems, both of which ask users if they're willing to post a series of pre-determined messages online. The difference between the two is that the latter will also warn of potential offensiveness and offer the opportunity to reconsider.
The survey of the project discovered that 67 percent of those utilizing the "Baseline" system were ready to publish malicious remarks. In contrast, less than five percent of participants from the "Rethink" test group reported the same.
Prabhu eventually plans to major in neuroscience and now she has been selected as a global finalist for the Google Science Fair 2014. The young scientist has been now working on a prototype to demonstrate how the "Rethink" system could be integrated with today's plethora of social media sites.
