Schools monitoring on-line bullying with slang translation software
Program used at 1,400 schools, which also tracks self-harm, checks internet communications against dictionary of slang
More than a thousand British schools are monitoring pupils' online communication for bullying and self-harm using software that analyses andtranslates slang for teachers.
The software uses a constantly updated dictionary which includes words that most adults would not understand. These include acronyms such as "gnoc" (get naked on camera) and "dirl" (die in real life) and words such as Bio-Oil, a commercial product which can be used by children who self-harm to reduce the appearance of scarring.
The program also monitors more conventional vocabulary used in bullying such as homophobia and taunts of "terrorist" at children of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent.
The software is part of an education package made by Impero. Jonathan Valentine, a developer, said the program had alerted teachers to potential suicides.
"We originally developed the software to deal with misbehaviour, but we decided to focus on e-safety and came up with the idea of a dictionary of certain words and phrases," he told the Times Educational Supplement.
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