Hacking the adolescent brain to stop cyberbullying | Trisha Prabhu | TEDxNaperville

Discover how high school student Trisha Prabhu used science and technology to hack the adolescent brain to stop cyberbullying.

Trisha is an innovator, STEM advocate, social entrepreneur, and creator of software product ReThink, designed to stop cyberbullying at the source. The success of her product lead her to become a global finalist at the 2014 Google Science Fair and she was awarded the Global Anti-bullying Hero Award and Anti-bullying Champion Award from Princess Diana Awards, UK. Trisha was recognized with an Upstander award by the Tyler Clementi Foundation. She has presented internationally to raise awareness of cyberbullying and promote positivity and tolerance around the world, being featured on ABC Good Morning America, MSNBC, Business Insider, International Business Times, Huffington Post, and several other media outlets.

Trisha is also a published author of four books and recently named Chicago’s Financial Literacy Ambassador by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

"Go kill yourself!"

"Why are you still alive?"

"You are so ugly!"

Rebecca Sedwick,
an 11-year-old girl from Florida,

received those mean, embarrassing,
and hurtful messages

on her social media.

She was repeatedly cyberbullied
for over a year and a half,

until one day she decided
she couldn't take it anymore.

She jumped off of her town's
water tower and killed herself.

Two years ago, I came home
from school to read that story.

I was shocked, heartbroken, and angry.

How could a girl younger than myself
be pushed to take her own life?

It was unacceptable,

and I decided right then and there

that the pain that Rebecca
had endured needed to end,

but the damage was already done.

As a 15-year-old sophomore
at Neuqua Valley High School,

right here in Naperville,

I know that each and every one
of my peers are at risk

of being a perpetrator
or a victim of cyberbullying,

and that's why I'm determined
to stop it at the source,

before the damage is done.

Sadly, Rebecca's story
is not the only one out there.

Megan Meier hung herself
in her bedroom closet

three weeks before her 14th birthday.

She received messages
on her MySpace account,

like, "The world would be
a better place without you."

The damage was done and we lost Megan.

Tyler Clementi, 18 years old,

was just getting used to his new
university life and his new gay identity,

until, one day, one of his roommates
thought it would be funny

to stream a video of Tyler in one of his
most intimate moments with his boyfriend

all over social media.

And, by the end of the day, Tyler had
jumped off of the George Washington bridge

to his death.

The damage was done.

I so wish, more than anything else,

that I can make each and every perpetrator
rethink what they did

when they were
cyberbullying these victims.

I wish I could go back in time and go,
"Hold on! Think about what you're doing!

Think about the consequences
of the action you're about to take."

But what if I could?

Would Rebecca, Megan and Tyler
still be alive today?

Cyberbullying is a huge problem.

Over 52% of adolescents in the US alone
have experienced cyberbullying.

That's 12 million adolescents!

And if we step back and look at it
from a global perspective,

we're talking about
1.8 billion teens out there today

with a growing risk of being cyberbullied,

because we're in the middle
of a social media revolution.

Everyone's getting on social media,
and if everyone's getting on social media,

that means the risk of being
cyberbullied continues to climb.

What is cyberbullying?

It's an insidious and electronic
form of verbal abuse,

and just like real-life bullying,

the effects can include depression,
low self-esteem, dropping out of school,

substance abuse,
increased suicidal tendencies.

In fact, new research
from the United Kingdom shows

that the scars of cyberbullying
last well into a person's 50s and 60s.

And so, as I started to do
more and more research about this topic,

I was really wondering, "Why is it
that adolescents cyberbully?"

Why is it that we're so willing

to post these mean and hurtful
messages on social media?

What is driving this?

I also wondered if adults
may be participating.

So, I ended up conducting a study
for my school science fair project,

and it's true: adults can be a part of the
problem when it comes to cyberbullying,

but adolescents are almost
40% more likely

to post an offensive message
on social media than an adult.

And that really surprised me!

I wanted to find out why that was,
what the reason was for that huge gap.

And since a young age,

I've been really fascinated by the brain,

I've been really fascinated
by the way we think,

and I was overwhelmed
with this curiosity to understand

how the adolescent brain
ties in to behavior.

And so, one day,
I was just doing some research,

looking at some articles online,

and I came across a very
interesting light in one of my articles:

the adolescent brain is likened
to a car with no brakes.

[Does that] sound familiar, parents?

(Laughter)

We don't think about what we're doing.

And there's a very interesting piece
of brain science behind this,

and it has to do with the way
the brain develops.

It develops from the back to the front,

and what's even more interesting is 90%
of our brain is done by the time we're 13,

all finished, ready to go.

There's still 10% left and it's just
the frontal lobe of this brain,

called the prefrontal cortex,

but this 10% itself will take
another 13 years to develop!

It's got to be pretty important.

So, I did a little bit more research,
and guess what?

The prefrontal cortex controls
decision making and impulse skills.

So yes, adults. Rejoice. I'll admit it.

Scientifically speaking, you guys can make
better decisions than we can.

(Laughter)

So, if we are downing 15 Red Bulls,
skipping an English final,

not doing homework,
please remember,

odds are we're not thinking
through the consequences of our action.

Our brain simply isn't equipped
to consider what might possibly happen.

We just make spur-of-the-moment,
impulsive, rash decisions,

and that can have harmful effects.

And so, I was venting
about this with my friend.

I was talking to her about what a huge
problem it was, cyberbullying, the brain,

and she just kind of gave me a look,
and I was like, "What?"

She said, "You know, Trisha,
this is a big issue,

but it's not like you're the first person
ever to discover cyberbullying.

There are other solutions out there
that are trying to combat this issue."

And I figured, "Hey! She may be right!"

And it's true: social media sites
are trying to help curb this issue,

just not enough, because their solutions
tend to be generally ineffective.

Social media sites like to pursue
a solution to cyberbullying

that I like to call
"stop, block and tell":

stop what you're doing,
block the cyberbully,

go tell a parent or a guardian,
or law enforcement.

It sounds like a pretty reasonable plan.

The problem is over 90%
of adolescents don't tell anyone

that they're being cyberbullied,

and it seems a little backwards

that we're putting the burden
to stop the cyberbullying on the victim,

instead of attacking the issue
at the source, with the cyberbully.

And so, in this day and age,

with the amount of technology
we have available,

I was just stunned that there wasn't
a better solution to combat this issue,

this silent pandemic
that was affecting millions.

So, that's when I started to experiment.

I wondered, "What if I gave
adolescents a second chance

to rethink what they were about to do?

'Whoa! Pause! Stop!

You're about to post something
really offensive on social media.

This can hurt someone.
Are you sure you want to do this?'"

It was a very simple idea.

I had absolutely no idea
if it was going to work,

but I knew I had to find out,

and that's when I had the best idea ever:

I was going to create a social media site
that was going to go viral in a few days.

We would put Facebook out of business.

And, you know, I would just
have people join the site

and I would test the rethink concept.

I had plenty of data.
It was going to be great.

I'd already crowned myself
a budding Albert Einstein,

until I rethought my idea

and figured that it probably
wasn't that practical.

Even if, miraculously,
it did end up working,

I wouldn't have any actual
scientifically reliable data.

So, I went back to the drawing board.

I created two software systems,

one called Baseline
and other called ReThink.

In the Baseline system,

we presented adolescents ages 12 to 18
a series of offensive messages,

let's just say, "You are so ugly,"

and we said, "Would you post this
on social media?"

Of course they had no idea,
coming into this experiment,

what it was about,
what we were trying to test.

We just wanted to see their willingness
to post an offensive message.

We captured the data,
we moved on to the next message.

We did the same thing with another
software system called ReThink.

The difference was if an adolescent
came to that message, "You are so ugly,"

and said, "Sure!
I'll post this on social media,"

we went, "Stop! Hold on. Rethink.

Are you sure this is worthy of view?

Are you sure you want to post this
on social media?"

So, I conducted this experiment
over the course of a few months,

right here, at the
Naperville Public Library.

I would try and recruit adolescents
as they were coming out of high school,

leaving the library to go home,

for a few minutes, just to be part
of this experiment,

and in the end, after months of hard work,

I ended up getting
1,500 trials worth of data.

(Applause)

And the results were stunning.

Over 93% of the time,

an adolescent received a ReThink alert.

They changed their mind

and decided not to post
an offensive message on social media;

93% of the time.

(Applause)

ReThink was the most proactive solution
to stop cyberbullying before it happened,

and it had such a huge success rate.

The overall willingness to post
an offensive message

dropped from 71% to 4%,

and I was stunned
because my research proved

that ReThink before you type,
ReThink before you post,

ReThink before the damage is done

is the most effective way
to stop cyberbullying,

and it does it at the source,
with the cyberbully,

before the damage is done.

Since then, I've been blessed
to travel the world,

and I've received a patent
for my ReThink concept.

I've been, you know, honored
to receive many international awards,

and I traveled to several platforms,
including the White House,

and presented my work on ReThink.

(Applause)

But none of these awards and accolades
mean anything to me

compared to the growing need
to get ReThink out

in the hands of every adolescent
in the US and across the globe.

So, it was an unforgettable moment
when, a few months ago,

we finally released ReThink as an app

on the Android Google Play Store
and the Apple App Store for free,

and it was available
for millions of people to download

to help stop cyberbullying.

(Applause)

The overwhelming support from parents,
teachers and guidance counselors

has been humbling, and I've been honored.

To think that millions of kids
around the globe

now have access
to this software is amazing.

We've already had thousands of downloads

and we're getting ready to release the app
in multiple languages very soon,

but ReThink is more
than just a software solution.

It's more than just an app.

I's a movement, it's a mindset,
it's a call to action.

Several schools around the globe
have now adopted ReThink

as their campaign to stop cyberbullying,

and my goal is to have every school
adopt ReThink as their campaign

and get the software out to every child's
mobile device and computer,

because it's important that kids know

that everything that they post
on social media matters,

it has meaning.

So that's why I encourage
parents, teachers, administrators

that are in the room today and out there:

please consider nominating two students

to be part of our
ReThink Ambassador Program.

These ambassadors will be trained
to influence their peers

and help spread positivity
in their school environment,

because that's what I believe in.

That's what I believe the future is,
an environment of positivity,

using technology to combat issues
that technology has created.

So, what I'd like you all
to think about now

is what a post means;

when you're posting something,
how much it really matters.

When I decide not to post
an offensive message

about the fat girl
sitting in front of me in class,

that can mean that girl's life.

When you decide not to post an offensive
message about your annoying boss,

that can mean your job.

But the fact is social media
has given each and every one of us

an incredible amount of power,
and with that power comes responsibility.

We have to remember
that, when we're online,

we are digital citizens.

We cannot abuse that power.

We need to make
socially responsible decisions,

when we're online, when we're posting
stuff on social media.

A few days ago, I received
a message from a young girl,

not much younger than myself.

And she said, you know:

"My friend is in the hospital

because she has been cutting herself
for the past few months,

because she's been cyberbullied.

And I don't know what to do,
I don't know how to deal with this,

and I feel like there's nobody
out there that cares.

And then, I found out about ReThink
and found out about you,

and I felt like there's someone out there

that understands
what people are going through,

that understands that there are kids
that silently suffer every day,

because they come home,
they turn on their computer,

and they see a boatload
of offensive messages

all directed towards them."

I hear stories like that every single day,

from parents who have children
that are suffering,

from law enforcement
who are dealing with these issues,

and their stories
move me to tears every time,

because the pain is real,
the loss of life is real,

the issue is real.

That's why we need to take a step back.

Right before we hit "send",
we need to rethink.

We need to take a moment,
think about our actions,

think about the decision
that we're about to make,

what those words really mean,

if they are worthy of who we are
and who we want to be.

So, please, choose to rethink.

Thank you.

(Applause)