Dr. Tijana Milosevic:

That is a difficult question to answer. Social media companies can do a lot more and that can be achieved through effective regulation. They are doing what they can while being mindful of their business models. There needs to be more transparency there.

One company recently issued a report that shows how different regulatory measures might incentivise a company, advertently or inadvertently, to change its behaviour in regulating online harm. We have to be mindful as to how we design our proposed regulatory measures in order to properly incentivise companies to do what we want them to do. That is difficult to assess if there is insufficient transparency in terms of how the mechanisms of companies, particularly their artificial intelligence, are actually working. More transparency would help us understand how effectively the companies are dealing with these cases already. Especially important in that respect is that there is insufficient research on how the policies of those companies are affecting children. It is extremely important to involve children in the process because there is insufficient research into how the measures that the companies have in place at the moment are impacting children and whether they find them effective. My previous research, for instance, found that social media companies are providing safety centres and other educational measures for children, parents and teachers. Large companies have specially designed sections on their online platforms where they provide a lot of information about how to tackle bullying on their platforms. Based on my research in Norway, many children are not aware of these and are certainly not using them sufficiently. There has to be a greater effort.

In my view, based on research, companies should invest more resources in assisting children with the psychological consequences that they face when they encounter cyberbullying cases on their platforms. There can be a way for regulators to incentivise the companies to assist more.