The other experiment Facebook – FORTUNE

class=”fuente”> This is an experiment in Facebook where most people can support.

Facebook has worked with social scientists in the past years to understand certain conflicts among users, including bullying and antisocial behavior. Last year, he began to offer some tools to solve these problems.

Facebook offers users the option to report content that violates their terms of service as pornography, graphic violence or threats. But when it comes to certain things as insults or embarrassing photos, a site administrator can not be involved.

These are the situations in which Facebook developers expect a solution of the users. Rather than simply encourage users to be reminded to Facebook, the site has deployed a series of posts in which people can explain why find offensive content.

The company turned to academic research on emotional communication as part of its experiment with different templates. Instead of putting a blank box, users sent messages to their friends with options like “it’s embarrassing”, “showing inappropriate content” or “is a bad picture of me” to express their requests.

Facebook also asked them what made them feel that post-eg, “scared”, “angry”, “sad” or “ashamed” – and managed templates according to the intensity of the emotion expressed. There is also the option of ending a friendship, block or unfollow someone.

The network monitors the results of interactions through an optional follow-up survey. The site noted that the changes implemented since early 2013, have borne fruit.

“What we have observed is that by providing a better language for people to have these conversations, it is more likely to get a response from the sender,” said Facebook product manager Jake Brill.

Facebook claims that the possibility for a user to send messages to someone because your post did not like is increased tenfold, and in terms of share has increased by five times. In total, the company says that the tools added 3.9 million conversations a week.

The problem of cyberbullying is an urgent situation particularly for young people, who use the social network to a greater extent than older people.

virtual security firm McAfee released a study last month where 87% of children between 10 and 18 years, survey respondents said they had witnessed cruel behavior online, a giant leap over last year of 27%. Half of them were involved in reviews out of network for a post with a 4% reached a physical fight.

There is much to be done to tackle Facebook bullying with their tools. McAfee says the best way to control cyberbullying is the communication between parents and children about their online activity.

For researchers in the social network and elsewhere, by far, the work continues. The company topped its fourth annual “Day of the investigation of compassion” in December, which attracted developers, academics and adolescents Bay California to discuss solutions to conflicts online.

“Disagreements and other challenges in relationships are impossible to avoid, both inside and outside of the web,” said Facebook during the event. “While these are facts of life, scientists are just beginning to understand how the rules are unspoken influence human interaction and behavior.”