Parents will soon be given the chance to stop their children from becoming victims, or perpetrators, of online bullying.
A new piece of software, developed by Xraydata.com, will alert parents if their children are being attacked, excluded or emotionally abused on online social networks - or if they are the ones doing the attacking.
According to the Xraydata.com co-founder, Macartan Mulligan, it is the first software of this kind developed in English and Arabic, and the first to work with anonymous social network Ask.fm. It will also work with Facebook and Twitter, monitoring children's behaviour.
"Even though those websites are all set up with the best intentions and are fantastic sites which offer great benefits to a lot of people, unfortunately, teenagers and children are so brave on these sites that it can tend to lead to cyber-bullying and totally unacceptable behaviour in general.
"The nature of cyberbullying is it's a group thing - even a good child can become a cyberbully just by liking a post or a nasty photo."
Cyberbullying, he said, had always been about, but began snowballing with the advent of smartphones - especially as it became common for children to use them.
"Children know they have a playground that isn't supervised. And they can't touch the pain - when you bully face-to-face it's very tangiable, but cyberbullying is very intangible."
Mr Mulligan, a father of four, said Xraydata.com wanted to introduce the service in the UAE first because the country liked to set standards and trends.
"It's not just about keyboards, it's about sentiment too. It doesn't just look for a full-out blatant 'I am going to beat you up. I am going to exclude you' - it works on the theme and the tone of comments."
Parents of cyberbullying victims will be able to see malicious comments, but not who has sent them. They will, however, be able to see such comments if left by their own children.
Additionally, the software will only report serious incidents to parents, so they will not be unnecessarily monitoring all their children's activity.
"It will allow parents to be notified only if there's really negative stuff going on. Parents can dictate what levels of threats of physical violence, threats of emotional abuse and threats of exclusion, for example, they would like to be notified of when they sign up with us. When our software system recognises there is a potential threat, it then still goes through our team of human moderators before it goes to a parent."
The software was not, according to the brand ambassador and educational consultant, Gerard L Flynn, about "policing".
Mr Flynn, a former headteacher, has more than 30 years of experience working in education across the world. He said cyberbullying was a burgeoning problem that would worsen over time if something was not done about it.
"First and foremost, this is about education. I'm totally convinced that the vast majority of children do not set out to bully.
"Peer pressure can be so great that people just go along - a recent article compared it to Lord of the Flies. In that book, you had a group of children who had no parental supervision and suddenly turned into savages against the weaker members of their group.
"What we want to do ideally is to not just have parents sign up as individuals but to go through schools and act as a cooperative within the schools. So, all the pupils within a school would sign up and you can have a school who are going to have really effective and worthwhile policy - one that will have numerous positive side effects that you can look at, and children who will really learn a phenomenal lesson in life."
Mr Flynn said: "One of the real tragedies of cyberbullying is the cases where young children have responded by committing suicide."
He added the software would help parents before it was too late, to identify problems they would not otherwise know about and help stop their children from living in misery.
The service will be available from Xraydata.com from October 1 and will cost US$180 (Dh661) per child per year. The website's sister website, nobullying.com, contains a vast amount of information on cyberbullying.
halbustani@thenational.ae
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Nick's journey in numbers
Countries so far: 85
Flights: 149
Steps: 3.78 million
Calories: 220,000
Floors climbed: 2,000
Donations: GPB37,300
Prostate checks: 5
Blisters: 15
Bumps on the head: 2
Dog bites: 1
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Levante v Real Mallorca (12am)
Leganes v Barcelona (4pm)
Real Betis v Valencia (7pm)
Granada v Atletico Madrid (9.30pm)
Sunday
Real Madrid v Real Sociedad (12am)
Espanyol v Getafe (3pm)
Osasuna v Athletic Bilbao (5pm)
Eibar v Alaves (7pm)
Villarreal v Celta Vigo (9.30pm)
Monday
Real Valladolid v Sevilla (12am)
Expert input
If you had all the money in the world, what’s the one sneaker you would buy or create?
“There are a few shoes that have ‘grail’ status for me. But the one I have always wanted is the Nike x Patta x Parra Air Max 1 - Cherrywood. To get a pair in my size brand new is would cost me between Dh8,000 and Dh 10,000.” Jack Brett
“If I had all the money, I would approach Nike and ask them to do my own Air Force 1, that’s one of my dreams.” Yaseen Benchouche
“There’s nothing out there yet that I’d pay an insane amount for, but I’d love to create my own shoe with Tinker Hatfield and Jordan.” Joshua Cox
“I think I’d buy a defunct footwear brand; I’d like the challenge of reinterpreting a brand’s history and changing options.” Kris Balerite
“I’d stir up a creative collaboration with designers Martin Margiela of the mixed patchwork sneakers, and Yohji Yamamoto.” Hussain Moloobhoy
“If I had all the money in the world, I’d live somewhere where I’d never have to wear shoes again.” Raj Malhotra
Afghanistan Premier League - at a glance
Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Fixtures:
Tue, Oct 16, 8pm: Kandahar Knights v Kabul Zwanan; Wed, Oct 17, 4pm: Balkh Legends v Nangarhar Leopards; 8pm: Kandahar Knights v Paktia Panthers; Thu, Oct 18, 4pm: Balkh Legends v Kandahar Knights; 8pm: Kabul Zwanan v Paktia Panthers; Fri, Oct 19, 8pm: First semi-final; Sat, Oct 20, 8pm: Second semi-final; Sun, Oct 21, 8pm: final
Table:
1. Balkh Legends 6 5 1 10
2. Paktia Panthers 6 4 2 8
3. Kabul Zwanan 6 3 3 6
4. Nagarhar Leopards 7 2 5 4
5. Kandahar Knights 5 1 4 2
Company%C2%A0profile
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Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
