Two insights drove our strategy; young people’s moral compass doesn’t fully develop until adulthood and current anti-bullying efforts focus on awareness and reporting abuse after the fact. By then, the damage is already done. The opportunity lay in creating an educational tool to prevent bullying behaviour before it happens.

We created Reword, a real-time alert for online bullying. Reword is an educational tool that helps develop young people’s moral compass when they first become active on social media.

A simple JavaScript tool that integrates with social and messaging platforms, Reword detects insults using regex matching as a child types. When a match is found, the child is alerted with a red strikethrough, instantly interrupting behaviour and prompting them to reconsider their words.

Children are encouraged to become co-authors by adding their own bullying terms, helping Reword recognize evolving language and slang.

We launched our in-school program on Australia’s National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence – a major opportunity for a media angle. We made Reword available online to everyone as a free Google Chrome extension. The launch was supported with an integrated media strategy across outdoor, print, TV, display, social media and extensive PR. Emotionally-driven TV commercials along with digital and out of home placements highlighted the problem of online abuse and presented Reword as a solution. Long-form videos shared on social media gave viewers the opportunity to delve into various points of view.

Aimed at protectors, the campaign’s single-minded message asked them to install the tool at home and in schools.

We targeted youth via the in-school program and on social media. We invited them to directly interact with the tool and to add new insults. This co-authorship gives young people ownership of Reword, promoting uptake and advocacy.

Within six weeks, we saw a distinct impact on behaviour. 84% of insults detected were reworded. And we saw an incredible 67% reduction in bullying behaviour per user.

Our call to action resonated, generating over 20,000 insult submissions from young people, creating millions of new combinations.

We received publically voiced support from education ministers.

Reword showed clear universal relevance, garnering global coverage on CNN, Good Morning America, Mashable and Wired – contributing to 150 million media impressions – and personal messages from around the world.

To date, Reword has been introduced to over 300 schools nationwide and installed on 1,045,146

computers.

First six weeks:

• 150 million media impressions

• $500,000 in generated media value

• 150,000+ installs

• 20,0000+ contributed insults

• 84% of insults reworded

• 67% reduction in bullying behaviour per user

Reword is changing online bullying behaviour, creating a new generation that respects each other – online and in real life.

Cyberbullying is quickly becoming one of society’s most serious problems, creating millions of victims globally.

Reword is an educational tool activating change within the culture of online bullying by stopping the behaviour before it happens. Acting as a real-time alert for online bullying, Reword identifies hurtful words, prompting young people to Reword on social media.

Starting from a zero-knowledge base, Reword has achieved over 150 million media impressions and has been introduced to over 300 Australian schools through the success of tactical media that targeted schools, educational bodies, parents – and, most importantly, has gotten young people engaged with the tool.

During prototype development, we collaborated with Headspace and children to refine usability and messaging. Testing showed 79% of young people were willing to reword when prompted.

We targeted “protectors”– parents and educators who could install the software at home and in schools. We targeted young people separately, ensuring uptake of the tool from our key target market, designing the tool so they can add to it.

Getting schools on board was a priority, so we ran a pilot program in two schools to trial and optimise the tool. We used case studies from our trial schools to obtain wider media and influencer support, as well as interest from more schools. Media materials were tailored with a clear division between adults (eg news and parental media) v/s users (youth media). Our call to action was to encourage downloads by protectors, content sharing by users – and secure official support of organisations.

Even today, children are not protected from online bullies. It’s become endemic, ~463,000 young people are bullied online in Australia each year, and 78% are only 10-15 years old. Victims of online abuse are up to nine times more likely to engage in self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

Seeing this rapidly growing problem affecting our children, national youth mental health foundation Headspace, tasked us with finding an innovative solution to combat online bullying behaviour.

We set out to create real change in online behaviour, with the purpose of making online communications safer and more positive.