Socialmediasprechstunde: Monitoring of risky challenges and trends

Much of what children and teenagers do or see on the internet remains hidden. Silke Müller, Lower Saxony's digital ambassador and former headteacher, repeatedly emphasizes this in her lectures to parents and other interested parties. Her core message: No matter how knowledgeable adults are and how diligently they try to guide young people in the digital world, there are too many playgrounds and subcultures on the internet that influence trends and topics. These then land in children's rooms unhindered. Müller has therefore, together with her colleague and business partner Thomas Hillers, developed the online service "socialmediasprechstunde.de", which is intended to inform subscribers promptly about trends and challenges on social networks and other dangers on the internet.

Worldwide Peer Pressure

For Müller and Hillers, one of the most important factors of their service is the rapid identification of new dangers, which can also have serious and fatal consequences. Young people, for example, encourage each other to take selfies in dangerous places, placing their heads on train tracks or climbing into demolition houses and dizzying heights without safety. They eat extremely spicy snacks and laundry detergent capsules or try to choke themselves unconscious on camera. Body image trends like #skinnytok and #looksmaxxing also spread through the social media feeds of children and teenagers, negatively affecting their health.

The monitoring of these dangers is to be ensured through technical means such as crawlers and AI tools, editorial classifications, and community input, which can also be anonymous. The technical monitoring alone is intended to classify content into three levels: 1. harmless, 2. conspicuous/potentially risky, 3. dangerous or criminally relevant. The editorial team then assesses whether something is actually a trend or fake, which age groups are affected, whether there is primarily a psychological or physical danger, and what legal significance the topic has.

Subscribers gain access to this information and recommendations for action, and will also be able to consult an AI chatbot. This chatbot is to be fed with "curated specialist literature, prevention guides, current blog posts, and legally reviewed texts on the topics of digital dangers and child protection" and is not to access external sources. In addition, they will have access to video evenings with experts, regular newsletters, and push notifications. Teachers and schools will receive teaching materials, discussion guides, and documentation templates, didactically tested recommendations for action, and instructions on how to set up their own "Social Media Sprechstunde" for students through a dedicated section. The blog posts are to include professionally reviewed content analyses, recommendations for action for parents, schools, and their environment, as well as a criminal law classification.

The project is to be financed, among other things, through the subscription area. Institutions such as schools and authorities, as well as companies, will be able to purchase licenses tiered according to size and required access for employees. Private individuals will be able to purchase an individual subscription for 7 Euros, or 5 Euros per month in the initial period. Furthermore, Müller and Hillers also hope for foundations and companies with a similar value compass as funding partners. The goal is to remain independent in terms of content, not to use personal data or profiling, or to be dependent on advertising revenue or click numbers. Yet to be able to manage the precise monitoring and other services of the offering.

School Work: Prevention and Support

The fact that Müller and Hillers call their project "SocialMediaSprechstunde" has to do with their work in schools. As early as 2019, they set up a Social Media Consultation Hour for students as a point of contact for worries and problems related to experiences in the digital world. According to Müller, the service was well received.

Even if, as desired by Müller, Hillers, and their colleagues, such as the parental initiative SmarterStartAb14, and following the example of Australia – a minimum age for social media should be enforced in Germany: The SocialMediaSprechstunde service will not become obsolete for its initiators. Müller reaffirmed this to heise online: "Since the threat situation regarding content and attacks on and for children will not decrease, massive education about the nature and quality of threats and clear guidelines and recommendations for action on how to support children are still needed." She sees possible bans as a societal framework that should not distract from the necessary competence building in children, adolescents, and adults.

(kbe)