Projects
This website is only one part of a much larger project. STIR Lab is a multifaceted research project sponsored by several foundations and companies. The STIR lab project is about researching how people and technology interact and how those interactions shape society and people. STIR has projects that research online safety, network privacy, social computing, health IT, and educational technologies.
Youth Study
The algorithms for this website’s risk detection are based on a youth study project. Users donated their data with compensation and marked their data for different kinds of risks. This work allows for more accurate, recent, and relevant data for how real teenagers act and speak. Many other similar algorithms are based on data that is either synthetic, meaning generated by a computer, or out-dated.
If you are interested in learning more about data donation or are interested in donating your own data for compensation, follow the link here.
Risk Detection
Risk Detection is an application of the data donated from the youth study. On top of being a service for risk detection, this website is also open-source. That means that this website can be retooled and reused by other website creators to make their own versions. Nearly all of the aspects of this website are open-source except for the machine learning models themselves. The models are based on private data that this project has been given permission to use, but not for the general public to have access to.
Our Sponsors
The STIR Lab would like to gratefully acknowledge our research sponsors. We would also like to clarify that any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in our published research or on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors.
The National Science Foundation
- “CAREER: Safety by Design: Protecting Adolescents from Online Risks” (#1844881, 3/2019 – 2/2024, $550,000)
- ““PFI-RP: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Detecting Adolescent Online Risks” (#1827700, 9/2018 – 8/2021, $766,000).
- “SaTC: CORE: Small: Collaborative: Leveraging community oversight to enhance collective efficacy for privacy and security” (#1814439, 9/2018 – 8/2021, $188,272).
- “EAGER:CHS: Examining Self-Harm and Suicide Contagion Risks of Viral Social Media Challenges on Youth and Young Adults” (#1832904, 4/2018 – 3/2020, $58,053).
- “I-Corps: Risk Detection Algorithms for Adolescent Online Safety” (#1933333, 06/15/2019 – 12/14/2019, $50,000)
- “CNS:SaTC: NSF Proposal for Student Travel Grants to Attend the CSCW 2017 Privacy Ethics Workshop” (#1734273, 2/2017 – 1/2018, $5,000)
The William T. Grant Foundation
- “Reducing Digital Inequality by Empowering At-Risk Youth to be Resilient against Online Sexual Predation Risks” (7/2018-6/2023, $350,000)
Mozilla Research Grants
- “A Community-based Approach to Co-Managing Privacy and Security for Mozilla’s Web of Things”(9/2018-8/2020, $45,000)
Learning Institute for Elders (LIFE) Group
- “Carebit: A Privacy-Preserving ‘Step’ toward Remote Informal Caregiving”(2018, $2,000)