Our Approach

We believe that many of the problems in the world are either directly caused by or at least exacerbated by online misinformation and manipulation. The current media landscape rewards content that is polarizing, manipulative, and often factually incorrect - and that content is increasingly being introduced to younger and younger children hidden in something less extreme like advice for fitness, dating, fashion, or personal development. As a result, current teenagers are now more likely than previous generations to believe that women's equality discriminates against men, harassment based on sex or ethnic background has increased in schools, and many acts of violence (from children as young as 13) are directly linked to online radicalization. The platforms themselves are not incentivized to adequately moderate this content and address these problems and they are so engrained in our culture that children cannot reasonably avoid being exposed to them, so we have to take matters into our own hands as parents, educators, and community members.

We built Jib because we believe parents deserve to know when their kids are exposed to content that can lead to hateful attitudes and behaviors - not to surveil them, but to bring them in the room for conversations and teaching moments before radical ideas are adopted. Online radicalization doesn't happen overnight. It's a slow drift, content by content, often invisible to families until attitudes have already shifted. We want to give parents the tools to navigate the storm early on and help educate their kids on the tactics used to manipulate them online.

That being said, detection alone is not enough. These messages are often enticing to kids when they feel a lack of community, belonging, or sense of self. That's why we focus on giving parents language and framing to start conversations to better understand where their kids are coming from. Radicalization is not cured by pushiment or restriction, but by reaching a common understanding and addressing core issues children are facing.

We started with misogyny and incel rhetoric because they are among the most well-documented pathways to broader radicalization. This type of content is also particulary accessible over YouTube and can be recommended from many seemingly innocuous starting points. While boys are more likely to be influenced by this content, there is also an increasing amount of misogynist content targeted towards young girls and we look to address both. This is just the beginning for us, we plan to expand to other radicalization issues in the near future and are open to suggestions from parents on topic areas and prioritization. Top candidates are:

• •Racism and white supremacy - in/out group rhetoric, dehumanization, and misinformation about racial / ethnic groups
• •Anti-democratic attitudes - content that promotes political violence, delegitimizes democratic institutions, or advocates for authoritarianism
• •Partisan animosity - people of different political beliefs often live in different information bubbles and share more common values than they realize, demonizing makes it harder to solve real problems