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Substantial Disruption

October 23, 2018: Canadian Anti-Bully Bill; AI Used to Combat Cyberbullying; 5 Ways to Address Workplace Bullies

By Mike Tully on October 23, 2018

Canada Set to Address Workplace Bullying & Harassment

While the U.S. snoozes, Canada’s Parliament is taking steps to protect public sector workers from bullying and harassment in the workplace.

Canada’s proposed Bill C 65 would amend Canada’s Labour Code by expanding the definition of “workplace violence” to include both physical and psychological injuries and illnesses.

The bill’s definition of “harassment and violence” includes “any action, conduct or comment, including of a sexual nature, that can reasonably be expected to cause offence, humiliation or other physical or psychological injury or illness to an employee.”

The bill was passed by Canada’s Senate and is now pending before the House of Commons…

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AI could be trained to spot cyberbullying on social media and get harmful content removed before it can inflict any damage on its victim

By JOE PINKSTONE

Artificial intelligence is adapting to protect children from the perils of cyber-bullying and social media.

Researchers trained a machine-learning algorithm to detect bullying posts on social media and hide them from view.

The AI detected words and phrases in this dataset that were typically associated with bullying and filtered out more than two-thirds of threats, insults and instances of sexual harassment.

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Five Ways To Shut Down Workplace Bullying

by Mark Murphy

There are definite steps leaders can take to proactively address bullying. However, if a workplace “conflict” involves an issue of illegal activity, violence (and threats), sexual harassment, worker/customer safety, or other issue with legal ramifications, this is not something to try and handle on your own. In these cases, go directly to HR, your boss, and the legal department and/or use the processes in place for these types of issues.

Here are five ways to shut down workplace bullying:

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October 22, 2018: Dates for Harassment Consult in Australia; Cyberbullying an Issue in South Africa; Brain Science and Aggression (Research Study)

By Mike Tully on October 22, 2018

National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces

(Australian Human Rights Commission)

The National Inquiry team is conducting public consultations in all capital cities and some regional centres across Australia, to further develop our understanding of workplace sexual harassment, its causes, impacts and best practice responses.

The next scheduled consultations will be held in Darwin on the 30th and 31st of October 2018:

Public consultation: Tuesday 30 October 2018 5:30pm – 7:00pm on. Register now via this link
Policy consultation: Tuesday 30 October 2018 12.00pm – 1.30pm on. Register now via this link
Employer consultation – Tuesday 30 October 2018 9.30am – 11.00am on. Register now via this link.
Consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – Wednesday 31 October 2018 9.30am – 11.00am. Register now via this link.

Public consultations are open to anyone who would like to contribute to the national conversation on this issue.

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With sexism alive and well in SA media, cyber bullying is the new trend to watch

By Glenda Daniels and Colleen Lowe Morna

An increasing salary gap between male and female journalists, subtle and overt sexism, being undermined and ignored for promotion, bullying (in the newsroom and on social media), exclusion from “the boys club” and decision making, “paying the family penalty” ie having children, are just some of the backlashes women journalists reveal in the biggest Glass Ceilings research in South Africa to date.

But numbers between women and men in the media have equalled out for the first time. Also, for the first time there was a percentage of people who identified themselves as gender non-conforming and for the first time there is a chapter on cyber misogyny in the study which was undertaken jointly by Sanef and Gender Links after about a year of research, interviews and analysis. The Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) sponsored the research.

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Research shows signalling mechanism in the brain shapes social aggression

October 19, 2018, Duke-NUS Medical School

Duke-NUS researchers have discovered that a growth factor protein, called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and its receptor, tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB) affects social dominance in mice. The research has implications for understanding the neurobiology of aggression and bullying.

“Humans and rodents are social animals. Our every interaction follows rules according to a social hierarchy. Failure to navigate this hierarchy can be detrimental.” explained senior author A/Prof. Hyunsoo Shawn Je, from the Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders Signature Research Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School. “Our paper may be the first to demonstrate that specific molecular signalling pathways in specialised nerve cells, in a particular location in the brain, are important for the balanced navigation of social hierarchies.”

Difficulties in navigating these hierarchies can lead to problems like aggression and bullying. “Given the heavy societal cost of bullying and aggression, understanding the biological causes is a step towards their effective prevention and treatment,” A/Prof. Je added.

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