Artificial intelligence used to fight bullying in a Swedish pilot project

The Nordic IT company TietoEVRY and Örebro University are joining forces with the children’s right organization Friends to create a data-driven and automated way of fighting bullying. The project "The digital twin of bullying" has received support from Vinnova, Sweden's innovation agency, until 2023 and will be run by the three parties as a joint project with the latest technology in data collection, artificial intelligence and modeling in the form of a so-called digital twin.

TietoEVRY will be responsible for designing, developing and testing the digital tool and Örebro University contributes with important knowledge as one of Sweden's leading universities in bullying research. Friends is a leader in Sweden when it comes to surveys among young people about bullying and abuse at school. After almost 10 years of surveys, it is time for the next step and a new national standard for schools' safety work.

The aim of the project is to reduce bullying and mental illness for children in schools by combining modern digital solutions, research on bullying, systematic safety work and in the long run create safe, caring and equal school environments for a whole generation of children throughout Sweden.

“We see enormous potential with this project and we are convinced that we are now laying the foundation for something very important. We have seen how digitalization has changed society in many areas, but in the preventive work in schools, people are stumbling, despite the fact that it is technically possible to work smarter”, says Niclas Hansson, Head of Strategic Business Development at TietoEVRY.

“We hope that this new way of working will increase the opportunity drastically for an equal school environment and safety for all children. Our goal is a society free from bullying and now we are using digitalization and new technology to get there", says Maja Frankel, Secretary General of Friends.

3 goals for "The digital twin of bullying" 

• A more digital collection of data that replaces surveys. It can be an app, an avatar in a game or an account in social media that handles the collection of information and data about children's health and evaluations of various kinds.
• Visualization of reality using a digital twin that will act as a kind of real-time updated copy of a situation, a place or a person. Digital twins are a way of demonstrating data and influence in a realistic model. Examples are digital twins of cities.
• Set a national standard for how this type of measurement is performed.

TietoEVRY has a longer commitment to the issue of bullying, also through the font The Polite Type, an OpenType font file (OTF) that recognises a number of either discriminative and/or offensive words. After typing the word, the font substitutes it with a more neutral, inoffensive word. Read more: https://www.thepolitetype.com/

For further contact or interviews, please contact:

TietoEVRY Newsdesk

+358 405704072, news@tietoevry.com

Naod Abera

PR and advocacy manager, Friends

+46 70 725 54 33 naod.abera@friends.se

TietoEVRY is a leading Nordic digital service and software company with 24,000 experts employed globally with a strong commitment to societal issues, inclusion and equality. TietoEVRY will be responsible for designing, developing and testing the digital tool. www.tietoevry.com

Friends has a vision of achieving zero victims of bullying. The Swedish organization Friends is fighting for a world in which no child is subjected to bullying. Every day, Friends visits schools, pre-schools and sports clubs to provide training and develop methods for preventing bullying and discrimination. Friends’ partnerships with municipalities, principals and businesses are important as a means of involving all parts of society in the efforts to stop bullying.