Bullyid App

Bullyid App provides psychological and legal support by linking users with highly qualified professionals. We aim to identify when a victim is in need of support by utilizing artificial intelligence.

Bullyid App’s primary innovation is it's use of artificial intelligence in linking users to qualified professionals. Users will be encouraged to integrate their social media accounts with the app, which allows the AI to analyze online interactions and give them feedback on their mental state, including on cyberbullying and harassment. Subsequently, the app will recommend legal or psychological support and provide relevant information.

Different from existing reporting platforms, Bullyid helps identify the users needs. This is especially important, as victims rarely report abuse. Less than 1 in 5 cyberbullying incidents are reported to the police and 60% of women who suffer abuse at work don't file a harassment complaint. Bullyid App reduces the prospect of victims not reporting abuse and consequently allows more victims to get help.

Harassment and abuse are costly to the economy and wider society. The public health services have struggled with this demand for years. With limited facilities which are mostly located in major cities, this means people in need of treatment often go without it. Bullyid App offers a solution, taking pressure off of the public mental health services and linking users with professionals from the comfort of their homes.

The market for professional help that address mental health problems is no longer on the fringe. It has been reported that 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem in their lifetime and this number is rising. For example, the market for Bullyid App has changed drastically since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the increasing necessity to stay at home, and consequently spend more time using technology and on social media, has driven up rates of physical abuse and cyberbullying. At the same time, society is coming to increasingly rely on technology, which is also increasing rates of cyberbullying, as technology provides abusers with an option of anonymity that they could not otherwise attain. The increased demand for psychologists and lawyers to help victims is not currently being met, and as a result, victims are going without the help they need. Bullyid App provides an innovative way for victims to be matched with the appropriate professionals and with the help they need, without having to leave their homes, a structure which is optimized for the current pandemic and its ongoing consequences.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already existing problem of domestic violence and online abuse, as it provides a ‘conducive context’ for abuse to take place. For example, domestic abuse cases reported to the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Children Protection between March 2020 and May 2020 were 300% higher than 2018-2019.

Indonesia devotes <1% of our national health budget to mental health. For many reasons, a large number of victims are unable to quickly and effectively access the support they need. The various restrictions necessary to contain the Coronavirus mean that victims have less opportunities to leave the house and access support. On top of this, the increasing number of people who need support unfortunately incurs a greater demand on services, such as the police and the health services, which increases waiting times. This means that victims are often subjected to further abuse as they wait for assistance. 

Bullyid App seeks to address exactly this problem by simply and effectively linking victims with the services that they require, such as relevant information and advice, access to professional lawyers and psychologists, or assistance from trained peer counsellors.

The Government recently published a Ministerial Decree about Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Violence in Higher Education. Despite development of this legislation, sexual violence on campus are still greatly underreported. College student's top reasons for not reporting are the issues of confidentiality and fear that others don't believe them. Another contributing factor is a vast majority of the perpetrators are known associates and not rarely in a higher position of power, which makes it harder for victims to report. Women have often felt re-victimized when investigators don't believe in them, asking if alcohol or drugs was involved, or if they had a previous relationship with their perpetrator. Sexual assault is a significant health issue among female college students with devastating impacts such as PTSD, Depression, and a higher number of drop-outs. For these reasons, as well as for others, universities need to reevaluate their sexual assault and misconduct policies to ensure the safety and health of students, enable confidential & anonymous reporting platform, to ensure proper learning environments for all students.  

In May 2020, Bullyid App launched SHARE (Sexual - Harassment Anonymous Reporting) Platform - helping University to analyze, manage and investigate every single reports directly from SHARE Platform. SHARE Platform is partner of 4 Universities in protecting 25,194 staff, lecturers and students, in which 87,5% of total beneficiaries are accessing psychological support both with licensed psychologists, as well as trained counsellors.

Since its inception in 2019, Bullyid Indonesia has digitally benefited over 45,000+ Indonesians around the world to provide psychological support, reporting platform and legal assistance to young people, adolescents and adults who are victims and survivors of harassment and cyberbullying. Projects we have been doing, including: (i) rescuing victims and supporting survivors; (ii) raising awareness of the problem and contributing to behavioural change; (iii) strengthening law enforcement and legislative reforms; and (iv) developing solutions within the technology and online service provider community. We work with 92 licensed psychologists and lawyers, trained 115 peer counsellors and partnered with 100+ stakeholders, including the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Children Protection, UNICEF and WHO. In May 2020, SHARE (Sexual - Harassment Anonymous Reporting) Platform - designed to connect Universities and its staff, lectures and students to report any misconduct behaviour, helping University to analyze, manage and investigate every single reports directly from SHARE Platform. SHARE Platform has been protecting 4 Universities protecting 25,194 staff, lecturers and students. 

We’re currently using basic machine learning to match users with relevant psychologists/ lawyers according to the answers they provided after the registration phase. With the experts and financial support from MIT, we are aiming to add in-app virtual mental health services, which includes video and text-based therapy and coaching sessions. Through analyzing past assessments and real-time data collected using mobile devices, the Bullyid App can help specialists track patients’ progress, identify times of crisis, and develop individualized care plans with the right algorithm. We believe this method clinically significantly reduces symptoms of depression.

We are currently providing direct services to 25,194 people, we aim to serve 50,000 people in the upcoming year.

As our platform is right now publicly accessible for everyone who needs help, we are aiming to focus on specific target beneficiaries, especially rural and marginalized communities, with access to the internet without access or understanding about mental health care; Central Sulawesi province, working collaboratively with Public Health Department in Palu (City) enabling online mental health care access in the city by training 100 peer counsellors, collaborate with public mental health services in the city, promote the service and App in the Universities, local communities, as well as media information. 

We are aiming to target 12,3% of the total population in Palu, this way we could reach around 45,000+ new beneficiaries in a year.

Our project matches the indicator of SDG 3.4. We measure impact by number of users registered on the App, gender of users, age range, users location, monthly active users, numbers of people accessing peer counsellors, psychological and legal support. On top of this, we also measure the type of illness and/or harassment they are experiencing. In general, we will use this data to see if the services we provide will decrease the the suicide mortality rate in the country.

Although our services are online, the advocacy process in Indonesia still requires a physical and long bureaucracy process. To ensure we meet the target by the upcoming year, we require around $58,000 to improve our tech platform by hiring a full-time project based team who will be working as back-end, front-end developer, product owner and UI/UX designers, and to dedicate our personnel team to work on our advocacy strategy and administrative expenses.

Our organization is run by people who are aware, passionate, and determined to improve the distribution of mental health care and legal justice for bullying victims. Our leadership and advisory board consist of experts from legal, psychology, and organization management. Bullyid Indonesia led by Agita Pasaribu, S.H., M.A as Executive Director. For over a decade, Agita has been advocating for progressive youth-related policies at various diplomatic and international forums to promote the UN SDGs. Agita contribution and commitment to youth empowerment has been recognized and celebrated globally, she has been advocating to the UN, ITU and WHO on how AI can be used to detect early symptoms of mental health illness on social media and to reduce cyberbullying cases. 

Eka Nugraha Putra SH., MH., SJD Cand. As Legal Advisor, is a criminal law lecturer at Universitas Merdeka Malang. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degree in Law from Universitas Brawijaya and Universitas Indonesia in 2009 and 2012. Eka is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in law (JD) and research about online defamation laws and cybercrime at Indiana University. Bloomington, United States. 

Dr. Zora A. Sukabdi, M.Psi as Counsellor Advisor, is a Forensic Psychologist and an expert in Social Engineering and Human Capital. One of her patents include a 3D-Model of Motivation-Ideology-Capability Terrorism Risk-and-Need Assessments and Rehabilitation to offenders which has been presented at the Indonesian Presidential Palace in 2017. All of our psychologists, lawyers and professionals are licensed by PERADI (Indonesian Advocates Association) & HIMPSI (Indonesian Psychology Association). They went through our Due Diligence screening prior their profiles listed on our platform, to ensure quality in services we provide.

We are partnering closely with the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Children Protection in Indonesia and various students associations from public and private universities. Towards the end of 2021, we are in the process of formal partnership with APTISI (Association of Indonesian Private Universities, LPSK (Witness and Victim Protection Agency) and ASWGI (Association of Indonesian Women/Gender and Children Study Center). We have formally partnered with 92 licensed psychologists and lawyers, as well as 25 youth-led relevant organizations. Our current beneficiaries are majority located in Java provinces, with 75% female between 18-25 years old. Bullyid Indonesia is one of three dedicated partners from Indonesia for Global Project led by Facebook/Meta to stop non-consensual intimate image abuse online stopncii.org, and awarded by 8 international and national institutions between 2019-2021.

Our main funders are UNESCO APAC, Indika Foundation, Women Deliver and EU Delegation for Indonesia.

Not qualified, Team Lead is over 18 years old.

Bullyid App's services are align with The Pozen Social Innovation Prize in accelerating healthcare access and health outcomes, reducing and, ultimately, eliminating disparities in health.