CyberSafety 2017 Call for Papers
The Second International Workshop on Computational Methods for CyberSafety


Co-located with WWW 2017 (April 3-7, 2017 at Perth, Australia)


The theme of cybersafety is an important emerging research topic on the Internet that manifests itself daily as users navigate the Web and networked applications. Examples of cybersafety issues include cyberbullying, cyberthreats, recruiting minors via Internet services for nefarious purposes, using deceptive means to dupe vulnerable populations, exhibiting misbehaving behaviors such as using profanity or flashing in online video chats, spreading rumors or hate speech via WWW services, and many others. These issues have a direct negative impact on the social, psychological and in some cases physical well-being of users. An important characteristic of these issues is that they fall in a grey legal area, where perpetrators may claim freedom of speech or rights to free expression despite causing harm.


We invite submissions of research on computational methods for addressing cybersafety. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:


Human-computer interaction issues surrounding cybersafety
Data mining and machine learning approaches for cybersafety
Social science aspects of cybersafety
Cyberbullying
Cyberthreats, coercion, and predation
Hate speech
Social media vandalism
Misbehaving users in online video chat services
Trolls in chat rooms, discussion boards, and other social media
Deception to shape opinion, such as fake news, fake reviews
Deceptive techniques targeted at vulnerable populations such as the elderly and K-12 minors
Bad actors in social media
Online exposure of inappropriate material to minors
Education and promotion of safe spaces
Interface design to improve cybersafety
Remedies for preventing or thwarting cybersafety issues
Grooming and sexual predation
Radicalization via social media






Paper Submission


Authors are invited to submit papers of 4-8 pages in length. Papers should be submitted electronically in PDF format, using the ACM SIG Proceedings format (http://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template), with a font size no smaller than 9pt. The formatted manuscript should be submitted via email to cybersafety2017@gmail.com.


All submissions will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published in the companion proceedings of the WWW conference and the ACM digital library.


Important Dates

January 29, 2017: Paper submission deadline (extended)
February 5, 2017: Notification of acceptance
February 14, 2017: Camera-ready deadline

Program Committee Co-Chairs
Homa Hosseinmardi, Danaher Labs, USA
Qin Lv, University of Colorado Boulder, USA


Program Committee
Richard Han, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
Emiliano De Cristofaro, University College London, UK
Francesca Spezzano, Boise State University, Boise, USA
Gianluca Stringhini, University College, London, UK
Emilio Ferrara, University of Southern California, USA
Keith W. Ross, New York University, USA
April Edwards, Ursinus College, Collegeville, USA
Haewoon Kwak, Scientist, Qatar Computing Research Institute, Qatar
Michal Ptaszynski, Kitami Institute of Technology, Kitami, Japan

Publicity Chair
Srijan Kumar, University of Maryland, USA


Organizing Committee
Shivakant Mishra, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
Jeremy Blackburn, Telefonica Research, Spain
Bert Huang, Virginia Tech, USA