Bully Busters

In this project, we are building a Google Chrome extension that detects harmful language and online harassment. The extension will detect bullying, and censor it from the user.

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Inspiration

With the digital age on the rise, kids and teens have begun to spend more time online, making them more susceptible to cyberbullying. Social media and communication websites designed to bring enjoyment to their users, instead end up perpetuating a hostile environment. Our hope is to add another layer of protection for our users from their bullies.

What it does

Our Google Chrome extension is designed to censor inappropriate words or phrases.

Development Process

Initially, we discussed any ideas on how to effectively tackle the cyberbullying problem. Eventually, we decided to implement a Google Chrome extension as it is the most popular browser with the largest percentage of users at 64%. None of us were proficient with web development, but we accepted the challenge as a way to improve our knowledge and skills. At first, we wanted our extension to implement several features to combat online harassment, such as machine learning, image censorship, and harassment prevention through alerts. We split up to each work on a feature with little success. Eventually, most of our intended features proved difficult to integrate within the limited time frame. Instead, we decided to focus on one feature together. We got it to work with the hope of adding our ideas in the future.

How we built it

First, we all set up our coding environments with Visual Studio Code along with a repository and personal branches. Each team member was to work on their feature independently as a full-stack developer using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The general process for implementing a feature was to develop the back-end code using Google Chrome's Developer APIs and JavaScript. A few features would require a front-end developed using HTML and CSS that could also take in user input.

Challenges we ran into

The primary difficulty we encountered was the new development from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3. Due to the switch, a few of the Google Chrome API functions were outdated with few videos and resources well equipped to help us learn. Another challenge was our team's unfamiliarity with the languages we ended up using.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We learned Google Chrome's new APIs despite a recent change from Manifest V2 to Manifest V3 and few resources to assist in developing our extension. Gaining experience with full-stack web development. Our ability to employ at least one of our intended features with more coming soon.

What we learned

We learned Web Development by learning and utilizing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. In conjunction, with these languages, we learned how to use Chrome APIs to build a cohesive extension. We developed better collaboration skills by using GitHub.

What's next for Bully Busters

For future versions, we hope to implement our other intended features including a warning pop-up, image censorship, and natural language processing.

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