Social media challenges are activities performed by an individual or a group and uploaded to social media platforms to achieve a specific goal. We sought to understand how harmful social media challenges are portrayed on Reddit. Therefore, we analyzed 1,552 Reddit posts and 7,092 comments about inherently risky social media challenges (e.g., Cinnamon, Blue Whale, Fire). We found that posts discussed the participation of others (40%), perceptions on the challenges (24%), prevention/raising awareness (18%), seeking information (10%), and one's own participation in a challenge (8%). Comments included offensive commentary towards those who participated, tips and tricks on how to perform a challenge, and Reddit moderation of these posts. We uncovered that the affordances and social norms on Reddit contributed to a lack of propagation of harmful challenges on the platform. Our research contributes to an in-depth empirical understanding of how harmful social media challenges are discussed on Reddit and suggests ways to design affordances and reinforce positive social norms to prevent the spread of social media challenges that promote self-harm.

The methods in which we study the online experiences of adolescents should be evidence-based and informed by youth. This is especially true when studying sensitive topics, such as the online risk behaviors of minors. We directly engaged 20 adolescents (ages 12-18) in the co-design of two different research methodologies (i.e., diary studies and analyzing social media trace data) for conducting adolescent online safety research. We also interviewed 13 of their parents to understand their perspectives. Overall, teens wanted to share their personal experiences and benefit society, while parents wanted researchers to tackle a topic that they felt was a prevalent problem for teens. Yet, they both had significant concerns regarding data privacy of the sensitive disclosures made by teens during such studies. Teens' feared getting in trouble. Participants emphasized the importance of developing a trusting relationship with the researcher to overcome these concerns. Participants also saw the potential for using the research study as a tool for risk-reporting and mitigation, where researchers could act as liaisons between the teens and other parties (e.g., counselors, law enforcement, parents) to share pertinent risk details and facilitate resources or even help teens directly by giving them strategies for mitigating online risks they encountered during the study. Our research delves into important ethical considerations for conducting risk-focused research with adolescents and uncovers the critical need for designing risk-based research for youth protection. We provide researchers with heuristic guidelines for conducting ethical research with vulnerable populations (i.e., adolescents) and keeping participants safe while doing so.

Graphical menus have been extensively used in desktop applications and widely adopted and integrated into virtual environments (VEs). However, while desktop menus are well evaluated and established, adopted 2D menus in VEs are still lacking a thorough evaluation. In this paper, we present the results of a comprehensive study on body-referenced graphical menus in a virtual environment. We compare menu placements (spatial, arm, hand, and waist) in conjunction with various shapes (linear and radial) and selection techniques (ray-casting with a controller device, head, and eye gaze). We examine task completion time, error rates, number of target re-entries, and user preference for each condition and provide design recommendations for spatial, arm, hand, and waist graphical menus. Our results indicate that the spatial, hand, and waist menus are significantly faster than the arm menus, and the eye gaze selection technique is more prone to errors and has a significantly higher number of target re-entries than the other selection techniques. Additionally, we found that a significantly higher number of participants ranked the spatial graphical menus as their favorite menu placement and the arm menu as their least favorite one.

Implementation of augmented reality (AR) devices in production floors is becoming increasingly popular for its creative potential in facilitating training and development. From a human factors perspective, there is thus a need to further examine the usability issues and design guidelines of these emerging augmented reality technologies especially with regard to various manufacturing industries. Such assessment efforts will serve to ensure that the fit between human and machine allows for user self-actualization and a safe and productive work environment. Despite the widespread interest in augmented reality, there is no clear set of principles yet established. Many usability models are based on traditional desktop-based computer applications which means unique augmented reality characters are overlooked including the physical ergonomics, expanded field of view, and device mobility features. Here, we review the fit of user-centered usability models to propose a set of criteria to serve as a guideline to implement augmented reality technologies efficiently in the production environment.