Preventing Harmful Behaviour in Online Communities explores the ethics and logistics of censoring problematic communications online that might encourage a person to engage in harmful behaviour. Using an approach based on theories of digital rhetoric and close primary source analysis, Zoe Alderton draws on group dynamics research in relation to the way in which some online communities foster negative and destructive ideas, encouraging community members to engage in practices including self-harm, disordered eating, and suicide. This book offers insight into the dangerous gap between the clinical community and caregivers versus the pro-anorexia and pro-self-harm communities – allowing caregivers or medical professionals to understand hidden online communities young people in their care may be part of. It delves into the often-unanticipated needs of those who band together to resist the healthcare community, suggesting practical ways to address their concerns and encourage healing. Chapters investigate the alarming ease with which ideas of self-harm can infect people through personal contact, community unease, or even fiction and song and the potential of the internet to transmit self-harmful ideas across countries and even periods of time. The book also outlines the real nature of harm-based communities online, examining both their appeal and dangers, while also examining self-censorship and intervention methods for dealing with harmful content online. Rather than pointing to punishment or censorship as best practice, the book offers constructive guidelines that outline a more holistic approach based on the validity of expressing negative mood and the creation of safe peer support networks, making it ideal reading for professionals protecting vulnerable people, as well as students and academics in psychology, mental health, and social care.

Today, we can find an online community to suit almost any interest we may have. And yet these communities carry an element of menace. The anonymity associated with online communities allows particularly vicious interplay, where people can pile on others with virtually zero consequences. Using current examples from the news and connecting this phenomenon to historical incidents like the Salem witch trials, this fascinating resource examines an interesting time in the world and grounds it with practical guidelines for being a responsible member of an online community.

This dissertation, "Two Concepts of Moderation: How Online Communities Can Protect Young People at Risk of Self-harm" by Edward Simon Deas, Pinkney, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Introduction The idea of receiving social support through online chat rooms, bulletin boards and social media, is nothing new, but the emergence of digital healthcare has presented an opportunity to re-examine how the internet and online communities can help support those at risk of mental ill-health. Progress in this area has also seen the emergence of moderated communities specifically aimed at vulnerable groups, such as young people at risk of self-harm. Key questions that remain include what the relationship ought to be between online communities and professional services, and how the architects and moderators of online communities can best design standards and protocols to protect young people, whilst also maintaining the open space that makes them accessible and unique. This paper reviews the literature relating to online support communities, and presents standards and protocols related to the management of online communities. It also explores some of the challenges of providing online support, and discusses how clinicians and moderators can approach the tensions between internet censorship and openness, with reference to Isaiah Berlin's seminal lecture, 'Two Concepts of Liberty'. Methods Papers investigating and reviewing online support communities were identified using a systematic search in PubMed, and manual searches. These papers were examined and conclusions, limitations and standards and protocols for online communities were organized. Findings A total of 22 papers were identified containing appropriate evaluations and standards and protocols relating to online support communities. These included evaluations of online peer support in a general sense, as well as several summaries of specific communities and their moderation techniques. Overall, there was a lack of good evaluations to prove the value of online peer support, but also no evidence was found for online support communities being harmful. Potential benefits, as well as standards and protocols, were reviewed. Conclusion In spite of limited evaluations for online support communities, there are various standards that communities can adhere to. These include methods of moderation that minimize risk to users, but also methods that may maximize the benefits of online peer support. It is suggested that the emphasis on minimizing risks has had greater attention, perhaps due to negative media portrayals of the influence of the internet on mental health, and that online communities also need to utilize more 'positive' forms of moderation in order to maximize the benefits of online support communities. Subjects: Self-mutilation in adolescence - Prevention Online social networks

Online communities continue to evolve as more people take on a virtual presence. This shift in online communities and the diversity of individuals populating the web has allowed for the emergence of virtual communities centered on niche topics of interests ranging from heavy metal music to indigenous and native culture. Educational, Psychological, and Behavioral Considerations in Niche Online Communities examines the presence of online communities centered around niche topics of interest and the impact of these virtual spaces on community members. Taking perspectives from interdisciplinary fields such as sociology, psychology, and education, this publication will appeal to educators, psychologists, behaviorists, students, and researchers interested in the impact of virtual communities on individuals as well as the opportunities these online communities present.

Online communities and communities of practice bring people together to promote and support shared goals and exchange information. Personal interactions are important to many of these communities and one of the important outcomes of personal interactions in online communities and communities of practice is user-generated content. The three essays in the current study examines behavior motivation in online communities and communities of practice to understand how social and personal psychological factors, and user-generated influence attitudes, intentions and behaviors in online communities. The first essay addresses two research questions. First, how does social capital influence exchange and combination behaviors in online communities of practice? Second, how does absorptive capacity moderate the impact of exchange and combination behaviors on individual and community performance outcomes? Using a sample of 187 participants recruited from online communities of practice, the results of this study support the hypothesized relations between social capital, and exchange and combination behaviors. Additionally, the moderating role of absorptive capacity is also supported. The second essay draws on social identity and personal motivation theories to examine the following research questions. First, how do social identity, and extrinsic and intrinsic motivations influence knowledge seeking and sharing behaviors in online communities? Second, how do knowledge seeking and sharing behaviors affect satisfaction with a community? Third, how do extrinsic and intrinsic motivations moderate the outcomes of knowledge seeking and sharing behaviors? To answers these research questions, a sample of 152 participants were recruited from a number of online communities. The results of this study indicate that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are significant predictors of knowledge seeking and sharing behaviors in online communities, and these behaviors also have a positive impact on satisfaction. Only one of the dimensions of social identity has a positive impact on knowledge seeking and sharing behaviors in online communities. Using the theoretical lenses of elaboration likelihood model and social presence, this study investigates two research questions. First, how do social presence, source credibility, and content quality influence attitudes and intentions towards online communities? Second, how does knowledge affect those relationships? The research questions are investigated in a 2X2X2 factorial experiment with random assignment of 256 participants to one of the eight online communities. The results support all the hypothesized direct effects; two of the three hypothesized mediated relationships are also supported. The result provides insights into attitude formation, informs research on online communities and user-generated content, and has implications on the management and support of online communities. The results from the three studies inform research on online communities by providing insights into behavior motivations and outcomes, and the role of user-generated content. The findings are discussed in detail, along with theoretical and practical implications, and directions for future research.

The key focus in Online Hate and Harmful Content is to examine the role of potentially harmful online content, particularly among young people. This focus is explored through two objectives: firstly, to examine the commonality of online hate through cross-national survey statistics whilst also discussing the different implications of online hate for young people in terms of, for instance, their subjective wellbeing, trust, self-image or social relationships. Secondly, the book will examine different theoretical frameworks for understanding online behavior and online victimization. This is done by relying on existing empirical work conducted in the fields of sociology, social psychology, and criminology.