Background
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unforeseen challenges that could forever change the way societies prioritize and deal with public health issues. The approaches to contain the spread of the virus have entailed governments issuing recommendations on social distancing, lockdowns to restrict movements, and suspension of services.
Objective
There are concerns that the COVID-19 crisis and the measures adopted by countries in response to the pandemic may have led to an upsurge in violence against children. Added stressors placed on caregivers, economic uncertainty, job loss or disruption to livelihoods and social isolation, may have led to a rise in children’s experience of violence in the home. Extended online presence by children may have resulted in increased exposure to abusive content and cyberbullying.
Participants and setting
This study uses testimonial-based and conversational-based data collected from social media users.
Methods
Conversations on Twitter were reviewed to measure increases in abusive or hateful content, and cyberbullying, while testimonials from Reddit forums were examined to monitor changes in references to family violence before and after the start of the stayat-home restrictions.
Results
Violence-related subreddits were among the topics with the highest growth after the COVID-19 outbreak. The analysis of Twitter data shows a significant increase in abusive content generated during the stay-at-home restrictions.
Conclusions
The collective experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and related containment measures offers insights into the wide-ranging risks that children are exposed to in times of crisis. As societies shift towards a new normal, which places emerging technology, remote working and online learning at its center, and in anticipation of similar future threats, governments and other stakeholders need to put in place measures to protect children from violence.
Helix is a multi-year research project of the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) that is developing a theory of what makes those who perform systems engineering effective. To support that research, Helix is collecting data from a diverse set of systems engineers, others who perform some systems engineering activities but do not think of themselves as systems engineers, and those who work with systems engineers. Among the data sources available to Helix is the complete set of applications between 2004 and 2013 that were submitted to the INCOSE Systems Engineering Professional Certification Program. This paper reports on the education background of 2504 applicants and includes the number and types of university degrees and how the most popular degrees of applicants have changed over time. The applicants are very well educated, with almost 70% having an advanced college degree. With nearly three-quarters of the applicants coming from the US, education from US universities dominates. At the bachelor level, classical engineering degrees dominate, but computer-related majors are becoming increasingly popular. Two of the most popular masters degrees earned since 2000 are the Master of System Engineering and the Master of Business Administration.
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