Afsaneh Razi, PhD

Assistant Professor of Information Science
College of Computing and Informatics

Razi studies how young people interact online and via social media and designs and develops technologies that promote online safety among adolescents. Her research focuses on methods for detecting cyberbullying and other risks teens encounter online, including those associated with sexting.

She has published and presented extensively about the digital lives of youth and how they seek and find support online; as well as how artificial Intelligence can be used to flag contents, such as particular words, phrases or pictures that are indicators of risky online situations. This automatic content-detection program could be used in various applications to help youth, particularly those who do not receive enough support.  

Her work has been recognized at national conferences on human-computer interaction. Razi has also contributed to National Science Foundation-funded efforts to address adolescent safety online.

Razi earned her doctoral degree from the University of Central Florida, where she served as a research assistant in the Socio-technical Interaction Lab. She also has industry experience as a user experience researcher at Mozilla and ConvertKit.

In The News

NBC10 @Issue: Spending Plan Preview
Afsaneh Razi, PhD, an assistant professor in the College of Computing & Informatics, was a guest on the Feb. 4 edition of NBC-10 "@Issue" to discuss what can be done to keep teens safe on social media while also protecting their privacy.
How AI Can Help Give Teens Protection and Privacy on Social Media
A Jan. 31 piece about using artificial intelligence to protect teen users on social media, while preserving their privacy, written by Afsaneh Razi, PhD, an assistant professor in the College of Computing & Informatics, for The Conversation, was republished by Fast Company on Feb. 2.

Related Articles

What Happens When Teens Privately Ask for Help on Instagram?
Researchers at Drexel University and Vanderbilt University are trying to figure out exactly what young users are experiencing on Instagram, in hopes of curtailing the negative trend and getting them the support they need.
Sliding Out of My DMs: Young Social Media Users Help Train Machine Learning Program to Flag Unsafe Sexual Conversations on Instagram
In a first-of-its-kind effort, social media researchers from Drexel University, Vanderbilt University, Georgia Institute of Technology and Boston University are turning to young social media users to help build a machine learning program that can spot unwanted sexual advances on Instagram.
Machine Learning Can Help to Flag Risky Messages on Instagram While Preserving Users’ Privacy
A team of researchers from four leading universities, including Drexel University, has proposed a way to use machine learning technology to flag risky conversations on Instagram without having to eavesdrop on them. The discovery could open opportunities for platforms and parents to protect vulnerable, younger users, while preserving their privacy.