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Hardee High student heads to International Science Fair with app to detect child grooming
Summary
Hardee High student Jacqueline Brown will represent the district at the International Science and Engineering Fair after developing an application that flags potential child-grooming interactions in messages and metadata; the board publicly recognized her achievement and asked about college plans.
Jacqueline Brown, a student at Hardee High School, told the Hardee County School Board on Feb. 26 that she will compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, describing a new project that aims to detect child-grooming behavior across text, audio and video.
Brown told board members that last year’s project tested how quickly passwords of varying complexity could be cracked; this year she built an application that searches communications and associated metadata for ‘‘integrity flags’’ such as late-night messages or sudden requests to move conversations to ephemeral platforms. She said the app also returns a short explanation of why an item was flagged so that parents or investigators can evaluate evidence that may have been deleted.
The recognition came during the board’s meeting when members invited Brown to explain both projects and her experience at last year’s international fair. The board said her back-to-back qualification is rare for the district; members asked about her college plans and encouraged her to consider programs in digital forensics. Brown said she is weighing Florida A&M and other options and noted Massachusetts Institute of Technology had shown interest previously.
District officials said they will share a photograph and public-facing write-up about Brown’s trip. The board did not take any formal action related to the project; the item was a recognition and student presentation.
