New CAPTCHA Technology Asks Users To Provide Empathetic Responses

CAPTCHA technology has come a long way since the days when users could barely read the letters they were suppose to input. Today’s CAPTCHAs allow users to answer questions, hear letters out loud and more. Now thanks to a new offering, users are also being asked to answer questions that should illicit very specific empathetic responses.

Based on various acts of human rights violations, users must answer questions in order to move forward on sign-up forms, sign-in sheets, and other areas chosen by the webmaster.

Human rights violations were chosen because programmers hoped most people would agree when an issue should be deemed “terrible” instead of “fascinating.” For example, users may be asked how they feel when hearing about gay people being beaten because of their sexual orientation.

The CAPTCHA’s creators hope the responses will eventually stop internet trolls from leaving irrelevant, hateful, and stupid comments, the very type of messages that have come to dominate many forums and websites.

The group behind the CAPTCHA empathy tool is releasing it just in time for the gay and transgender march in Serbia on Saturday. The march may have been cancelled because of right-wing violence threats.

Web programmers looking to take advantage of the CAPTCHA can take advantage of a PHP library and an API.

So far, English and Swedish languages are supported. Language support will likely increase as more programmers take on the platform.

Do you think an empathetic CAPTCHA will help slow the increasing number of internet trolls who are presently infecting the internet with their special form of uneducated hate?