Performance Analysis of NLP-Based Machine Learning Algorithms in Cyberbullying Detection

Abstract

In today's pervasive online landscape, the escalating threat of cyberbullying demands advanced detection and mitigation tools. This study utilizes Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to confront this imperative challenge, particularly in the dynamic realm of social media, focusing on tweets. A comprehensive NLP-based classification methods is deployed to uncover instances of cyberbullying. Nine prominent machine learning algorithms are meticulously evaluated: Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Naive Bayes, K-Nearest Neighbor, Support Vector Machine, XGBoost, AdaBoost, and Gradient Boosting. Through the analysis, encompassing accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score metrics, the study offers insights into the strengths and limitations of each approach. The findings carry profound implications for online user safeguarding and cyberbullying prevalence reduction. Notably, Random Forest and XGBoost classifiers emerge as pioneers with accuracy rates of 93.34% and 93.32%, respectively. This comparative research underscores the pivotal role of expert algorithmic choices in addressing the urgency of cyberbullying and has the potential to be a valuable resource for academics and practitioners engaged in combatting this pressing societal issue.