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The rise of new communication technologies has made it easier than ever for young people to stay in touch with friends, family members, and even total strangers from around the world. But there is a dark side to being this connected, as well. Not only has cyberbullying become more common, especially for teenagers, but stories about anonymous harassment campaigns and the devastating impact they can have on victims highlights some of the dangers of this brave new world of ours.
So how common is cyberbullying? Online harassment can take different forms and the legal definition of cyberbullying often varies depending on where the victim is living. Still, victim surveys of young people who report experiencing some form of online harassment typically range from 10 to 35 percent. What makes online gossip and vicious harassment so effective is that it can be posted anonymously. This allows these posts to be read by numerous other young people anywhere else in the world ad also makes it much easier for other people to "join in" and become part of the bullying.
Cases such as "Gamergate" and other cases of internet "trolling" show how devastating this kind of attack can be. Victims of this cyberbullying, especially females or members of sexual minority groups, often have few legal protections even when cyberbullies are easily identified. Online bullying can include: spreading malicious gossip, posting incriminating images, or even cyberstalking. Horror stories about cyberbullying continue to be reported in the popular media and it is hardly uncommon for young people to commit suicide due to being unable to cope with the abuse.
Despite the easy availability of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, in-person bullying is still far more common than cyberbullying. Also, this kind of harassment can often include cyberbullying along with in-person intimidation. Research studies of young people who report experiencing verbal, physical, or emotional harassment have shown that 18 percent had also reported being cyber-bullied. This same study also showed that 95 percent of cyber victims experience offline as well as online harassment. Not surprisingly, young people who encounter multiple forms of bullying, including cyberbullying, are often more likely to report emotional problems than victims of traditional bullying. They are also at greater risk of suicide and/or medical problems relating to stress.
Still, despite the public profile that cyberbullying has these days, there have been very few research studies directly comparing it to more traditional forms of harassment. Do victims of cyberbullying experience greater emotional trauma than victims of other forms of bullying? While experts suggest that the emotional trauma online harassment brings can be far more damaging than other forms of bullying, proving it can be difficult to prove. A new research study published in the journal Psychology of Violence examines different forms of harassment, both online and offline, and the impact it can have on young people. Conducted by a team of researchers at the University of New Hampshire, the study was part of a nationwide telephone survey looking at 791 youths ranging in age from 10 to 20.
As part of the telephone survey, interviewers provided a preamble describing different ways that harassment could occur. Participants were then asked the following:
"When kids call someone mean names, make fun of them, or tease them in a hurtful way; when kids exclude or ignore someone, or get others to turn against them; when kids spread false rumors about someone, or share something that was meant to be private (like something they wrote or a picture of them) as a way to make trouble for them; or when kids hit, kick, push, shove or threaten to hurt someone. Think about the past year and only about incidents involving the Internet or a cell phone in some way. Did anyone other than a family member do something like this to you?"
For those participants who did report having been harassed, interviewers would then ask for further details, including whether it occurred in the previous year and whether it occurred online or offline. They were also asked specific details about who was doing the harassing, i.e., number of perpetrators, age, gender, relationship to the respondent, as well as the type of harassment, and any aggravating features such as the use of a weapon. Participants were also asked about the emotional impact of the bullying they experienced including whether the incident made them feel upset, afraid, embarrassed, worried, angry, sad, “like you couldn’t trust people,” or unsafe. Any participants who reported experiencing ongoing harassment or who felt they were at risk in some way were later contacted by a crisis counselor for assistance.
Of 791 respondents, 230 reported a total of 311 incidents in the previous year. This represents 34 percent of all young people in the study. Breaking these incidents down into whether or not technology was involved, three groups were identified: offline harassment only (54 percent), online harassment only (15 percent), or a combination of online and offline (31 percent ). Only 10 percent of the harassment incidents happened to young people between the ages of 18 to 20 while the largest group reporting harassment was the 10- to 12-year-old age group (45 percent). Sixty-one percent of victims were boys while 60 percent were white and non-Hispanic.
Examples of harassment incidents included: "Someone said something that was not true and spread it around the school, and then people started looking at me in a funny way" (from an 11-year-old girl); "I was sitting down in the cafeteria with my friends and some kids were making fun of me because they said I have Jewish hair" (from a 15-year-old boy), and, "I made a comment on a status saying I got my learner’s permit, someone commented saying 'great, another faggot on the road,' and about a week later he deleted it; also told me to kill myself," from a 17-year-old male.
In general, online-only harassment tended to be less distressing than bullying that occurs in person. That doesn't mean that online harassment is harmless however, just that it is often more threatening when combined with in-person bullying. Even though online harassment has become more common, the young people who experience it usually feel more in control. When the bullying gets personal though, such as when the harassment is coming from someone who knows the victim intimately, real damage can occur. This includes harassing text messages, often featuring revealing images that only someone close to the victim can get, as well as threats of physical or sexual violence from someone who seems capable of carrying them out. The kind of emotions this mixed harassment can generate, including anger, sadness, and betrayal, are also most likely to last the longest.
While concerns about cyberbullying have led to calls for more control over social media sites and a crackdown on anonymous posting, this won't make the problem of bullying go away. Online harassment is just one of the tools that a bully can use to attack victims so focusing on cyberbullying alone isn't the answer.
Since most bullying occurs between young people who know one another, anti-bullying campaigns aimed at improving social skills and de-escalating relationship problems need to be used as well. Greater awareness of bullying in general as well as encouraging young people to speak up about the harassment they're facing is probably the best way to keep young people safe.
