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Cyberbullying on Social Media: Definitions, Prevalence, and Impact Challenges
Abstract
Cyberbullying on social media is a significant public health concern. This paper systematically reviews the existing literature on cyberbullying to provide a clearer understanding of how it is defined and reported in terms of prevalence and impact. Utilizing the PRISMA search strategy, we examined 71 papers published from 2007 to 2022, offering a comprehensive synthesis of the field’s current understanding. Our findings highlight notable inconsistencies in the definition of cyberbullying across studies, underlining a critical need for a standardized conceptual framework. Additionally, while cyberbullying is shown to be highly prevalent among personalities exhibiting traits of Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism, our review identifies a crucial research gap: the underexploration of cyberbullying among adult populations. This review synthesizes the breadth of research on cyberbullying and highlights gaps in the existing literature. We have included our proposed standardized definition of cyberbullying.
... The use of technology to manipulate and exploit targeted vulnerable victims using online aggression or harassment and repeated threats to embarrass or humiliate by posting harmful content, with the purpose or intent to cause psychological and emotional harm, in some cases, leading to physical harm. Ray, McDermott & Nicho (2024), p. 6 ...
... From Ray, McDermott & Nicho (2024), the audience (3) may be described as a mixture of active and passive participation, composed of watchers, reinforcers and (reposter's) assistants, ordered by the amount of effort that is taken to bully the original user, in the cringe content dynamic taking place; however, to describe in depth the audience requires research that is as broad as human behavior can be in para-social relationships online. It is notable that there is no limit to the size of the audience, except that it cannot be an empty set, and that roles (watchers, reinforcers, assistants) are situational and not necessarily crystallized. ...
In this work, we explore the possibilities of modelling social research using innovative tools: a video game, and a social platform. Both are cyberbullying-themed, and were designed to sensitize adolescents on the topic whilst also producing rich behavioral data. In this scenario, we model the video game features to allow us for appropriate prediction of the individual amount of cyberbullying performed by over 300 adolescents in the social platform, in the form of negative or mocking comments about photographic media using both computational and more traditional statistics. To understand how students played the video game, we implemented a version of self-tuning Spectral Clustering, and to predict the cyberbullying we employed a quasi-Poisson regression to a desired level of explainability.
... The interaction in real time and rapid content-sharing features of 'X' increase the visibility and harm caused by cyberbullying occurrences [6]. This anonymity allows abusers to avoid accountability, providing substantial hurdles in tackling the problem [7]. According to research, victims of cyberbullying frequently have severe emotional repercussions such as anxiety, depression, and, in extreme situations, suicide impulses [8]. ...
Cyberbullying on social media platforms has become widespread in society. Cyberbullying can take many forms, including hate speech, trolling, adult content, racism, harassment, or rants. One social media platform that has many cyberbullies is Twitter, which has been renamed 'X'. The anonymous nature of this 'X' platform allows users from all over the world to commit cyberbullying as they can freely share their thoughts and expressions without having to account for their identity. This research aims to explore the influence of IndoBERT’s semantic features on hybrid deep learning models for cyberbullying detection while integrating TF-IDF feature extraction and FastText feature expansion to enhance text classification performance. Specifically, this study examines how IndoBERT’s semantic capabilities affect the hybrid deep learning model in detecting cyberbullying on platform 'X'. This study has 30,084 tweets with a hybrid deep learning approach that combines CNN and LSTM. In the IndoBERT scenario, IndoBERT features were first combined with TF-IDF, then expanded using FastText before being applied to the hybrid deep learning model. The test results produced the highest accuracy rate by: CNN (80.69%), LSTM (80.67%), CNN- LSTM (81.18%), CNN-LSTM-IndoBERT (82.05%). This research contributes to informatics by integrating hybrid deep learning (CNN-LSTM) with IndoBERT and TF-IDF, demonstrating its effectiveness in improving cyberbullying detection in Indonesian text. Future research can explore the use of other transformer-based models such as RoBERTa or ALBERT to enhance contextual understanding in cyberbullying classification.
Communication applications and social media sites serve as a platform for users to distribute information and connect to other users, potentially allowing perpetrators to perform antisocial behaviors. The current study examined the relationship between Dark Tetrad of personality (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism) and antisocial cyber-behaviors (i.e., cyberbullying, cybertrolling) by surveying young Malaysians (n = 323) aged from 18 to 26. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) revealed that Machiavellianism was not related to cyberbullying and cybertrolling, while narcissism was positively related to cyberbullying but not related to cybertrolling. Meanwhile, psychopathy and sadism were positively related to cyberbullying and cybertrolling. The results of this study contribute to the cyber-behaviors literature, knowledge about the antisocial cyber-behaviors in Malaysia, supports sadism as a dark personality and the study acts as a reference to minimize these behaviors.
Recently, the number of active users of social media platforms is declining, posing a challenge to the sustainability of interest in social media and related industries. Therefore, it is of great significance to examine the environmental and psychological factors that influence the continuous use of social media. Until recently, little research has examined this topic from the perspective of the relationship between previous cyberbullying victimization experiences (PCVE) and the continuous use of social media (CUOSM), not to mention the psychological mechanisms that lead to this relationship. In addition, there are paradoxes in existing studies: one side believes that PCVE causes users to become addicted to using social media, while the other side argues that PCVE drives users to escape from using social media. In order to respond to this controversy and clarify the relationship between PCVE and CUOSM, this study introduces two psychological variables, namely “social media rumination (SMR)” and “distress”, in order to construct a chain mediation model. Researchers surveyed 692 people who had experienced social media cyberbullying, and analyzed the data through SPSS and Mplus. The findings were as follows: 1. There is an inverted U-shaped curve relationship between PCVE and CUOSM. Specifically, the relationship initially exhibits a positive correlation (the period named fight), which then becomes negative (the period named flight). 2. When PCVE and CUOSM are positively correlated, SMR is the main factor that contributes to an increase in CUOSM. 3. When PCVE and CUOSM are negatively correlated, distress is the major factor that causes a decline in CUOSM. This study provides an explanation for the controversy in previous research, expands the scope of social media research, and provides a practical reference for social media platforms to enhance their existing users’ continuous use.
The strain has been well studied in traditional bullying, and recent research has begun to explore it in cyberbullying behavior. Drawing from General Strain Theory, the current study empirically examined the relationship between strain and the cyberbullying behavior of perpetrators and bully-victims, respectively. Meanwhile, this study also considered the influences of the protective variables (e.g., constraints and morality) on the strain, which may potentially reduce the risks of participating in cyberbullying. The sample comprised 928 Chinese internet users (Male = 490, Female = 438) aged between 16 to 50. We identified the prevalence of cyberbullying in China, in which the percentages of cyberbullying perpetrators, cyberbullying victims, and cyber bully–victims were 23.40, 23.20, and 37.40%, respectively. This study mentioned a noteworthy phenomenon: cyberbullying victims quickly became cyberbullying perpetrators when they were cyberbullied. Secondly, according to the binary logistic regression, we hold that the strain was significantly related to cyberbullying behaviors, as individuals with low levels of self-control showed a higher tendency to participate in cyberbullying. As for protective factors, the results showed that constraints and morality can reduce the negative consequences of strain and then against cyberbullying, exploring the possibilities of using constraints and morality as variables to decrease strain and prevent cyberbullying. Thus, the unique values of this study are using the GST theory to investigate the empirical link between strain and cyberbullying between different roles in a new cultural and social background, demonstrating that negative emotion and low self-control had influences on strain and cyberbullying behaviors. Meanwhile, this study also contributes by discussing the implications for future research and practicing efforts targeting how to decrease the risks of cyberbullying engagement, for example, we suggest that the prevention and intervention of cyberbullying should adopt a cross-sectoral response to help individuals to view cyberbullying, vent dissatisfaction and relieve strain in the right way.
Purpose of Review
The purpose of this review is to critically assess the published studies on the relationship between cyberbullying and internet use disorder (IUD), and propose directions for further study.
Recent Findings
There were only four prospective studies out of thirty-two reviewed studies conducted since 2004, with only one prospective study conducted during the past 5 years. The field of study has been stagnant during the past 5 years with the vast majority of studies conducted on primary or secondary education and failing to address cyberbullying and IUD in social media and online gaming.
Summary
Cyberbullying and IUD have been described since the nineties, yet there are still significant issues with their definition and research. Lately, both these problematic behaviors are sharing the same environments in social media and online gaming. This critical appraisal of published research examined thirty-two published peer-reviewed studies carried out since 2004. Findings indicate a number of significant issues including an overreliance on cross-sectional study design, near-exclusive focus on primary and secondary education students, widespread employment of unstandardized measures for cyberbullying and IUD, and lack of assessment for objective measures of psychological distress. Directions for future research are offered.
Cyberbullying is a form of antisocial online behaviors. Perpetration of intentional and repeated harm inflicted through electronic devices is associated with dark personality traits and may be caused by morally impaired reasoning. In the current study, we investigated the associations between the Dark Tetrad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism), cybervictimization, and cyberbullying. We also examined the intervening role of moral disengagement in the relationship between the Dark Tetrad and cyberbullying. Two hundred fifty-one adults (72.6% women) participated in an on-line study. Correlational analysis indicated that all dark personality traits were associated with higher cyberbullying and cybervictimization (except narcissism as a predictor of cybervictimization). Moral disengagement was positively related to Machiavellianism, sadism and cybervictimization. Controlled for covariance between the Dark Tetrad traits and cybervictimization, sadism and cybervictimization appeared to be associated with cyberbullying. Moreover, moral disengagement did not account for the associations between the Dark Tetrad and cyberbullying.
With the development of technology, cyberbullying prevalence rates are increasing worldwide, and a growing body of the literature has begun to document cyberbullying behavior. Moral disengagement is often considered a key correlate factor in cyberbullying. This article aims to conduct a meta-analysis review of the relationship between moral disengagement and cyberbullying and some psychosocial and cultural variables. Based on the PRISMA method, a random-effects meta-analysis is employed in this study to obtain reliable estimates of effect sizes and examine a range of moderators (age, gender, measure method, and cultural background). Relevant studies, published from 2005 to February 30, 2021, were identified through a systematic search of the Web of Science, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, Pubmed, EBSCO, and Wiley Online Library. Finally, 38 studies (N=38,425) met the inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis conclusion demonstrated that moral disengagement positively correlated medium intensity with cyberbullying (r=0.341). Age, gender, and cultural background had moderated the relationship between moral disengagement and cyberbullying.
This paper postulates a distinction between two types of discursive aggression in the context of humour production. This theoretical argument is supported by a qualitative (meta)pragmatic analysis of posts on the RoastMe subreddit devoted to an online community's original humorous practice based on jocular insults. The study of emic (community members') and etic (outsiders') metapragmatic evaluations of the content on the subreddit yields divergent insider/outsider interpretations of the practice at hand; it also uncovers some ambivalence in the polysemous folk concepts of roasting and cyberbullying and the relationship between them. “Roasting” and “cyberbullying” are formally distinguished based on the intended form of aggression on which each relies. Also, the points of convergence between humour and aggression are surveyed. First, mock aggression underlies benevolent humour (typified by roasting proper); second, genuine aggression (exemplified by cyberbullying proper) may amuse individuals other than the target of discursive aggression.
This study set out to elucidate the complex suite of associations between the Dark Triad personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy), emotional intelligence, empathy, and cyberbullying, as the respective findings regarding this topic have been inconsistent. Studies preponderantly have relied on abbreviated Dark Triad measures that do not differentiate between its lower-order facets. Further, most extant studies have exclusively been based on female psychology undergraduates and have not accounted for known sex differences on the Dark Triad traits and cyberbullying, or for negative associations between cyberbullying and age. Therefore, this nexus of interrelations was investigated in a diverse community sample (N = 749). A structural equation-modeling approached was used to examine predictors of cyberbullying and to test for mediating relationships between lower-order Dark Triad facets and emotional intelligence and empathy. Multigroup models were applied to test for sex-specific patterns. Empathy did not predict cyberbullying, whereas emotional intelligence partly mediated the Dark Triad associations with cyberbullying among both sexes. Sex-specific patterns in the associations between Dark Triad traits and cyberbullying were particularly observed for the grandiose and vulnerable narcissism facets. Emotional intelligence appeared to buffer effects of grandiose narcissism on cyberbullying. Future research could fruitfully explore cyberbullies’ profiles regarding primary and secondary psychopathy, sex differences in narcissism, and buffering effects of emotional intelligence. Further improvements regarding the measurement of dark personality traits are indicated as well.
Cyberbullying has progressively increased due to the massive use of the internet and social networks. Bystanders constitute the largest group, occupying a key role in the evolution of the cyberbullying situation and its consequences for the victim. Research shows different ways in which bystanders behave, suggesting different types of sub-roles associated with different study variables. The objective of this literature review is to identify and characterize the roles of bystanders in cyberbullying situations that involve adolescent students. To achieve this objective, a systematic search was carried out in the Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases for articles published between 2015 and 2020, resulting in 233 articles. Articles were then selected by relevant title and summary. Subsequently, the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, resulting in a total of nine articles. The findings of this review allowed us to identify two to five types of bystanders, the largest type representing outsiders and the smallest type representing assistants of the aggressor. The identified types of bystanders are characterized for variables such as sex, age, previous experience, and empathy. The results are discussed considering the available theoretical and empirical evidence.
Despite considerable public and scholarly debate about the role of social media in self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs), no comprehensive, quantitative synthesis of this literature has previously been undertaken. The current systematic review and meta-analysis examines associations between social media use and SITBs, including suicidal ideation, suicide plans, suicide attempts, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). A range of social media behaviors and experiences were identified, including cybervictimization and perpetration, exposure to and generation of SITB-related content, problematic use, sexting, social media importance, and frequency of use. A systematic search of PsycINFO, Medline, CINAHL, and the references of prior reviews yielded 61 eligible studies. Results largely suggested medium effect sizes for associations between specific social media constructs (cybervictimization, SITB-related social media use, problematic social media use) and SITBs. There was no association between frequency of social media use and SITBs; however, studies on this topic were limited. The majority of studies identified focused on cybervictimization, and results suggested positive associations with all SITBs, with the association between cybervictimization and suicidal ideation stronger for adolescents than adults. Overall, findings highlight the utility of examining specific social media behaviors and experiences, and point to the need for more research in this area.
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, published in 2009, was designed to help systematic reviewers transparently report why the review was done, what the authors did, and what they found. Over the past decade, advances in systematic review methodology and terminology have necessitated an update to the guideline. The PRISMA 2020 statement replaces the 2009 statement and includes new reporting guidance that reflects advances in methods to identify, select, appraise, and synthesise studies. The structure and presentation of the items have been modified to facilitate implementation. In this article, we present the PRISMA 2020 27-item checklist, an expanded checklist that details reporting recommendations for each item, the PRISMA 2020 abstract checklist, and the revised flow diagrams for original and updated reviews. © 2021 Page et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Background/Objective: Despite the great interest that bullying and cyberbullying have received during the last decades, the problem of defining these phenomena is still debated. Recently, this discussion has also been articulated in terms of how young people who are directly involved in bullying and cyberbullying understand these notions. This study aimed at investigating the operational definitions of both bullying and cyberbullying provided by adolescent victims and perpetrators, by inquiring the weight of traditional criteria (i.e., frequency, deliberateness, imbalance of power, and harm) as well as dominance in the perception of these phenomena. Method: A total of 899 students aged between 11 and 16 years filled out the Student Aggression and Victimisation Questionnaire. Results: Common traits and differences between the operational definition of bullying and cyberbullying and between the perspectives of victims and perpetrators of aggression were found. The most relevant criterion for the perception of both these phenomena was clearly the presence of dominance. By contrast, the imbalance of power showed no significant relationship with the perception of being bullied or bullying others both offline and online. Conclusions: Findings emphasise that young people conceptualise bullying with a clear reference to relational and group processes, rather than to individual differences.
Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are now part of almost everyone's social life, especially for the newer generations. Children and teenagers grew up together with these Internet-based services, which have become an integral part of their personal and social life. However, as reported in various studies, psychological and psychiatric problems are sometimes associated with problematic usage of social media. The primary purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the cognitive, psychological, and social outcomes correlated with a problematic use of social media sites during the developmental stages, from age 10 to 19 years. With a specific focus on depression, anxiety, eating, and neurodevelopmental disorders, the review also discusses evidence related to genetic and neurobiological issues, together with the implications in clinical work and future directions under a multidisciplinary perspective. While the scientific community has made significant progress in enhancing our understanding of the impact of social media on teenagers' lives, more research integrating biological and environmental factors is required to fully elucidate the development of these disorders.
Cyberbullying on social networking sites is an emerging societal issue that has drawn significant scholarly attention. The purpose of this study is to consolidate the existing knowledge through a literature review and analysis. We first discuss the nature, research patterns, and theoretical foundations. We then develop an integrative framework based on social cognitive theory to synthesize what is known and identify what remains to be learned, with a focus on the triadic reciprocal relationships between perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. We discuss the key findings and highlight opportunities for future research. We conclude this paper by noting research contributions and limitations.
Moral Disengagement (MD) has been found to be related to higher levels of different aggressive and bullying behaviours. Although some studies found that it plays an important role in cyberbullying too, results in this field are still puzzling and the association between MD and cyberbullying is still unclear. Therefore, this systematic review was aimed at examining evidence of the association between MD and cyberbullying. We analysed 41 studies, seeking to clarify how cyberbullying perpetrating, and active and passive bystanding behaviours are associated with MD mechanisms, and how the association among these processes may vary depending on the methods of measurement chosen. Taken together, the results confirm that positive associations among MD and both cyberbullying perpetrating and passive bystanding behaviours are significant, even after the roles of moderating variables are accounted for. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for future research and intervention.
Objective:
Increases in depression among adolescents have been concurrent with increases in digital media use. In this article, recent trends in mental health among U.S. adolescents and young adults are discussed and theories about their possible connection with concurrent increases in digital media use are presented.
Methods:
Large studies of trends in mental health in the 2000s and 2010s are described and possible mechanisms for the trends are discussed based on existing literature.
Results:
After remaining stable during the early 2000s, the prevalence of mental health issues among U.S. adolescents and young adults began to rise in the early 2010s. These trends included sharp increases in depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and suicide, with increases more pronounced among girls and young women. There is a growing consensus that these trends may be connected to the rise in technology use. Increased digital media and smartphone use may influence mental health via several mechanisms, including displacement of time spent in in-person social interactions, individually and across the generation, as adolescent cultural norms evolve; disruption of in-person social interactions; interference with sleep time and quality; cyberbullying and toxic online environments; and online contagion and information about self-harm.
Conclusions:
U.S. adolescents and young adults are in the midst of a mental health crisis, particularly among girls and young women. The rise of digital media may have played a role in this problem via several mechanisms.
Introduction:
In light of growing concerns about an increasingly digital adolescence, the academic field investigating how digital technologies affect adolescents' psychological well-being is growing rapidly. In the last years, much research has amassed, and this has been summarised in over 80 systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Materials and methods:
Systematic reviews, meta-analyses and key studies are reviewed to provide insights into the state of current research linking digital technology and social media use to well-being; possible future directions and improvements are discussed.
Results:
When examining the reviews, it becomes evident that the research field is dominated by cross-sectional work that is generally of a low quality standard. While research has highlighted the importance of differentiating between different types of digital technology use many studies do not consider such necessary nuances. These limitations aside, the association between digital technology use, or social media use in particular, and psychological well-being is-on average-negative but very small. Furthermore, the direction of the link between digital technology use and well-being is still unclear: effects have been found to exist in both directions and there has been little work done to rule out potential confounders.
Conclusions:
Reviewing the last decade of reviews in the area, it is evident that the research field needs to refocus on improving transparency, interpreting effect sizes and changing measurement. It also needs to show a greater appreciation for the individual differences that will inherently shape each adolescent's reaction to digital technologies.
Existing studies have not reached a consensus with regard to how social media may positively or negatively affect users' well-being. In this study, we endeavor to contribute towards HCI/CSCW knowledge on this open space and offer more empirical evidence. In doing so, we conducted 10 semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore the downsides of social media. We present four themes in social media use that adversely affect users' well-being emerging in participants' self-reports, namely, social comparison, fear of missing out, political discussions, and cyberbullying. Furthermore, we discuss two potential dynamics through which people consider their social media use negative to their well-being: 1) self-oriented internalization where users perceive the social media experience differently (negative or neutral) based on their personality traits; and 2) content-oriented internalization where users perceive the experience negative regardless of their personality traits. We argue that identifying these two dynamics of internalization helps understand the complex relationships between social media use and user well-being, which can then inform the future design of social media systems to remedy these adverse social and psychological impacts.
With the increased utilization of the internet and social media platforms, it is not surprising that youth are using these tools to inflict harm upon each other. Previous studies have outlined the negative impacts of cyberbullying, yet few research studies have been conducted in Arab communities examining its different forms and characteristics. Reporting incidents of cyberbullying is also a big problem, considering the social and cultural constraints of these societies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the pervasiveness of cyberbullying among university students in an Arab community, its nature and venues, and their attitudes towards reporting cyberbullying in contrast to remaining silent. Data were collected from 200 students in the UAE. 91% of the study sample confirmed the existence of acts of cyberbullying on social media with Instagram (55.5%) and Facebook (38%) in the lead. Calls for smartphone applications, stricter legal actions and proactive measures are discussed.
Purpose of Review
Sleep and mental health researchers are increasingly recognising the need to update our approaches to understanding the unique social, emotional and cognitive aspects of social media use, rather than simply considering it as just another hour of total daily “screen time”. In this review, we highlight some recent developments in this area, discuss ongoing challenges facing this field and offer recommendations for future steps.
Recent Findings
The sleep and mental health research literatures have made recent advances towards a more nuanced understanding of social media use: moving beyond a focus on simply duration of use, towards new insights into the role of content, context and experience of these online interactions.
Summary
As this research area moves forward, a focus on high-quality measurement—combined with collaborative multidisciplinary approaches that triangulate insight from different methodologies and perspectives—can inform a more holistic understanding of sleep and mental health in today’s connected world.
While becoming inextricable to our daily lives, online social media are blamed for increasing mental health problems in younger people. This systematic review synthesized evidence on the influence of social media use on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. A search of PsycINFO, Medline, Embase, CINAHL and SSCI databases reaped 13 eligible studies, of which 12 were cross-sectional. Findings were classified into four domains of social media: time spent, activity, investment and addiction. All domains correlated with depression, anxiety and psychological distress. However, there are considerable caveats due to methodological limitations of cross-sectional design, sampling and measures. Mechanisms of the putative effects of social media on mental health should be explored further through qualitative enquiry and longitudinal cohort studies.
The present analyses empirically explored the roles in cyberbullying by using Latent Class Analysis. Potential predictors of class membership were also examined using multinomial logistic regression analysis. Participants were 849 German students (52.7% girls, 45.6% boys, Mage = 13.4 years, SDage = 1.1 years). Observed indicators of latent class measured own involvement in cyberbullying, reactions to cyberbullying of classmates, and behavioral willingness as assistant and as defender. Indicators for the post-hoc regression analyses were proactive aggression, reactive aggression, self-esteem, cognitive, and affective empathy. Control variables were age and gender. A model with five classes was chosen. The classes were labeled prosocial defenders, communicating outsiders, aggressive defenders, bully-victims, and assistants. The results of the post-hoc regression analyses showed that students in the classes especially differed regarding types of aggression and social competencies. Based on answer patterns, cyberbullying roles beyond the bullying-triad can be found. Remarkably, three of the classes are bystanders, i.e. they are not directly involved in cyberbullying. Two of these classes showed helping behavior and made up almost two thirds of the sample. Knowledge about cyberbullying roles and their predictors is important to inform the planning and development of interventions. The results further indicate that interventions should especially take into account antisocial and passive behavioral patterns in the context of cyberbullying.
Open Access: https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/11433/10207
This article discusses the phenomena of cyberbullying especially among young people. The discussion, based on an interdisciplinary study in the fields of brain studies, child development, psychology, social policy, victimization and Internet studies, probes the troubling phenomenon of cyberbullying which may result in suicide. It is argued that adolescents are more vulnerable than adults because they lack maturity with respect to capacities such as thrill seeking, impulse control, peer pressure, reward sensitivity, cognitive processing, rational decision-making and long-term planning. The article suggests remedies to counter online social ills and argues for responsible cooperation between parents, schools, governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and social networking sites.
Cyberbullying or electronic aggression has already been designated as a serious public health threat. Cyberbullying should also be considered as a cause for new onset psychological symptoms, somatic symptoms of unclear etiology or a drop in academic performance. Pediatricians should be trained to play a major role in caring for and supporting the social and developmental well-being of children.
Research on cyberbullying is plagued by inconsistent findings and exaggerated claims about prevalence, development over time, and effects. To build a useful and coherent body of knowledge, it essential to achieve some degree of consensus on the definition of the phenomenon as a scientific concept and that efforts to measure cyberbullying are made in a “bullying context.” This will help to ensure that findings on cyberbullying are not confounded with findings on general cyberaggression or cyberharassment. We tentatively recommend that cyberbullying should be regarded as a subcategory or specific form of bullying, in line with other forms such as verbal, physical, and indirect/relational.
Bullying and cyberbullying are present all over the world and have serious consequences for individuals and societies. The number of research studies on the topic has increased exponentially throughout the history, but many questions related to the phenomena remain unanswered. The current study is a systematic review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the topic. Systematic searches were conducted in 7 databases and Aggressive and Violent Behavior journal. A total number of 66 studies met the inclusion criteria. The main findings are that one of every three children is involved in some forms of bullying and one of every five in some forms of cyberbullying. Boys are more involved than girls but with small or trivial effect sizes, and relationship with age is also weak. There is strong overlap between bullying and cyberbullying and bullying is an important problem among minorities. Results show risk and protective factors for bullying and cyberbullying, together with short-and long-term devastating consequences. Anti-bullying interventions are usually effective in reducing bullying, although the effect sizes are small and depend on the components of the programs. Bullying and cyberbullying evaluation strategies need to be improved. Findings are discussed introducing also the Special Issue on Bullying, Cyberbullying and Youth Violence: Facts, Prevention and Intervention.
In this article, we review research examining cyberbullying via social media among youth and adults and the relationship such behavior has with well-being. We report on several possible predictors of cyberbullying via social media, including indiscreet posting, time spent on social media, and personality traits. We also highlight possible negative effects on well-being that may be linked with cyberbullying via social media, including psychological distress, decreased life satisfaction, and suicidal ideation. We conclude the review with ideas for prevention and intervention, including the use of cyberbullying detection software to encourage users to think twice before posting a cyberbullying message. We also highlight several limitations with the existing research and provide some suggestions for future research opportunities.
In recent years, there have been increasing global concerns about the abuse of digital technologies for malicious “dark participation,” the spreading of digital offenses, hate speech, fake news, and conspiracy theories. Clearly, dark participation can have severe effects on the victims and on society at large. However, less is known about the impact of dark participation on the perpetrators’ well-being. Preliminary research on the perpetrators indicates positive emotions and specific gratifications resulting from their behavior, in particular when it is fully consistent with their ideologies. Uncovering these gratifications—and the positive effects dark participation may have on perpetrators’ well-being—could be the key to a better understanding of the dark side of social media.
Social Networking Sites (SNS) have close to 3 billion users worldwide. Recently, however, SNS have come under media scrutiny for their potential association with depression. Two previous meta-analyses failed to find evidence for a robust concurrent association between SNS use and depression symptoms. However, these analyses focused primarily on the time spent using SNS. The current meta-analysis is the first to consider the multi-dimensional nature of SNS use, and examines separately the quantitative associations of depression symptoms to SNS use in three types of SNS studies examining three distinct constructs of SNS use: time spent using SNS, intensity of SNS use, and problematic SNS use. Sixty-two studies (N = 451, 229) met inclusion criteria. Depression symptoms were significantly, but weakly, associated with time spent using SNS (r = 0.11) and intensity of SNS use (r = 0.09). However, the association of depression symptoms to problematic SNS use was moderate (r = 0.29), was significantly higher than for time spent using SNS (Qbetween = 35.85, p < 0.001) or intensity of SNS use (Qbetween = 13.95, p < 0.001), and was not significantly moderated by age, gender, year of study publication, or mode of recruitment. These results suggest that future research examining causal models of the relation of SNS use and depression, as well as research on intervention and prevention, should focus in more detail on individuals who are engaging in a pattern of problematic SNS use.
Cyberbullying victimization is an international phenomenon and is increasing globally at a high rate. However, studies have shown inconsistent findings for the definition, measurement, and prevalence of cyberbullying victimization. To provide an overview of the existing scales and to suggest ways to standardize the cyberbullying measurement, this study analyzed sixty-four international studies on cyberbullying measurements using the following categories: general characteristics, definition of cyberbullying, study sample characteristics, sample size, type of device or social media, time frame, survey type, item-pooling method, subscales, reliability, and validity. Regarding the definition of cyberbullying, 46 of the 64 studies explained the concept of “cyberbullying.” Furthermore, only 15 studies followed the recommended guidelines, either fully or partially, when developing their scale. Although most of the cyberbullying instruments revealed moderate to high reliability, only half of the studies assessed the validity of the cyberbullying measurements, with a high portion of them testing the construct validity. Our findings address the need for a consistent and standardized definition of cyberbullying to use worldwide, which may be the most important factor in measuring cyberbullying behaviors.
Cyberbullying at work takes many forms, from aggressive and threatening behavior to social ostracism. It can also have adverse consequences on general well-being that might be even more severe for people whose identities are centrally based on social media ties. We examined this type of identity-driven social media use via the concept of social media identity bubbles. We first analyzed the risk and protective factors associated with cyberbullying victimization at work and then investigated impacts on well-being. We expected that workers strongly involved in social media identity bubbles would be in the worst position when faced with cyberbullying. Data include a sample of workers from five Finnish expert organizations (N = 563) and a representative sample of Finnish workers (N = 1817). We investigated cyberbullying at work with 10 questions adapted from the Cyberbullying Behavior Questionnaire Other measures included scales for private and professional social media usage, social media identity bubbles (six-item Identity Bubble Reinforcement Scale), well-being at work, sociodemographic factors, and job-related information. Prevalence of monthly cyberbullying victimization at work was 13% in expert organizations and 17% in the Finnish working population. Victims were young, active users of professional social media and were strongly involved in social media identity bubbles. Victims who were in social media identity bubbles reported higher psychological distress, exhaustion, and technostress than other victims. Cyberbullying at work is a prevalent phenomenon and has negative outcomes on well-being at work. Negative consequences are more severe among those with highly identity-driven social media use.
The aim of the study is to investigate the association between Instagram popularity and subjective happiness, and to
test the mediating roles of cyber victimization and social media addiction. We recruited a sample of middle school
students (N = 345; 49% males, age M: 13.31 years; SD = 1.42; range = 11–16) who reported having an active
Instagram account. We collected the following data: sociodemographic data, Instagram activity indicators and
followers/following counts, perceived social media addiction, cyber victimization, and subjective happiness.
Adolescents’ followers count showed a negative indirect effect on subjective happiness via an increase in social media
addiction and exposure to cyber victimization. In contrast, the following counts of adolescents show a positive indirect
effect on subjective happiness via a decrease in social media addiction and exposure to cyber victimization. Findings
seem to indicate that as adolescents become more popular on Instagram (i.e., as their followers count increases), it
also increases the risk that they might develop a behavior addiction to Instagram use, and experience cyber
aggressions, which in turn may have a negative impact on their psychological well-being. Instead, adolescents whose
activity on Instagram is more passive, and less dominated by digital status seeking behaviors, may be less exposed to
the negative consequences of Instagram use. Limits and future directions are discussed.
The bystander effect posits that people are less likely to help others who are in need as the number of bystanders increases. However, studies that have examined this phenomenon in the online context have often used arbitrary numbers of bystanders and a single measure of intervention. Drawing on the cognitive and strategic aspects of anonymity from SIDE, this study conducted a 2 (anonymity) × 4 (bystander number) factorial experiment that simulated an online cyberbullying scenario and examined bystanders’ intentions toward four different intervention behaviors that ranged from passive attention to active confrontation. The findings indicated that anonymity should be integrated as an essential feature in examining bystander effect in CMC. Also, the number of bystanders and online anonymity do not affect people’s intentions to intervene in a passive or non-confrontational manner. Instead, anonymity and the number of bystanders affected people’s intentions to engage in direct interventions, such as confronting the bullies. The relationship between the number of bystanders and people’s intentions to intervene was not a linear relationship. Initially, intentions to intervene increased with bystander numbers but dropped off after a critical point. By including varying levels of bystander numbers and varying degrees of intervention behaviors, this study suggested that bystander decisions depend on people’s combined consideration of anonymity, bystander numbers, and intervention behaviors.
Social network sites (SNSs) have proliferated across the internet, engaging millions of users. Although the expansion of SNSs has made communication easier, it has also been connected to mental health concerns. Previous research has suggested not all users are engaging with SNSs in the same ways or for the same reasons; however, much of the literature concerning personality and SNSs has focused solely on the connection between narcissism and SNS use (e.g., Andreassen, Pallesen, & Griffiths, 2017; Sorokowski et al., 2015). The current study examined the relationship between pathological personality traits and SNS behaviors more broadly, and the role that self-esteem plays in moderating this relationship. An Amazon MTurk sample of 238 participants completed self-report questionnaires measuring personality, self-esteem, and SNS behaviors. Negative Affectivity and Antagonism tended to show the strongest associations with maladaptive SNS behaviors, and self-esteem was found to moderate very few of these relationships. These findings suggest that individuals particularly high in the personality domains of Negative Affectivity and Antagonism may be more at-risk for SNS misuse than their less dysregulated peers.
Purpose of review:
Suicide is the second leading cause of death in youth aged 10-24 years old globally, but detecting those at risk is challenging. Novel preventive strategies with wide influence across populations are required. Interest in the potential for both detrimental and supportive influences of social media/internet use on suicidal behaviour has been growing; however, the relationship remains unclear.
Recent findings:
A systematic search of articles from database inception up to 25 January 2019 across five databases: Medline, PsycINFO, EMBASE, HMIC and CINAHL revealed nine independent studies investigating social media/internet use and suicide attempts in young people less than 19 years old (n = 346 416). An independent direct association was found between heavy social media/internet use and increased suicide attempts in seven studies (adjusted ORs ranged from 1.03 to 5.10), although adjusting for cyberbullying victimization and sleep disturbance reduced the strength of this association. Two studies found that some social media/internet use, versus no use, may be associated with fewer suicide attempts. There were no studies investigating the relationship between social media/internet use and completed suicide.
Summary:
There is an independent association between problematic use of social media/internet and suicide attempts in young people. However, the direction of causality, if any, remains unclear. Further evaluation through longitudinal studies is needed.
The social media ecosystem is constituted by platforms and applications with varying affordances for and rules regarding anonymity. How and why users use and how they percieve online anonymity remains a focus of social media and Internet research, including how beliefs about anonymity shape ---and are shaped by--- the behaviors of others on and beyond social media platforms. Our study contributes to knowledge about anonymity in online social platforms by exploring the shared beliefs of a sample of young adults about the recently-defunct platform Yik Yak. Findings from our mixed-methods study of students at a large university in the Southeastern United States suggest that young adults have shared beliefs about social media and anonymity, but the degree to which those beliefs are shared is tenuous. The specific of those beliefs are discussed in context of prior research about social media, anonymity and cyberbullying.
In today's technologically savvy culture, social media has emerged as a primary method of communicating with others all over the world. Although social media use has many positive benefits, some individuals may use social media to harm others, termed cyberbullying. In this review, we discuss how social media can aid in the facilitation of anonymity perceptions to increase the likelihood of cyberbullying perpetration. We note the theoretical underpinnings relating anonymity perceptions to cyberbullying perpetration and delve into how certain social media platforms that are more or less anonymous (from the user's perspective) can influence cyberbullying. We conclude with discussing how social media can be a tool to help reduce cyberbullying perpetration through decreasing anonymity perceptions of users. Our overall objective is to highlight the aspects of social media use that apply to theoretical postulates to predict cyberbullying to better understand the situations under which individuals use social media to harm others.
Cyberbullying research has repeatedly demonstrated that the frequency of media use is a cross-sectional risk factor of cyberbullying and cybervictimization. However, we do not yet know whether the frequency of media use is also a longitudinal risk factor or an outcome of cyberbullying and cybervictimization, or both. Thus, the present study examines the reciprocal associations between the frequency of media use, cyberbullying and cybervictimization over 15 months using a latent cross-lagged panel design. The participants were 1199 German school students aged 9–17 years (M = 12.01 years, SD = 1.68, 55% female). The frequency of media use, cyberbullying and cybervictimization, and the control variables traditional bullying, traditional victimization, sex and age were assessed with a self-report questionnaire. The results show that the frequency of media use does not predict cyberbullying and cybervictimization. However, cyberbullying and cybervictimization predict the frequency of media use from the third to the fourth measurement point. Consequently, the frequency of media use is not a longitudinal risk factor but rather an outcome of cyberbullying and cybervictimization at one point in time. This implies that cyberbullying prevention and intervention programs should not focus on the frequency but on the way media are used.
Background:
A growing body of research has analyzed the potential risks of problematic Facebook use for mental health and well-being. The current meta-analysis is the first to examine the associations between problematic Facebook use, psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, etc.) and well-being (life satisfaction, positive mental health) among adolescents and young adults.
Method:
A comprehensive search strategy identified relevant studies in PsychInfo, Pubmed, Scopus, ResearchGate, and Google Scholar.
Results:
The final sample included 23 independent samples with a total of 13,929 participants (60.7% females; Mage= 21.93, range: 16.5-32.4). Results of random effects meta-analysis confirmed a positive correlation between problematic Facebook use and psychological distress (r = .34, 95% CI [.28, .39]). Moderation analysis revealed that effect sizes were larger in older samples. Moreover, a negative correlation between problematic Facebook use and well-being was observed (r = -.22, 95% CI [-.28, -.15]).
Limitations:
All available studies used a cross-sectional design thus hampering the possibility to establish the direction of the association between problematic Facebook use and psychological distress and well-being.
Conclusions:
Results are discussed within the extant literature on problematic Facebook use and future research directions are proposed. This research may also inform clinical and prevention interventions on problematic Facebook use.
Use of online social networks has grown dramatically since the first Web 2.0 technologies were deployed in the early 2000s. Our ability to capture user data, in particular behavioral data has grown in concert with increased use of these social systems. In this study, we survey methods for modeling and analyzing online user behavior. We focus on negative behaviors (social spamming and cyberbullying) and mitigation techniques for these behaviors. We also provide information on the interplay between privacy and deception in social networks and conclude by looking at trending and cascading models in social media. WIREs Data Mining Knowl Discov 2017, 7:e1203. doi: 10.1002/widm.1203
This article is categorized under: Commercial, Legal, and Ethical Issues > Social Considerations
With the more pervasive use of technology, the prevalence of cyberbullying has increased. Universities and colleges have implemented more ways to reach students over the Internet and by other electronic means; consequently, it is important to investigate the prevalence of cyberbullying in higher education. This literature review was created to raise awareness of this continuing trend of cyberbullying among college students. Cyberbullying is defined as intent to consistently harass another individual to cause harm via any electronic method, including social media, and includes defamation, public disclosure of private facts, and intentional emotional distress. An exhaustive search of current literature was conducted using a variety of databases including Academic Search Complete, Education Source, E-Journals, ERIC, PsycArticles, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, and PsycINFO. Google, Google Scholar, and reference lists from key studies were also used to gather relevant studies for inclusion in this review. Articles were used to define cyberbullying, build a historical base of cyberbullying among adolescents, examine factors involved in cyberbullying, describe effects of cyberbullying, and examine this trend among college students. Strategies such as reporting, monitoring online interactions, and legal actions to address cyberbullying in all areas of education were included. Future research should investigate if educational programs lead to decreased cyberbullying, increased rates of reporting, and how cyberbullying may change social media etiquette.
Cyberbullying is a significant public health concern that can lead to increased risk of mental health issues, including psychological and developmental problems or suicide. However, because cyberbullying is a relatively recent phenomenon, there is a lack of agreement among researchers about the definition and prevalence of cyberbullying as well as methods for measuring its prevalence. In this review, we evaluate papers published between January 2013 to August 2015 that explored cyberbullying through the medium of social media. The aims of the study are to (I) clarify the characteristics of people involved in cyberbullying, and (II) identify the types of instruments used to measure cyberbullying on social media. In particular, we attempt to understand the factors underlying abuser behavior, how abusive behavior affects the well-being of victims, and how bystanders mitigate or contribute to the act of cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying, in its different forms, is common among children and adolescents and is facilitated by the increased use of technology. The consequences of cyberbullying could be severe, especially on mental health, potentially leading to suicide in extreme cases. Although parents, schools and online social networking sites are encouraged to provide a safe online environment, little is known about the legal avenues which could be utilised to prevent cyberbullying or act as a deterrent. This article attempts to explore current laws, and the challenges that exist to establishing cyberbullying legislation in the context of the UK. It is arguable that a number of statutes may be of assistance in relation to cyberbullying, namely Education and Inspections Act 2006, Protection from Harassment Act 1997, Communications Act 2003, Malicious Communications Act 1988, Telecommunications Act 1984, Public Order Act 1986, Obscene Publications Act 1959, Computer Misuse Act 1990, Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and Defamation Act 2013. However, given the lack of clear definition of bullying, the applicability of these laws to cyberbullying is open to debate. Establishing new legislation or a modification to existing laws is particularly challenging for a number of reasons, namely: an absence of consistent bullying/cyberbullying definition, a difficulty in determining intention to harm or evidence of this, a lack of surveillance, a lack of general awareness, issues surrounding jurisdiction, the role of technology, and the age of criminal responsibility. These challenges are elaborated and discussed in this article.
Purpose:
To examine whether negative Facebook (FB) experiences were independently associated with depressive symptoms among young adults in a longitudinal family cohort.
Methods:
Negative FB experiences were measured by type (e.g., bullying or meanness, unwanted contact, misunderstandings, or any), recency, number of experiences, and severity of upset. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Generalized estimating equations were used to account for sibling correlation; adjusted models were constructed for each negative FB experience measure accounting for sex, race/ethnicity, social support, adolescent depressive symptoms, parental psychological distress, average monthly income, educational attainment, and employment.
Results:
In a sample of 264 young adults, all negative FB experience measures were significantly associated with depressive symptoms.
Conclusions:
There is a clear association between negative FB experience and depressive symptoms. Future work should examine: (1) whether negative FB experiences cause incident depression or exacerbate preexisting depression; and (2) who is most prone to being upset by negative FB experiences. With further research, recommendations for limiting or altering FB use among high-risk subpopulations could be useful in reducing depressive symptoms.
The use of social media amongst children, adolescents and families is nowadays a common practise in our everyday lives. Social networking sites allow social interaction between people through various channels, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs. Even if this interaction is generally healthy, these sites bring several risks, such as cyberbullying, depression and exposure of inappropriate content. In this paper we tackle the problem of cyberbullying via a novel approach that analyses online posts in trending world events. These generally cause a lot of interest and controversy among online Web users. Twitter is the social network of choice, where a large dataset of tweets is collected. The two current world events selected are the Ebola virus outbreak in Africa and the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Collected tweets are carefully analysed to identify the most popular hashtags and named entities used within cyberbullying tweets. This analysis provides a basis towards several useful applications, such as a cyberbullying online post detector for certain current trending world events. This will help reduce the number of cyberbullying cases in social networking sites. Results obtained from this evaluation can be applied to other cyberbullying scenarios.
This review of literature outlines the current state of knowledge on cyberbullying based on articles published online and in academic journals. Specifically, this paper describes: (a) common types of cyberbullying; (b) different technologies used for cyberbullying; (c) the proportions of school-aged victims of cyberbullying in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia; (d) the gender of cyberbullies; and (e) the emotional impact of cyberbullying. Through this exploration of current knowledge on the topic, it should be possible to identify potential solutions to this rapidly growing problem. © Common Ground, Julia Wilkins, John H. Hoover, Plamen Miltenoff, Trae K. E. Downing, All Rights Reserved.
The majority of research on cyberbullying has been conducted with middle school and high school students and has not focused on specific technology platforms. The current study investigated college student experiences with cyberbullying on Social Networking Sites (SNS). College students (N = 196) from a northwestern university shared their conceptualizations of what cyberbullying looked like on SNS. Some college students (19%) reported that they had been bullied on SNS and 46% indicating that they had witnessed cyberbullying on SNS. The majority (61%) of college students who witnessed cyberbullying on SNS did nothing to intervene. College students were also asked about their perceived responsibility when they witnessed cyberbullying on SNS. Two diverging themes emerged that indicated some college students believed their responsibility to intervene was circumstantial, while others believed there is a constant clear level of responsibility for college student cyberbullying bystanders on SNS.