Cyberbullying Paper

Cyberbullying

        In this technological era, Internet has built the boundless country on the world. It enables people from different county to communicate, exchange ideas and stay connected. However, the use of these technologies by children, adolescents and adults in our society for communication and social networking has both positive and negative outcomes. One of the negative consequences is cyberbullying, which has also become an issue of trust and ethic in our society.

        Cyberbullying was defined as an aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself (Topcu & Erdur & Capa-Aydin, 2008). It has been compared to traditional bullying by some research which has found similarities in terms of the characteristics but there are still some distinct differences exist. For example, unlike traditional forms of bullying where the victim is confronted by the bully while cyberbullying allows the offender to mask his or her identity behind the screen of a computer or mobile device (Donegan, 2011).

        Cyberbullying occurs when youth repeatedly use technology to threaten or harass their peers (Hinduja &Patchin, 2010a). Cyberbullying can performance in many forms. For example, cyberbullying can be performed by sending hurtful and embarrassing short message services (SMSs), stealing email passwords, spreading rumours about someone on the Internet, and violating someone’s privacy via a webcam (Topcu & Erdur & Capa-Aydin, 2008).

        Drawing from social cognitive theory and a comprehensive review of prior research on bullying and cyber-bullying, we focus on cyber-victimization experience, Internet self-efficacy, motivations, demographics as the personal factors and social norm as the environmental factor determining university students’ likelihood to engage in cyber-bullying behaviour.

        Firstly, aged is one of the factors of cyberbullying. For example, there has been a scarcity of research investigating cyberbullying behaviour among university students. A recent Internet use survey revealed that 95% of young adults aged between 18 to 29 years old were active users of the Internet. It represents the highest use among all the age groups (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2010).

        Since the frequency of using the computer and the Internet has been found to be an indicator of exposure to risks, young adults or university students are likely to be exposed to cyber-bullying behaviour, a known risk online (Huang and Chou, 2010; Li, 2007a, 2007b).  Hence, cyberbullying can be said as a phenomenon mostly occurred among university students. This is because university students tend to more expertise in operating the Internet and using Internet applications. They were more likely to perform different types of cyberbullying behaviour without others’ technical support and assistance (Xiao & Wong, 2013).