A new study by researchers at Bielefeld Univiersity revealed that young people who suffer from cyberbullying or cyber harassment struggle the most when fellow classmates make fun of them by distributing embarrassing photos and videos.

An online survey published on July 19th says that almost half of the victims feel severely distressed or very distressed by this type of bullying. The study was conducted by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence (IKG) and consisted of 1881 schoolchildren in Germany. The children wrote about their experiences with cyberbullying as a witness, offender, or victim.

When a person is attacked by one or more people through the Internet or by mobile phone, we call it cyberbullying. For example, Facebook and instant messenger are commonly used to embarrass or denigrate or harm their social relationships. The target of intentional and repeated attacks is usually a weaker person. For this study, social scientists Dr. Peter Sitzer, Julia Marth and their team wanted to identify the various aspects of this phenomenon.

One important point the online survey focused on was the level of distress the victim’s felt relating to the various forms of cyberbullying.

Researchers found that the victims feel more distress in some forms of cyberbullying as opposed to others. For example, over half of those affected said the posting of personal photos and videos is distressful when it is aimed at humiliating them or making fun of them. The team put these findings down because the impact of this form is very hard to control, meaning that it is easy to duplicate and distribute photos and videos at any time, making them available to an unlimited audience.

In contrast, only about a quarter of the participants said insulting, threatening, and abusive behavior makes them very distressed or severely distressed. Peter Sitzer believes, “This might be because this form of cyberbullying can be aimed directly at the victim. In this case, there are relatively few witnesses.” Another possibility is that young people think these behaviors are normal, everyday behavior.

The survey also contained questions regarding the forms of cyberbullying they had experienced. The most frequently reported forms were attacks through the Internet or phone, being subjected to derision, insult, threats or abuse. Many of the respondents said that many rumors or hateful comments had been spread around about them. The girls revealed that they had been the subject of cyberstalking and that, against their will, someone tried to talk to them about sex. For these acts, little or no previous knowledge of the victim is needed.

Peter Sitzer said:

“It’s easy to send someone offensive messages by e-mail or instant messenger or post them on their wall, for example in Facebook. “But for a bully to be able to pass on private messages or confidential information to third parties in order to humiliate or ridicule the victim, he must have knowledge of such messages or information.”

The surveys were anonymous giving the offenders of cyberbullying an opportunity to speak. They reported to have attacked their victims in the Internet or by cell phone, most frequently by ridiculing, insulting, abusing, or threatening others. Cyberstalking and defamatory were also mentioned quite frequently.

All of the victims rarely indicated being excluded from a group in the Internet, while offenders mentioned this form of bullying quite often. The experts believe one reason for this discrepancy between the statements given by the offenders and victims is that the victims didn’t realize they had been excluded from a group.

Sitzer explained, “Disparagements, however, are only hurtful when the victim perceives them as humiliating.” According to him, there is a similar reason why more offenders claimed to have forwarded photos and videos to other peers than was reported by the victims. The victim does not need to know that embarrassing photos are being tossed around, as long as the offender knows he or she is ridiculing the victim.

He said:

“Our findings underline that cyberbullying is not a trivial matter but a serious problem which demands preventive countermeasures.”

Firm action should always be taken in cases of cyberbullying. Teachers, educationalists, and parents need to teach kids at an early age how to behave in a socially responsible manner towards others on the Internet. Over half of the offenders revealed that they had did not experience any negative consequences after attacking someone. Offenders need help to change so that they can stop hurting others.

The researchers concluded that victims of cyberbullying need to be taken seriously and cannot overcome these experiences without help from loved ones.

This study on the online surveys “Cyberbullying bei Schülerinnen und Schülern” (Cyberbullying among schoolchildren) can be found on the homepage of the project.

Written by Sarah Glynn