An empirical Investigation of Motives, Nature and online Sources of Cyberbullying

Abstract

Cyberbullying related with social, emotional and academic harms can be critical and enduring. Cyberbullying is where context has a dynamic impact. Pakistan is one of its late accepters of IT; yet, the IT sector has developed during recent couple of years. By utilizing more extensive proportion of cyberbullying and looking at what cause it to occur, the present investigation plans to inspect (i) motives of the cyber aggressor, by how do individuals get the opportunity to participate in cyberbullying? (ii) Negative influences on cyber victim, (iii) Obscurity of Cyber Aggressor, (iv) Omission in cyberbullying with respect to gender metamorphosis and (v) Sort of social sites used to commit. Data was collected through instrument survey that is grounded on 5-point Likert Scale and effective responses from 600 university students from different provinces and states were utilized, coded and evaluated by using SPSS. Type of electronic media used to commit cyberbullying by respondents were reported as Instant messaging, E-mails, Social Networking Sites, Online games, compromising photos, Videoclips, Phone calls, Raid on personal blogs and websites. Findings demonstrate that the foremost motive amongst respondents to commit electronic bullying is found to be Social Relationship. Main motive for males behind bullying others using cyber medium is "Unevenness of Power" and make themselves socially strong or weaken others. However, Secrecy and Namelessness caused by anonymity offered by cyberbullying is most prominent motive for females. The results showed that females are more affected by cyberbullying as compared to males regarding "Withdrawal and Isolation" and "Indulging in Harmful Habits". However Increased Psychological Distress caused by cyberbullying has no major difference between males and females. Anonymity through secrecy, namelessness and freedom of expression enables cyber bully to feel protected in virtual environments and they may take advantage when contrasted with traditional bullying.