An Analysis of Cyberbullying Sensitivity Levels of University Students of Sri Lanka

While current communication technologies such as mobile phones, the internet and social network sites provide new opportunities for learning and interaction, they may also pose a threat to personal security. The rapid increase in access to information and communication technologies by young people can also cause those technologies to be used for bullying their peers leading to cyberbullying. The purpose of this study is to determine the cyberbullying sensitivity levels of university students and their perceived social supports levels, and analyze the variables that predict cyberbullying sensitivity. In addition, whether cyberbullying sensitivity levels and social support levels differed according to gender was also investigated.

The aggregate level of perceived social support of the university students were identified based on three main variables. They are family support, friends and support from the external environment. Data was collected through a questionnaire and the responses were scored on a five point Likert scale. The population of the study comprised of government university students of Sri Lanka. Among them 50 students voluntarily participated in this study. Thereafter the predicting factors that affect cyberbullying sensitivity were recognized through a stepwise regression.

The findings of this research show that the cyberbullying sensitivities of the students were high but their levels of the perceived social support were low. However the cyberbullying sensitivities of the female students are higher than the male students. Further the levels of social support did not differ according to the gender. Among the factors friends support was found to be the most impactful variable.

With the development of technology the means of communication have changed rapidly in the past few years. Today the internet and social media are frequently used to stay connected with people rather than face-to-face relationships. More than the adults the youth are attached to cyber communication as an integral part of their daily life. For the youth online communication has assisted to expand their social circle. Therefore youth are actively using the internet as a very convenient and important form of social interaction.

In Sri Lanka the access of young people to the internet have rapidly increased in recent years. Total internet connections grew by 68.4 percent during 2014 largely due to the growth of mobile internet usage. In 2013 internet connections grew by 47 percent, increasing internet penetration (connections per 100 persons) to 9.8 percent.

In the case of Sri Lanka social media has grown at an alarming rate. There are over 2.3 million users of social media from the total population of 21 million.  That means 11.5 percent of the Sri Lankan population use Facebook. When a gender breakup is considered around 1.4 million are males and the rest would be female.  It is estimated that on average they spend about 34 minutes a day on social media and the age group of 25-34 makes up 33 percent of the entire base.

While such developments have provided great opportunities it also brings new problems related to

social and individual development of young people. One of those main problems is cyberbullying, which is expressed as purposeful and repeated misuse of technology to scare and harm others. In the Sri Lankan context the rate of cybercrimes have increased rapidly according to the Computer Emergency Response Team. There were 900 incidents related to cyber offences reported from January till end of May, while in 2014 there were 2250 reported incidents of that nature. In 2012 and 2013 the reported incidents were 1100 and 1200 respectively. Based on the given statistics the number of offences have almost doubled from 2013 to 2014.

                                                                                     

While most of the studies in the literature focuses on the influences of cyberbullying on victimhood, cyberbullying sensitivity of people is mostly ignored. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate

cyberbullying sensitivity levels of university students, who are among the potential victims of cyberbullying and whether this could be used to predict cyberbullying sensitivity

The effects of new technologies which have developed rapidly during the recent years

have affected every institution of the society, and the use of new technological products such as cell phones, the Internet and social network sites have become very much popular among  the younger crowd. From this crowd it is essential to understand how this had impacted on university students as they are more educated and updated in terms of using such technology. While these communication technologies provide new opportunities to learn and interact, they could also form a threat to personal security. One of those major threats is cyberbullying.

When the cyberbullying sensitivity levels of university students were analyzed it could be concluded

that the cyberbullying sensitivity levels of students were high. The reasons could be due to the fast spread of the internet and other social media platforms among the youth and the convenience of access through mobile communication. On the other hand the students do not agree that the level of perceived social support was adequate. Since the virtual world provides more freedom, it promotes motivation for indecent behaviors. People are able to hide their identities easily during interaction. Also it frequently occurs outside university space. As the threat of cyberbullying involves privacy and relationships individuals are more prone to recognize cyberbully as a concern. Further the cyberbullying sensitivity of female students was found to be higher than the male students. But however even though social support is vital to decrease the negative effects of bullying students have stated that the level of social support they perceive is low. Both the male students and female students have recognized this fact.

Secondly the level of perceived social support do not differ based on the gender. A significant differentiation in favor of female students was found in the cyberbullying sensitivity of male and female students when the gender variable was considered. Higher levels of sensitivity among the female students was related to witnessing or experiencing cyberbullying.