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

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

1.1  Background of the study

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.

1.2  Objectives of the study

1.   To identify the existing levels of cyberbullying sensitivity among university students

2.   To find out the relationship between cyberbullying sensitivity levels among university students and their perceived social support levels

3.   To find out cyberbullying sensitivity levels of students and their perceived social support according to gender

1.3  Scope of the study and limitations

This research looks at cyberbullying sensitivity of government university students which is a representative sample from the educated young crowd. Responses from students of university of Sri Jayawardenepura, Colombo, Moratuwa and Kelaniya were gathered for this purpose.

This study has some limitations. First occurrences of cyberbullying were understood from a subjective perspective. In other words concept of cyberbullying will differ from individual to individual and hence this study does not provide an objective interpretation to the notion of cyberbullying. No in depth information was gathered regarding responses to certain specific instances of cyberbullying. It is better to

utilize qualitative data collection techniques such as interview and observation, which will reveal perceptions to cyberbullying  events in a more holistic way.

Secondly, for the current study, the factors predicting cyberbullying sensitivity are

limited to social support. There are other variables that must be taken to consideration.

Finally, the social support perceived by the young people may be affected by their current relationship with other people than their parents, teachers and friends which is ignored in the current research.