By David Simms, Senior Contributor
The Global Institute of Cyber Safety and Standards
There is a general misconception that aggressive bullying
behaviours online are primarily instigated and carried out by males, however
this is not accurate. Female bullying
has been found to be especially dominant particularly when it comes to verbal
and psychological torment in a cyber context. Although females are also
responsible for physical bullying, it is drastically less likely to occur
in-person as compared to the Internet.
A common misunderstanding held by many
is that verbal abuse online is relatively harmless and therefore, until
recently, has been categorised and dealt with as a trivial matter. However, to the contrary, scientific research
shows that virtual harassment in the form of name calling, rumour spreading,
threats, ostracising from groups, and the creating of false realities online,
have a definite tangible and physical effect on victims, a fact that is
fortunately, albeit slowly, being recognised as a legitimate issue among law
enforcement agencies in countries around the world.
Females also tend to partake in online mobbing behaviours. Whereas
males traditionally act alone in their aggression, females will often incite
others in their group to gang up on a victim, typically another female. Unfortunately, as the issue of online
harassment and bullying is gaining more notice, males are being shown in PSAs
and other raising-of-awareness articles and videos, to be the primary
instigators. This is not to say that male involvement in online harassment
shouldn’t be treated with the same seriousness; male aggression online is known
to escalate to physical confrontations much more often than females. However it is important to recognise that as
the cyber harassment issue evolves, we must be mindful that it is much more
complex than previously thought, and therefore should be dealt with in a fair and
comprehensive fashion.
