Cyber bullying among Adolescents

Abstract

In this modern era, despite several advantages of communication technologies, some people particularly school and college students’ misuse these technologies. They often engage in a phenomenon called cyber bullying. Objective: To find out the cyber bullying activities of adolescents. Seven different cyber bullying activities such as flaming, harassment, intimidation, denigration, masquerade; outing and exclusion are being measured across three dimensions such as bullying, victimizing and witnessing. Method: (a) Participants: 1014 higher secondary and college students was (aged 16-20 years) randomly selected from 8 schools and 8 colleges located in Ernakulum district, Kerala. (b) Material: Cyber Bullying Survey Questionnaire developed by the investigators (c) Statistical Analysis: Percentage of activity in each of the seven areas across three dimensions was calculated. Result: All cyber bullying activities exist among higher secondary and college students. The percentage of students who witnessed cyber bullying activities is comparatively higher than that of victimization and bullying. Conclusion: The misuse of technology was seen in adolescents of Kerala community.