AN INVESTIGATION ON THE PREVALENCE OF CYBERBULLYING AMONGST UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA Bojelo Esther Mooketsi Library and Information Studies University of Botswana [email protected] Abstract Information and Communication Technologies are widely regarded as crucial enablers to communities and individuals to filter and manage information that is of interest to them. Hence, academic institutions provide students with access to the Internet. However, research has established that there is a negative side to this access such as Cyber bullying. Whilst numerous studies discuss the use of social media and bullying amongst the youth in Botswana, no study was found that investigated the prevalence of Cyber bullying amongst undergraduate students in the University of Botswana. It is in recognition of the dearth of information on this phenomenon that this study investigated the prevalence of Cyber bullying amongst undergraduate students of the University of Botswana. Furthermore, this study investigated students’ involvement in collective or group cyber bullying against individuals or organizations and the reasons for partaking in such. This exploratory study adopted a critical interpretivist approach and the research data was obtained through semi structured interviews with undergraduate students in the University of Botswana. The findings of the study show that Cyber bullying is prevalent amongst undergraduate students. It is hoped that tertiary institutions will in light of the research findings, develop strategies to mitigate the antisocial behavior. Keywords: Social Networks Usage; Undergraduates; Cyber bullying 1.0 Introduction Whilst Social networking sites (SNS) are virtual, they are premised on the concept that society exists as a structured set of relationships between people. SNS sites provide opportunities for users to connect with others which satisfies users relatedness and self-esteem needs, social integration and emotional support needs (Gibson & Cantijoch, 2013; Halpern & Gibbs, 2013; Ravasan, Rouhani, & Asgary, 2014). This study focused on profile based social media that are usually used for relationship building and maintenance such as people posting messages on each other’s pages, making comments on a friend’s photo or updating their status to a closed circle of friends. These sites also enable active screening of friends and varying levels of privacy protection. In these platforms, through self-presentation, a user conveys his/ her interests, likes and dislikes, and personal opinions in the hope that others will gain a better understanding of him/her, and in turn will develop a deeper relationship with him/her (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). These platforms also enable those who are connected to the user to be publicly listed. These social media platforms enable users to create identifiable profiles which gives the users social presence. Social presence, which is defined as the extent to which a person is regarded as an actual real live person in an online environment is done to hopefully enable SNS users to understand each other and possibly develop deeper relationships (Pammer-Schindler, Pérez-Sanagustín, & Drachsler, 2018,) Bojelo Esther Mooketsi – Mosenodi Journal 2018, 21 (2) 2018: 44-54 However, having social presence makes one vulnerable to Cyber bullying. It is argued that SNS such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are Cyber bullying tools of choice because of the ability of the masses to witness and participate in the attacks (Whittaker & Kowalski, 2015; Aboujaoude, Savage, Starcevic, & Salame, 2015; Olweus & Limber, 2018).Cyber bullying involves “the use of Information and Communication Technologies such as e-mail, cell phone text messages, Instant Messaging, defamatory personal web sites, defamatory online personal polling and web sites to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others” (Belsey, 2004). McQuade, Colt, & Meyer, (2009, p.14) define Cyber bullying as “an occurrence whereby someone uses information technology to embarrass, harass, intimidate, threaten, or otherwise cause harm to individual targeted for abuse”. Others like Kokkinos, Antoniado, & Markos (2014, p.204) define Cyber- bullying as an “aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or an individual using electronic form of contact, repeatedly and over time, against a victim who cannot easily defend him/herself”. From the definitions, one can conclude that cyber bullying has both emotional and psychological impacts on the victims, which is made worse by the longer “shelf life” of cyber bullying text or images which exposes a victim for longer periods of time. In addition, according to Feinberg & Robey (2009), the hurtful information can be transmitted broadly and instantaneously. The attacks are also said to be more vicious as perpetrators are shielded from the consequences of their actions and as such are more likely to say things online that they would not in person. While some such as Rice & Katz, (2003) draw distinctions between mobile bullying and cyber bullying, this study will not make a distinction between the two. There are several ways in which cyber bulling takes place and these include hacking of social media profiles and accounts, threatening, insulting, harassing, sexting, morphing, virtual rape, revenge porn, exclusion, flaming, harassment, public shaming from posted content, exclusion and cyber stalking, undesirable sexual solicitation, sexual harassment, voyeuristic behavior, obscene comments and spamming (Behm-Morawitz & Schipper, 2015; Kota ,Benson, Schoohs,& Moreno, 2014). 2.0 Prevalence of cyber bullying in Education Institutions Cyber bullying is said to be prevalent and growing due to amongst other reasons “the reliance on new connectivity tools to the point where many would rather tolerate negative effects than be disconnected and the continued rise of online disinhibition, often related to anonymity” (Aboujaoude et al, 2015). The 2017 Pew Research Center established that almost 40% of Americans have experienced online harassment. Furthermore, the 2017 Pew Research Center extrapolated that nearly one in five (18%) Americans will experience more ‘extreme’ harassment such as physical threats, stalking, and online sexual harassment based on their political views, physical appearance, race, gender and sexual orientation (Pew Research Center, 2017). In the United Kingdom, 31% of youth were said to have experienced cyber bullying, in Canada 34% of students, Japan 45% of high school students had experienced cyber bullying, whilst in China 60% of students had experienced cyber bullying (Aoyama & Talbert 2010). A study done by Zulu & Tustin (2012) in South Africa, established that almost three in every ten learners (34.4%) who participated in their study were victims of bullying whilst four in every ten learners (38.1%) were aware of a friend being bullied. Furthermore, 23.3% of their respondents admitted having bullied other learners. Almost half the learners who were cyber bullied had received upsetting messages, experienced gossip and rumors spread about them and were called names. Other cyber bullying incidents 44 Bojelo Esther Mooketsi – Mosenodi Journal 2018, 21 (2) 2018: 44-54 reported included exposure to sexual remarks (24.5%), unflattering and suggestive personal photos posted online (13.3%) and being bullied, recorded and photos/videos distributed online (8.7%). In addition, Chukwuere, Chukwuere & Khumalo (2017) established that academic research which focused on cyber bullying against female students in South Africa was limited. Kyobe, Mimbi, Nembandona, & Mtshazi, (2018) investigated Mobile bullying in high schools in rural South Africa. However, studies have established that students tend to give misleading information about their involvement in acts of Cyber bullying (Francisco, Simão, Ferreira & Martins, 2015).Research has also established that a number of different factors such as the age, high rate of availability of electronic media that enables easy and regular dissemination of abusive materials, competency in using technology, gender, anonymity, perception, attitude, gratification after mobile bullying affect predisposition to cyber bullying. Whilst numerous studies discuss the use of social media and bullying amongst the youth in Botswana, no study was found that investigated the prevalence of cyber bullying amongst undergraduate students in Botswana nor in the University of Botswana. It is imperative to carry out such studies as cyber bullying does not only occur during adolescence, but studies have established that it also occurs during the University years (Akbulut & Eristi, 2011). In addition, tertiary education students are said to predominantly use Facebook and Instagram which are regarded as “the worst offending platforms of cyber bullying” (Reischman,2018). Furthermore, studies have shown a relationship between traditional bullying and cyber bullying and the presence of bullying in schools in Botswana has been acknowledged (Selemogwe, Nomagugu-Setlhare & Mphele, 2014). It is in recognition of the dearth of information on this phenomenon that this study investigated the prevalence of cyber bullying amongst undergraduate students of the University of Botswana. Furthermore, this study investigated students’ involvement in collective or group cyber bullying against individuals or organizations and the reasons for partaking in such. This is in recognition of the fact that Social media