Bullying is no longer reserved for just the biggest kid on the playground. What once was stealing lunch money or the classic ‘kick me’ sign has evolved online. We call it ‘cyberbullying’. Victims are no longer ‘safe’ once they get home because the source of their torment lives in their pocket.
Cyberbullying includes everything from harassment, spreading rumors, and impersonation to the sharing of private or AI-generated images, doxing, and threatening behaviors. Mean comments on posts or videos, private messages, or what is called ‘cyber-mob violence’ are typical examples of this behavior. Cyberbullying can also include signing someone up for hundreds of online newsletters, subscribing them to adult content websites, or sending unwanted food to their house.
Cyberbullying isn’t exclusive to any age group, but it is most common among teenagers and young adults. Approximately 22% of college students have experienced cyberbullying. 41% of adults also report the same.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, 75% of cyberbullying and online harassment happens over Facebook. Social media has enabled cyberbullies to be as relentless as they want. TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram are also popular platforms for bullies to carry out their abuse. Social media sites have worked tirelessly for years to prove that they can oversee themselves when it comes to keeping fake accounts and false information off their servers, but they cannot combat every fake account. Cyberbullies can set up these false accounts and post mean comments without putting their primary or ‘real’ accounts at risk.
Cyberbullies may pretend to be celebrities and convince their targets that they are in a relationship. This allows the bully to gather personal information from their victim, which they can then use to spread rumors and harassment. Bullies then spread the information, also known as doxing, to other students or co-workers to humiliate their intended target. They can also convince their victim to send nude photographs and then use those images to harass their victim’s further. In some instances, the bully may threaten to release the images unless the victim gives them money. They may also use those images to force the victim to produce more sexual content. Also called sextortion, online predators also use this tactic to commit online sex abuse.
Doxing is releasing personal and sensitive information with the intent to harm or intimidate a victim. The goal is to make the victim lose all sense of privacy and security and open them up to a myriad of additional harassment. Even without knowing their attackers, doxing victims can be targeted by online communities that exist to harass them. This can result in the victim getting packages they didn’t order, people showing up at the victim’s house to collect a purchase, or, in the worst circumstances, swatting.
Swatting is when someone anonymously calls the police with a false threat, typically hostage situations or terrorism, and gives your address for the location. These types of threats garner a SWAT response from police which puts the victim’s life and home at risk. Several victims have been injured or killed. With the rise of swatting incidents across the country the FBI, as of 2023, has created a database to track the incidents. Swatting statistics were not previously tracked. However, many officials assume that there have been at least 1000 swatting incidents a year.