Cyberbullies, Trolls, and Stalkers: Students’ Perceptions of Ethical Issues in Social Media

ABSTRACT

Little research has been done to examine users’ perceptions of ethical issues related to communication on social media. This exploratory, descriptive study examines undergraduate students’ perceptions of ethical issues in how they and their peers use social media and the consequences the ethical issues have on themselves and others. An online survey was distributed to students at a regional university (N = 201). Results show that most students have observed violations of ethical norms; they believe that the most common ethical issues are inappropriate pictures, privacy concerns, and people harassing others.

Acknowledgments

We thank Brandy Jaszewski for her contributions to the data analysis and Ashley Andrews for finding articles for the literature review. An initial draft of this project was presented at the 2017 National Communication Association Conference in Dallas, Texas.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.