Online peer victimization

ABSTRACT

The ubiquity of information technology offers a variety of opportunities for enhancing social interactions and peer relationships. Empirical evidence has showcased the bright side of social media and computer-mediated communications. However, IT also creates vulnerabilities for deviant behavior. One of the deviant behaviors is Online Peer Victimization (OPV) (Peer Victimization is defined as “an act of aggression from similar-aged peers that is not from parents, other adults, or siblings (Finkelhor & Dzuiba-Leatherman, 1994). It does not require a power imbalance nor is it necessarily intentional or reoccurring (Finkelhor, Turner, & Hamby, 2012)”. We recognize OPV based on the growing body of research underscoring a wide range of associated social, psychological and physical impact along with the financial implications of such behavior. While attempts have been made to define and characterize OPV, the use of confounding terms such as cyber-victimization, cyber-bullying, cyber-aggression, online harassment, and cyber-harassment and their myriad definitions have accentuated the mixed research results. A critical review of the literature finds a dearth of theories and unambiguous measurement mechanisms. Mapping existing academic literature on OPV and related themes, our framework finds that a large proportion of OPV studies focus on the predatory form of online peer victimization. We call for further research in the area specifically on the nuances of the interaction between victims and perpetrators along with deeper research into the affordances of different platforms that allow OPV.

Notes

¹ Dissociative Imagination: A belief that the online world is free from real world consequences and that once offline one can relinquish the responsibility of any actions conducted in the make-believe online world.

² Online Disinhibition: Users perceive the absence of identification patterns/markers as protective masks allowing them to loosen-up, act in a less restrained fashion, and express oneself more openly.

³ Study of the history of words.

⁴ Bullying is aggressive behavior that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power or strength.

⁵ In psychology, disinhibition is a lack of restraint manifested in disregard for social conventions, impulsivity, and poor risk assessment.

⁶ Here inability/unwillingness to disengage from SNSs can be considered as tolerance among the victims. In the absence of capable (legal) guardianship, the ecology of the internet creates a risk-tolerant and criminogenic environment for victimization and predation (Arntfield, 2015)..

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Priya Seetharaman

Priya Seetharaman is an Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. She is a Fellow of IIM Calcutta (PhD). Her primary research areas include IT Strategy and Governance; Healthcare IT; Adoption, Use and Evolution of IT in firms. Her papers have appeared in the Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Journal of MIS, Information & Management, Computers in Human Behaviour, and Online Information Review, among others. She has also presented her research in premier information systems conference including ISS, ECIS, HICSS, ECIS and AMCIS. Her teaching interests include IS planning and management, IT Governance and Business Process Management where she focuses on issues and challenges faced by IT practitioners and Functional IT heads in user organizations.

Eshan Bhatt

Eshan Bhatt is a Doctoral Research Fellow (PhD) at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, India. He holds a bachelors degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering and a post graduate diploma in management. Aligned with his work experience in the IT services industry and with Government of India his primary areas of research include IT Adoption, Use and Governance; Privacy, Security and Trust in IS; and the Dark side of IS.