Raising HE students’ awareness of technology mediated abusive behaviours – Bedfordshire Cyber Awareness Programme (BCAP)

In this talk we discuss the development, dissemination and evaluation of the Bedfordshire Cyber Awareness Programme (BCAP): Developed as part of the HEFCE CATALYST fund, with the goal of improving universities’ responses to hate crime and online harassment on campus. This was motivated by concern regarding an increased prevalence of cyber harassment, cyberstalking and online
hate incidents involving university students in the UK. The increase may be in-part, symptomatic of a broader issue of, “Lad culture” a phenomenon that is becoming commonplace in certain online settings as well as on many university campuses. Contrary to the name, it can be displayed in behaviours of, and
supported by males and females. Lad culture involves holding and openly expressing as normalised; immature sexist, misogynistic, racist or homophobic attitudes. It has been linked with rape, violence, bullying and harassment as well as sexual objectification in youth culture. Online harassment and cyberstalking have serious impacts on victims, and can lead to negative changes in personal
relationships, freedom to use technologies as desired, work and financial changes. In many cases victims exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). Specifically, within the UK, the 2016 “Brexit” vote to leave the European Union and recent terrorist attacks have both been linked to an increased proclivity for hate-related incidents. University students it seems, are not immune and there have been several high-profile cases. One involved a group who were suspended (and three of whom, expelled) after creating a Facebook chat group called, “F*** women, disrespect them all” where members shared misogynistic, racist, paedophillic and anti-Semitic content and “jokes”. Another involved a student posting a video online that documented her subjection to racist chants of, “Sign the Brexit papers” and “We hate the blacks” by her fellow students, while she barricaded herself inside of her bedroom within university halls of residence. Cyberstalking, online
harassment and hate incidents break several UK laws including the Protection from Harassment 1997 Act, Malicious Communications 1988 Act and Communications 2003 Act. As such, university students whom, possibly due to their frequent immersion in shifting off and on-line cultural norms, relatively young ages, differences in cultural background or (due to the electronically mediated nature of the communications) lack of physical cues that would normally lead to the realisation that personal actions are causing harm or distress to another; may not realise the seriousness of their actions, both in terms of victim impacts or from a legal perspective. Indeed, such actions are, by the person(s) perpetrating them, often considered merely to be part of normal, everyday “banter”. The BCAP project was piloted at the University of Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom. The programme aims to challenge anti-social attitudes, educate staff and students to differentiate acceptable and unacceptable online and electronically executed behaviours, signpost support services, offer guidance on how to take self protective actions and to take appropriate bystander interventions in online and other relevant digital settings. Evaluation was conducted via observation and pre and post intervention questionnaires.
Preliminary analysis of the comparison between the pre and post session responses shows that approximately 63% of respondents changed their opinion on their readiness/willingness to take action if they witnessed harmful online interactions, with a statistically significant (p= 0.0165 and p= 0.00175)
difference in the variance of answers to the questions about willingness and readiness to take action if they witnessed a harmful online interaction happening to a stranger. This indicates that the training does have an impact in terms of participant’s opinion on their nature as a bystander.