Cyberharassment and cyberbullying: individual and institutional perspectives [thesis]

Research on finding a relationship between institutional policy and the proliferation of cyberstalking, cyberharassment and cyberbullying in young adults, is limited. A National Institute of Justice (1998) study on a 4,446 USA student sample reveals that stalking on university campuses has a different profile than stalking nationally because of the nature of their mate-seeking age, proximity of the perpetrator to its victim and the facile way of accessing personal information. For this study, data from an undergraduate sample was gathered. Data suggests that online communication is ambiguous and there is a need for online norms, to which young people can adhere. Participants were generally not aware that the university had a policy on acceptable use of network. Moreover, participants were sensitive to being harassed and while being aware of how they were affected by the online behaviour of others, there was less certainty of the effects of their own behaviour.