Online harassment of Japanese celebrities and influencers

Famous people, such as celebrities and influencers, are harassed online on a daily basis. Online harassment mentally disturbs them and negatively affects society. However, limited studies have been conducted on the online harassment victimization of famous people, and its effects remain unclear. We surveyed Japanese famous people (N = 213), who were influential people who appeared on television and other traditional media and on social media, regarding online harassment victimization, emotional injury, and action against offenders and revealed that various forms of online harassment are prevalent. Some victims used the anti-harassment functions provided by weblogs and social media systems (e.g., blocking/muting/reporting offender accounts and closing comment forms), talked about their victimization to close people, and contacted relevant authorities to take legal action (talent agencies, legal consultants, and police). By contrast, some victims felt compelled to accept harassment and did not initiate action for offenses. We propose several approaches to support victims, inhibit online harassment, and educate people. Our findings help that platforms establish support systems against online harassment.

Examining Cybersexism in Online Gaming Communities: A Scoping Review

Cybersexism in the context of online gaming communities, as epitomized by the Gamergate incident back in 2014, has been an issue for a while for gamer women, yet it has not received proper attention. In this scoping review, we have aimed to assess its main characteristics, its consequences for gamer women, its triggers and predictors, and related prevention and mitigation policies provided by the existing research. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines were applied to the design of the scoping review. Empirical studies were accessed via database searches. The following databases were prospected: Scopus, ProQuest, Web of Science, PsycINFO, PubMed, and ACM from March to May 2021. A total of 33 studies were included in the final analysis after database searching, filtering, and snowballing. Most of the selected studies (66%, n = 22) were focused on the manifestations of cybersexism in gaming communities, with gender-driven trash-talking being the main one. The main drivers and triggers behind cybersexist behaviors were also the research topic in 66% (n = 22) of the studies and the consequences and coping strategies were studied in 52% (n = 17) of the articles. Furthermore, 12% (n = 4) of the studies assessed policies and actions to prevent cybersexism. Cybersexism and its manifestations are a reality that conditions gamer women, provoking avoidance and ultimately withdrawal from gaming and, therefore, creating inequality, impairing full digital citizenship, and widening the digital gender gap.

A Scoping Review of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Across Asia

Technology-facilitated gender-based violence (GBV) is a pervasive issue. Yet, most research focuses on high-income countries and few studies comprehensively summarize its prevalence, manifestations, and implications in the Global South. This scoping review sought to examine technology-facilitated GBV in low- and middle-income countries across Asia, specifically focusing on trends, common behaviors, and characteristics of perpetrators and survivors. A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed and gray literature published between 2006 and 2021 yielded 2,042 documents, of which 97 articles were included in the review. Across South and Southeast Asia, findings indicate that technology-facilitated GBV is a widespread phenomenon, with increased incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology-facilitated GBV comprises various forms of behaviors and prevalence varies by type of violence. Women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities, especially those with other intersecting marginalized identities, are often more vulnerable to experiencing online violence. Alongside these findings, the review revealed gaps in the literature including a lack of evidence from Central Asia and the Pacific Islands. There is also limited data on prevalence which we attribute to underreporting, in part due to disjointed, outdated, or nonexistent legal definitions. Findings from the study can be leveraged by key stakeholders such as researchers, practitioners, governments, and technology companies to develop prevention, response, and mitigation efforts.

"The chilling effect": Medical scientists' responses to audience feedback on their media appearances during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many medical scientists became public personas as a result of their media appearances. However, this prominence also made them likely targets of harassment from an increasingly science-skeptic public. Such experiences may lead to scientists cutting back on their public engagement activities, threatening the quality of science communication. This study examines how medical scientists evaluate feedback they received as a result of their media appearances, and how they relate their experiences to general views of the public, as well as their motivations to serve as media experts. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 24 Austrian medical scientists who served as media experts during the first year of the pandemic, we find substantial amounts of online abuse. Yet, this did not cause our respondents to avoid future media appearances, because their motivations to meet the needs of an unsettled public outweighed the experience of being harassed online.

Swedish journalists' perceptions of legal protection against unlawful online harassment

This study examined journalists' perceptions regarding the legal system's ability to protect them against online harassment. By utilizing open-ended survey responses from respondents with varying levels of trust in the legal system, the findings suggested a need for increased technical proficiency, resources, and priority within the legal system to adequately address the issue. Additionally, a reciprocal relationship between the normalization of online harassment within the journalistic profession and the legal system's commitment to providing protection was identified. However, the study also found that when the legal system's mediated approach to online harassment is positive, it affects attitudes and norms relating to legal protection. Consequently, it reveals a unique insight into how journalists respond to the message conveyed by fair treatment and respect from the legal system. Notably, this result implies that when such messages are internalized, journalists feel more empowered to take measures against online harassment. As a result of this analysis, I propose that current laws should be implemented more effectively and that policy strategies should be developed to positively influence social norms and social control to bolster journalistic autonomy and freedom of speech in the digital age.

Victims of Known and Unknown Cyberstalkers: A Questionnaire Survey in an Italian Sample

Cyberstalking is a behavior in which an individual, group, or organization uses information technology to harass one or more people, with possible consequences for the victims. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of cyberstalking in terms of physical and emotional consequences, depression, anxiety symptoms, attitudes toward telling of cyberstalking experiences, and coping strategies, comparing young adult victims of known cyberstalkers with those harassed by strangers. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 689 individuals. Of these, 242 victims were included in the analysis: 115 victims of unknown (UC) and 127 of known cyberstalkers (KC). The results emphasize that victims of KC more often reported fatigue as a physical symptom and sadness and lack of trust in others as emotional symptoms. In addition, scores for depressive symptoms and anxiety did not differ significantly between the two groups, whereas significantly higher scores for trait anxiety were found among victims of KC. Finally, victims of KC were significantly more inclined to use alcohol and drugs, reduce social contact with friends, buy a weapon, and try to reason with the cyberstalker, while victims of UC were more inclined to block online contact and ask a social network administrator to intervene. Implications of the findings were discussed, such as the need to intervene immediately and to promote victims’ ability to seek help.

Associations of early social media initiation on digital behaviors and the moderating role of limiting use

Little is known about the effects of social media initiation on digital behaviors from middle childhood to early adolescence, a critical developmental period marked by peer influence and inaugural access to mobile devices. Participants from middle schools in the Northeast U.S. (N=773; 11-15 years, Mean = 12.6) completed a cross-sectional survey about social media initiation, digital behaviors, and parental restrictions on digital use. Descriptive results demonstrated that overall early adolescents more frequently engaged in positive digital behaviors compared to negative ones. Results from structural equation models showed that initiating social media platforms, namely Instagram or Snapchat, in later childhood (10 years or younger) was significantly associated with problematic digital behavior outcomes compared to either tween (11-12) and/or teen (13+) initiation, including having online friends or joining social media sites parents would disapprove of, more problematic digital technology behaviors, more unsympathetic online behaviors, and greater likelihood of online harassment and sexual harassment victimization. Additionally, there is evidence to show that childhood initiators demonstrated a greater tendency to engage in supportive or civically-engaged online community behaviors compared to older initiator counterparts. Parental restriction of mobile phone use and a less frequent checking of social media ameliorated some of the negative effects.

Digital Dating Abuse Among a National Sample of U.S. Youth

Digital dating abuse is a term used to describe physical, sexual, or psychological/emotional violence that occurs between romantic partners through the use of texting, social media, and related online mediums. Survey data were obtained from a nationally representative sample of 2,218 American middle and high school students (12-17 years old) who have been in a romantic relationship. About 28% of students in a relationship in the previous year had been the victim of digital dating abuse. Males were more likely to report having experienced it (32% compared to 24%), though no other demographic differences emerged. Several covariates did emerge as significantly related to experience with digital dating abuse, including depressive symptoms, sexual intercourse, sexting, and being the victim of cyberbullying. Experiencing offline dating abuse was by far the strongest correlate. Implications for prevention and policy within schools and the community are discussed, along with considerations for future research in this important area.

Mapping out Violence Against Women of Influence on Twitter Using the Cyber-Lifestyle Routine Activity Theory

The study applies and expands the routine activity theory to examine the dynamics of online harassment and violence against women on Twitter in India. We collected 931,363 public tweets (original posts and replies) over a period of 1 month that mentioned at least one of 101 influential women in India. By undertaking both manual and automated text analysis of "hateful" tweets, we identified three broad types of violence experienced by women of influence on Twitter: dismissive insults, ethnoreligious slurs, and gendered sexual harassment. The analysis also revealed different types of individually motivated offenders: "news junkies," "Bollywood fanatics," and "lone-wolves", who do not characteristically engage in direct targeted attacks against a single person. Finally, we question the effectiveness of Twitter's form of "guardianship" against online violence against women, as we found that a year after our initial data collection in 2017, only 22% of hostile posts with explicit forms of harassment have been deleted. We conclude that in the social media age, online and offline public spheres overlap and intertwine, requiring improved regulatory approaches, policies, and moderation tools of "capable" guardianship that empower women to actively participate in public life.

Preventing harassment and increasing group participation through social norms in 2,190 online science discussions

Theories of human behavior suggest that people's decisions to join a group and their subsequent behavior are influenced by perceptions of what is socially normative. In online discussions, where unruly, harassing behavior is common, displaying community rules could reduce concerns about harassment that prevent people from joining while also influencing the behavior of those who do participate. An experiment tested these theories by randomizing announcements of community rules to large-scale online conversations in a science-discussion community with 13 million subscribers. Compared with discussions with no mention of community expectations, displaying the rules increased newcomer rule compliance by >8 percentage points and increased the participation rate of newcomers in discussions by 70% on average. Making community norms visible prevented unruly and harassing conversations by influencing how people behaved within the conversation and also by influencing who chose to join.

Preventing Online Victimization: College Students' Views on Intervention and Prevention

Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites have changed the way we interact online. Technological advances have also facilitated the emergence of cyberstalking and online harassment, a growing issue on college campuses. This study utilizes focus group data to examine college students' experiences with online harassment and cyberstalking. Students voiced concerns with online tracking, falsifying identities, and harassment. They also noted that incoming first-year students and those negotiating some of their first romantic relationships are especially vulnerable. In addition, students were asked to propose appropriate prevention, education, and intervention strategies at the college level. Surprisingly, many students recommended offline programs to battle this online problem.

Men's harassment behavior in online video games: Personality traits and game factors

Online video games afford co-play and social interaction, often anonymous, among players from around the world. As predicted by the social identity model of deindividuation effects, undesirable behavior is not uncommon in online gaming environments, and online harassment has become a pervasive issue in the gaming community. In this study, we sought to determine what personality traits and game-related variables predicted two types of online aggression in video games: general harassment (e.g., skill-based taunting, insulting others' intelligence) and sexual harassment (e.g., sexist comments, rape threats). Men who play online video games (N = 425) participated in an anonymous online survey. Social dominance orientation and hostile sexism predicted higher levels of both sexual harassment and general harassment in online games. Game involvement and hours of weekly gameplay were additional predictors of general harassment. We discuss implications of online social aggression and online sexual harassment for online gaming. We also apply our findings to the broader understanding of online harassment, cyberaggression, cyberbullying, and other forms of online hostility in computer-mediated communication contexts. Aggr. Behav. 42:513-521, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Experiences of Online Harassment Among Emerging Adults: Emotional Reactions and the Mediating Role of Fear

Online harassment is a growing problem. Among college students, 43% report some experience receiving harassing messages. Previous research has shown negative online experiences to be typical among "emerging adults" (especially college students), and these incidents may be related to normative developmental behaviors, such as "on-again-off-again" romantic relationships. Study hypotheses were derived from previous research. Undergraduate student respondents ( N = 342) were surveyed about their experiences with online harassment, emotional responses to online harassment, and their relationship with the sender of harassing messages. Findings suggest that online harassment is linked to issues of intimate partner violence. Those who were harassed by a partner reported feelings of depression and anxiety. Using a gendered framework to explore online harassment is warranted because young women who are 18 to 29 years of age have higher rates of intimate partner violence than other demographic groups. Findings suggest future research is needed to understand the time ordering of these issues.

Correlates of cyberbullying and how school nurses can respond

Cyberbullying is one of many online risks that affect an increasing number of children and teenagers. This form of abuse often occurs under the radar of adults as it usually takes place outside of school and away from adult supervision. Moreover, bystanders and victims are often reluctant to report what they have experienced. School nurses might be among the first to witness the real-life consequences of this virtual behavior, as involvement in cyberbullying is often correlated with psychological and behavioral problems. For this reason, school nurses should know how to recognize the warning signs so that they can respond and intervene appropriately. This article provides a discussion of what cyberbullying is and a summary of research on factors associated with cyberbullying, in terms of both victimization and perpetration. It also provides school nurses with evidence-based strategies for responding effectively.

Investigating online harassment and offline violence among young people in Thailand: methodological approaches, lessons learned

Violence in the physical (offline) world is a well-documented health and social issue among young people worldwide. In Southeast Asia, online harassment (defined as intentional behaviours to harm others through the Internet or through mobile devices) is less well documented. In this paper, we describe and critically discuss the mixed-methods data collection approach we used to build a contextualised understanding of offline violence and online harassment among 15- to 24-year-old students and out-of-school youth in Central Thailand. We mapped linkages between offline violence and online harassment, and with their possible correlates including gender, sexuality, and mobile media or Internet use. Data collection methods included in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and a custom-built, self-administered computerised survey. Using mixed methods enabled us to collect holistic qualitative/quantitative data from both students and out-of-school youth. In our discussion, we focus on gender, sexuality, class and ethnicity issues in recruiting out-of-school youth; definition and measurement issues; technical issues in using a computerised survey; ethical issues surrounding data collection from minors as well as privacy and confidentiality concerns in collecting data in both in-school and out-of-school settings; and the general implications of using mixed methods.