Cyberbullying: Power imbalance behind anonymity

Ade Devia Pradipta^1, Putu Titah Kawitri Resen²

¹Prodi Ilmu Komunikasi, ²Prodi Hubungan Internasional

Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik, Universitas Udayana 

The Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association and Polling Indonesia found that around 49% netizens have been bullied in social media. Bullying emerges because of imbalance power between bullies and victims. Bullies often have some advantages over the victims, such as physical attributes, social status, and other attributes, which can make bullies have higher position over the victims. There are two kinds of bullying, traditional bullying and cyberbullying. Bullying refers to aggression by the bullies and can be distinguished into three types: physical, verbal, and other indirect aggression.

Cyberbullying is a negative impact from people high activities in cyberspace, especially the activity in social media. Cyberbullying can be defined as intentional, repeated harmful behavior against others via the use of communication technologies. Gradinger et al (2012) stated there are four statements that motivate the bullies to do cyberbullying: 1) to exhibit power; in order to accept by friends; 3) because it is fun; 4) and I feel angry. Even though the effect of cyberbullying does not come in form of physical, but it has negative impact for the victims. Rumor spreading, threatening, name calling, and body shaming are the forms of cyberbullying.

Why does bullying occur in cyberspace? The anonymity in cyberspace led the imbalance of power between bullies and victim cannot be seen. Beside, lack of surveillance in cyberspace make the bullies have freedom to bully the victims. Ybrra and Mitchell (2004) explained that the people ability to hide their identities is a unique method to insist their power, which cannot be found in traditional bullying. The anonymity in cyberbullying motivates the bullies to do reactive aggression like retaliation, anger, and rage. This kind of aggression tend to be done by the victims in traditional bullying.

The anonymity and lack of surveillance make most of teenagers like to surf in social media. Teenagers have dependency in social media features and also to smartphone features. Social media have wide range of audiences and lead new relationship with someone we do not know. This kind of relationship sometimes cause cyberbullying. Often, the victims get bullied by people they do not know. In cyberbullying the bullies can hide their identity behind fake accounts which can make they more bolder to speak and to do thing that harmful the victims.

The anonymity in cyberbullying make the reaction of the victim cannot be seen. However, studies found that the anonymity help bullies to feel little regrets. Kowalski and Limber (2007), stated that the possibilities of cyberbullying is huge because it harm victims without physical interaction, little planning, and is not easy to be caught. The bullies hide behind fake accounts and lack of surveillance in cyberspace make the victims difficult to trace the bullies. Cyberbullying often not reported to the parents or authority because the victims afraid of limited accessibility to their social media. More, many people are not take cyberbullying seriously. Cyberbullying have impact in reduced self-esteem, cause stress, even led to depression and suicide. In future, the surveillance from parents, teachers, and authorities should be increased to reduce and prevent cyberbullying.

References:

Gradinger, P., Strohmeier, D., & Spiel, C. 2011. “Motives for bullying others in cyberspace”. In Q. Li, D. Cross, & P. K. Smith (Eds.), Cyberbullying in the global playground: Research from international perspectives (pp. 263-284). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Gradinger, P., Strohmeier, D., & Spiel, C. 2011. “Motives for bullying others in cyberspace”. In Q. Li, D. Cross, & P. K. Smith (Eds.), Cyberbullying in the global playground: Research from international perspectives (pp. 263-284). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Kowalski, R. M., & Limber, S. P. (2007). Electronic Bullying among Middle School Students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41, S22-S30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.08.017