Abstract:

Human interaction is increasingly being shaped by advances in information and communication technology and various social media platforms exist to cater for the communication needs of individuals, groups and communities. Despite the benefits of social media, a negative by-product features in the form of online harassment and victimisation. Although conventional bullying received substantial attention in the past, online victimisation is a relatively novel form of harassment where the internet is used to beleaguer victims. Online victimisation presents a unique crime typology since it can occur at all hours of the day by means of text message, e-mail and various other social media platforms. Little is known about the phenomenon among university students because: research has thus far almost exclusively focused on child and adolescent populations; studies paid little attention to correlates of victimisation; and investigations encountered methodological weaknesses thus limiting their findings. This paper reports on a survey regarding the prevalence and correlates of online victimisation among undergraduate students registered at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Group-administered procedures were followed to gather data from 1 001 students (average age 20.5 years). Nearly all respondents (94%) accessed the internet daily and by means of mobile devices (91%), and 54% spent more than four hours per day on the internet. The majority “very often” (92%) used the internet for social media, followed by 66% for studies and 58% for online entertainment. In terms of victimisation, 31% had rumours spread about them; 28% have been at the receiving end of slander; 39% have been harassed by a stranger and 46% by someone known to them; 65% have received repeated messages even after having asked the sender to stop; 45% have received unwanted sexual images; 59% have been contacted by someone pretending to be someone they were not; and 11% have received a software virus. Correlation analyses showed statistically significant relationships between particular types of online victimisation and gender, household economic status, population group, time spent on the internet, and the source of internet access. Results of regression analyses will also be presented and implications of the research for institutions of higher education will be discussed.

Keywords:

Higher education, South Africa, students, internet, victimisation.