What is online bullying and harassment?
Cyberbullying or online harassment is offensive behaviour, based on protected characteristics, that makes a person or group feel humiliated, intimidated or degraded. It creates a hostile and offensive environment for all. The University’s policy contains further information.
Online harassment can include publishing or sending offensive or threatening comments, inappropriate messages/emails and embarrassing pictures and links to websites.It can also include cyberstalking, online impersonating, doxxing (publishing someone’s personal information online as a call for others to harass them) and trolling. Criminal legislation can apply to associated behaviours such as criminal harassment, stalking, malicious communications, and disclosing private sexual images.
As with other forms of harassment and hate crime, online harassment is often a result of discriminatory attitudes. Online harassment can also be considered discrimination if the person or group are being targeted because of a protected characteristic: (age, disability, transgender, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation).
Online harassment may be taking place on one of the many social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter being the most commonly used. If this is happening, it might be a good idea to report the harassment via their reporting tool to begin with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
What are the effects of online harassment?
Online harassment can have severe and long-term impacts on physical, emotional and mental wellbeing and affect academic achievement and lifelong social engagement.
People who have experienced online harassment may:
- experience low self-esteem;
- withdraw from family/friends and spend a lot of time alone;
- be reluctant to allow parents/friends/family anywhere near their mobile/laptop etc;
- lose weight and change appearance;
- self-harm;
- abuse alcohol or substances;
- have poor mental health such as anxiety, low mood or depression; and
- find excuses to stay away from work/university or engage with work/studies.
To report online harassment or cyber bullying to the University, please click here. For information on support please see here.