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The insulting Internet: universal access and cyberbullying

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Abstract

With the growing popularity of online communication, a certain harassment can be observed to increasingly disavow the positive implications of an universally accessible cyberspace: cybermobbing or cyberbullying. Cybermobbing by digital information and communication technologies can be looked at—in spite of many common characteristics with the classic harassment—as an independent form which is derived from the phenomenon of the analogous harassment. As a result, the findings which were acquired in terms of classic bullying are valid for cybermobbing as well until they are modified or refuted. The main research concern of this study is thus to circumscribe the peculiarities of a phenomenon of Internet abuse known as cybermobbing or cyberbullying within a comparative reference framework. In the course of these treatises, the online disinhibition effect will be elaborated as the mainspring of an insulting Internet. Finally, the role of bystanders of cybermobbing will be explored in more detail.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Political Science and Institute for Media Science, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Saarstr. 21, 55122, Mainz, Germany

    Alice Katharina Pieper

  2. Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT), Schloss Birlinghoven, 53754, Sankt Augustin, Germany

    Michael Pieper

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  1. Alice Katharina Pieper
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  2. Michael Pieper
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Correspondence to Michael Pieper.

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Pieper, A.K., Pieper, M. The insulting Internet: universal access and cyberbullying. Univ Access Inf Soc 16, 497–504 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-016-0474-z

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