Exploring the Effect of Anonymity in Cyberbullying of Females in Higher Education Institutions in India

Abstract

The rise of electronic information technology, as well as the resulting ease of access to it, has increased the frequency of incidences of cyberbullying, particularly in the twenty f irst century. It has become such a kind of global issue that governments and other concerned authorities are still struggling to address it. The increase in cyberbullying involves age as well as gender-oriented cyberbullying. It is a significant issue that threatens the young generations, especially females, self-esteem and obscures their future prospects in India, and it cannot be ignored. In light of this troubling situation, this paper aims to explore the idea of anonymity in cyberbullying and examine the relationship between anonymity and gender-oriented cyberbullying of female students in Indian Higher Education Institutions. The data were also collected using the cyberbullying scale from four different universities in India and the study was carried out on a sample of 1473 female respondents. The findings of the study on cyberbullying of female students in Indian higher education institutions show that 38.08 per cent of the female victims believe that the perpetrator pretends to be someone else as anonymous while treating the victims badly through the internet or phone calls as to cyberbullying them. At the same time, 25.86 per cent of the female students also responded positively to life-threatening cyberbullying incidents that mostly happened through cell phones or internet messages.