Journal of Educational Research, Dept. of Education, IUB, Pakistan (Vol. 22 No.

2) 2019

Exploring Online Peer Harassment Experiences of Female University

Students: A Qualitative Study
Yaar Muhammad*
Mumtaz Akhter**
Gul e Lala***
Abstract
In the recent decade, there has been an increase in the use of the internet in
Pakistan, and increasingly more female students are using it to
communicate with others. However, female students are also facing
disproportional harassment via the internet. This study aimed to explore
female university students’ experiences related to online harassment
victimization, bystander behavior, and perpetration. This study was
conducted in a private university in Pakistan, and a basic qualitative study
research design was used. Semi-structured-interviews were conducted with
14 graduate and postgraduate students to gather the meaning these
participants gave or extracted from the online peer harassment experiences.
Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. All data related to
fourteen participants were coded. Clustering similar codes helped in
identifying sub-categories from data. Several assertions were developed by
comparing and contrasting various categories and sub-categories. Analysis
of the data revealed that all the participants had been victims of online
harassment. Moreover, all participants had witnessed online harassment as
a bystander. However, they did not interfere considering it others’ matters,
especially when the person causing the problem was unknown to them for
fear of harassment. Interestingly, some of them had also been a perpetrator
of online harassment. This study has helped in developing an understanding
of the prevalence of cyber-bullying and online harassment among female
university students using a small sample. The knowledge produced can help
us in developing a digital citizenship curriculum, which is a tool to prepare
students for using the technology in a positive and informative way so that
female university students’ online experiences can be made better.
Keywords: Online peer harassment, cyber-bullying, victimization, bystander behavior,
perpetration

*
Assistant Professor, Department of Education, University of Management and Technology,
Lahore, email: yaar.muhammad@umt.edu.pk.
**
Professor, Department of Education, University of Management and Technology, Lahore,
email: mumtaz.akhter@umt.edu.pk.
***
M.Phil Scholar, Department of Sociology, University of Management and Technology,
Lahore, email: gulelala4538@gmail.com.

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Introduction
Information technology has changed the lives of individuals, affording them
many benefits and enabling them to complete their daily tasks more efficiently and
effectively (Betts, 2016). The use of digital tools has increased not only for
entertainment but also for communication, to gather information, access to law, and
many more. Considering the internet as a „safe‟ space, young people use social
networking tools such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp to express
themselves freely. All this has effects on ethics, culture, norms, and values, making the
lives of individuals more complex.
A current overview uncovered that youth invest more energy on the internet
than staring at the TV (Griffiths, 2017). According to one estimate, it was accounted for
that young people spend up to 9 hours every day on the web, with most by far of that
time being spent via web-based networking media sites from cell phones, adding to the
straightforward entry and accessibility to youth. With the expansion of internet and
social networking sites (SNS), youth‟s social activities have moved from the physical
world to the cyber-world, and now more and more young individuals are using social
networking sites for their social activities (Jones, Mitchell & Finkelhor, 2013). The
increasing use of cell phones and smartphones for this purpose has expanded internet
use to encompass almost the youth‟s daily social activities.
Many times, we notice people misusing information technology tools. Because
of this, cyber-space no more remains a place of positive discourse where social
responsibility, caring, and respect can be promoted through a positive, nurturing
environment. Online harassment has become a social problem, and “women and
minorities are targeted with online harassment more frequently and telling them to leave
social media echoes the societal forces that have always tried to silence their voices”
(Golbeck, 2018, p. 2).
Peer harassment is also an important social problem negatively affecting a large
number of our student population in schools, colleges, and universities. Peer harassment
is an umbrella term, and it encompasses various interpersonal aggression, including
bullying (Mitchell, Jones, Turner, Shattuck, & Wolak, 2016). Olweus (2001) defined
bullying as: “A student is being bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed,
repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other students”
(pp. 5-6). According to this definition of bullying, negative (aggressive) actions are
carried out repeatedly and over time, and secondly, there is a certain imbalance of
power or strength (Olweus, 2001). Compared to this, online peer harassment is the one
which is committed in the cyber-space, and it is usually in the form of verbal
aggression, amounting to threats, rumors, and gossip (Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor,
2007). In addition, Mitchell et al. (2016) are of the view that “peer harassment is a
broad term that includes bullying but also includes other types of interpersonal

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aggression that do not meet the standard definition of bullying because they do not
involve repetition and power imbalances between perpetrators and victims” (p. 193).
Online harassment victimization experiences negatively impacts youth
(Mitchell et al., 2016). Baek, Losavio, and Higgins (2016, p. 27) assert that “youth who
have experienced online harassment suffer from a variety of negative consequences
such as psychological distress and suicidal ideation.” Serious emotional distress,
anxiety, damaged reputations, and fear for personal safety social withdrawal and school
failure can also occur (Holt, Lee, Liggett, Holt, & Bossler, 2019).
Females are the victim of technology violence and are experiencing online
harassment victimization because nowadays greater numbers of individuals are
accessing the internet. Ostini and Hopkins (2015) believe that our understanding of
violence is limited to traditional and corporeal perspectives perceiving violence as a
physical threat. They assert that there is a need for broadening our perspective on
violence by incorporating technology violence. They define technology violence as “the
extent to which new communication and surveillance intimate partners, technologies
are increasingly misused to stalk, intimidate, harass, humiliate and coerce particularly
girls and women” (Ostini & Hopkins, 2015, p. 4). Since university students are
becoming more reliant upon computers, they are facing increasing number of
encounters—which can be characterized as online harassment victimization, stalking,
and sexual assault. The prevalence of technology violence and online harassment
victimization in the Pakistani context is yet to be determined since there exist no
substantial amount of studies to support the premise.
Another phenomenon, which is often linked with online harassment and has a
distinct role in the dynamic of bullying, is „Bystander.‟ The traditional
conceptualization of bullying sees this phenomenon as a dyadic interaction between a
bully and a victim. However, recently, third party, the bystander, has been incorporated
to study potential of bystanders to affect the bullying dynamic (Quirk & Campbell,
2015). This was certainly to explain social context (the presence of others) in which
most bullying takes place. Quirk and Campbell (2015, p. 431) elaborate that “regardless
of how they behave, bystanders are the social consensus: that is, how they choose to act
will sustain the social norm.” This is so because “bystanders provide direct feedback of
the acceptability of behaviour by reacting in a certain way; a bystander can choose to
actively or passively reinforce the aggressive behaviour, or s/he can choose to support
the victim” (p. 431).
Engagement in responsive bystander behavior is believed to be positively
influenced by several factors. Greater self-efficacy and feeling responsible for acting
appear to increase the probability of bystander behavior. Furthermore, personal or
social factors also play significant role in an individual‟s decision to act in the role of a
responsive bystander behavior. Yule and Grych (2017) assert that “individuals are more

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likely to intervene in a risky situation if they have a relationship with the victim or
perpetrator, are younger, female, have a history of victimization and report peer norms
that are unsupportive of sexual coercion” (p. 3).
Nevertheless, engaging in a bystander behaviour is hindered by several factors,
which inhibit observers from intervening in a bullying situation. The risk of being
tangled in a potentially dangerous interaction may hinder some not to involve in
bystander behaviour. Moreover, the ambiguous nature of potentially risky situations
also influences the decision of many. Moreover, if students are seeking acceptance and
friendships in their new context, they usually less inclined to act as bystander (Yule &
Grych, 2017).
Online bystander behaviour can be exhibited in various ways. Victims of online
harassment experience often have the option to report the content and harassers to the
social networking platform where the harassment has occurred. This harassment report
is then evaluated by the officials of the platforms “against terms of use and other
policies to decide whether to remove content or take action against the alleged
harasser—or not” (Matias et al., 2015, p. iv). In this study, an individual was considered
to exhibit bystander behavior if “she has told the person causing the problem to stop,
talked to harasser‟s friends to help it stop, got friends to try and help, reported the
problem to website, talked to an adult at home and/ or talked to an adult at university
about harassment experience online” (Jones & Mitchell, 2016).
There is only very limited research on the topic of cyber-bullying and online
harassment in the Pakistani context (eg., Batool, 2017; Butt, Jamil, & Khalid, 2019;
Hafeez, 2014; Hafsa & Hanif, 2017; Rafi, 2019; Shahid, Kauser, & Zulqarnain, 2018).
In addition, Mitchell et al. (2016) have underscored that “technology-based harassment
and bullying could cause greater harm than traditional forms because content can be
transmitted anonymously, involve many other youths quickly, and reach victims
anywhere and at any time” (p. 193). As universities are increasingly emphasizing the
need for developing a policy response to cyber-bullying and online harassment, policy-
makers must understand contextual ground realties so that effective policy could be
developed. This study was designed to fill this gap.
Research Methods
This study aims to explore female university students‟ experiences related to
online harassment. This study focuses on three key dimensions: online harassment
victimization, bystander behavior, and online harassment perpetration. The following
research questions guided this study:
1. What are the perceptions and experiences of female university students
regarding online harassment victimization?

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2. What are the perceptions and experiences of female university students

regarding online bystander behavior?
3. What are the perceptions and experiences of female university students
regarding online harassment perpetration?
In this study, a qualitative research approach was used. Qualitative research is
one of the ways of learning about social reality and is an effective way to explore the
meanings people ascribe to activities (Mason, 2018; Patton, 2015). This study used
what Merriam (2009) calls a basic qualitative study research design, which is used to
explore “(1) how people interpret their experiences, (2) how they construct their
worlds, and (3) what meaning they attribute to their experiences. The overall purpose
was “to understand how people make sense of their lives and their experiences”
(Merriam, 2009, p. 23).
Semi-Structured Interviews
In-depth interviews were conducted to gather the meaning female university
students gave or extracted from the experiences they had lived (Brinkmann, 2013).
Good perspectives are directly related to the experience participants have (Leavy,
2014). Therefore, semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from students.
Several resources such as some literature reviews, interview guides made by
some other researchers, journals, and research scholars were consulted for the
construction of appropriate and to-the-point questions. However, Jones and Mitchell‟s
(2016) well-formulated questions for the investigation of online harassment
victimization, bystander behavior, and online harassment perpetration were useful in the
construction of the final draft of the interview guide. Research participants also
provided help in the preparation of the interview guide. Research participants were
given as the role of help providers throughout the preparation of the interview guide.
Therefore, they knew the various dimensions of the interview guide before the
interview was conducted.
Sampling and Criteria for Inclusion of Participants
Criterion sampling (Patton, 2015) was used to select a sample for this study.
Since the study was delimited to the female students of the Education Department of a
private university in Lahore, all cases that met the following predetermined criteria
were selected: Participant studied in the particular private university in Lahore, had
completed her one-year education in the Education Department, was easily
approachable and had herself agreed to participate in the interview process. The
demographic information of participants is given in Table 1.

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Table 1
Demographic Information of Participants
Participant Age Program Semester
1 24 MPhil Education 3
2 24 MPhil Education 3
3 28 PhD Education 1
4 25 MPhil Education 1
5 24 MPhil Education 4
6 25 MPhil Education 4
7 25 MPhil Education 4
8 23 BS Education 6
9 23 BS Education 6
10 25 PhD Education 1
11 26 PhD Education 1
12 24 MPhil Education 3
13 25 MPhil Education 3
14 23 BS Education 6
Participants were asked whether they had faced some disrespectful online
behavior during the past three months. On a positive reply, they were selected as
participants to conduct the interviews with them. Their ages ranged from twenty-three
to twenty-eight. All the female participants were selected because they face more
harassment issues on the internet. This was also to narrow down the study only to
female students.
Analysis
The interview data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis (Elo et al.,
2014; Flick, 2014; Schreier, 2012). All in-depth interviews with female university
students were tape-recorded, translated, and transcribed later. Face-to-face interviews
were conducted and recorded accordingly. Recordings were used to transcribe those
interviews. The transcription was verbatim. Transcription was checked by an expert in
the English language after completion. Some transcripts were also shown back to
participants of this research to validate the accuracy of the accounts (Creswell, 2007).
After that, a summary of participants‟ responses concerning each dimension
was written. Coding was developed from this summary (Saldaña, 2013), and all data
related to fourteen participants were coded. Clustering similar codes helped in
identifying categories and sub-categories from data. Several assertions were developed
by comparing and contrasting various categories and sub-categories (Miles, Huberman

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& Saldaña, 2014). These assertions in the form of themes are reported in the next
section.
Results
Online Harassment Victimization
Most of the participants reported that they faced online rude and mean
comments. According to them, people mostly used bad language online while talking
with others. This happened mostly on Facebook and WhatsApp, where people made
rude and mean comments. People mostly made rude and mean comments with the
unknown. They used very bad language; even they did this publicly, and people did not
care about others‟ feelings. They did not tolerate anything and used harsh language with
others. In the past few days, there was a political campaign going on in Pakistan, and
youth took a keen interest in political posts on social media. In supporting their parties,
some participants had long conversations, which mostly resulted in an exchange of rude
and mean comments. Statuses on Facebook and WhatsApp concerning their activities in
different parties also resulted in an exchange of rude and mean comments from known
and unknown people.
I am very interested in politics. Recently, when the political talk was
the top trend, I also took part in different online conversations to
support my political party. At that time, I faced many rude comments.
(Participant 8)
However, sometimes, some known people also made rude comments on their
posts and profile photos, and they did this just for fun.
Most of the participants perceived that people did not even hesitate to make
rude behavior online, even with known and unknown persons. People forget their norms
and values while using technology. They are better at writing bad or rude comments to
other than face-to-face word firing. While commenting on other posts, people did not
think that what they are saying, will it hurt them or not? Online behaviors of people are
different from good digital citizenship. They did not show good digital citizenship
behaviors. In making rude behavior, both genders are included in it. Some faced them
on Facebook by commenting on others‟ posts. They use such a bad language that they
show that they are uneducated and have no manners.
Most of the participants reported that they faced online harassment. People
harassed them by using different ways and applications like some faced this problem on
Facebook. For example, some unknown person tried to contact them by sending them
friend requests if they did not accept the request, they texted them on the messenger and
tried to blackmail them with different ways, even they called them on the messenger to
disturb them. Some participants reported that they faced harassment on WhatsApp.
Some unknown people texted them and tried to talk with them, even called them on

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WhatsApp, and if they did not reply, the harasser started bad language that disturbed the
victim.
All the victims blocked perpetrators on Facebook and WhatsApp or any other
online applications, from where they faced such problems. They believed that blocking
was the best way to get rid of this, making the victim comfortable and relaxed. They
only asked perpetrators if they were acquaintance; all unknown persons were blocked
by them directly. Most participants experienced online harassment through friendship
requests and texts by others. A participant said, “If someone‟s personality is strong,
then no one can harass or embarrass others. Anyone should keep her personality strong”
(Participant 9). Another participant reported,
Obviously, when someone makes rude comments to you, then you
cannot bear it. On many of my posts, when someone commented rudely,
I also gave an answer. Sometimes, my friends commented on my post:
You are looking fat, etc. Then I always answered them. It is unbearable
for me. (Participant 4)
Some of the participants experienced the issue of people spreading rumors
about them. They had experienced different situations. Some victims had experienced
severe conditions regarding this. Some did just for fun and enjoyment. A few said that
they did not experience this issue on the internet. They did not face such a problem in
their life that anyone could spread rumors about him. They reported that they had many
people who might be jealous of them, but no one took this step to vilify them.
However, most of the participants faced the issue that someone shared their
personal information and made them feel too much embarrassed, and after that, they
were unable to have trust in others. All of them were victimized by their good friends
and family members. Some said that their close friends shared their personal
information because a person can share their personal information only with their close
people on whom they had trusted, but they break their trust and tell their personal
information to others. They reported that people, even close friends, shared their
personal things with others on social media by posting it on different applications.
Most of the participants experienced that their pictures and videos on social
media were shared by friends without their consent. Some said that their friends posted
their photos just for fun, but sometimes it hurt a lot, as they did not want them to share
such photos on media. Some photos were taken in parties and other events. Posting their
bad photos hurt them a lot because other friends made fun of it online and publically.
One respondent said that her friend posted her photo in her WhatsApp status, she asked
her to remove it because people started making fun of her, but her friend did not do so,
so it resulted in a dispute.

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The summary of findings related to dimensions of online harassment

victimization explored in this study is provided in Table 2.
Table 2
Findings related to Dimensions of Online Harassment Victimization
Dimensions of Online Harassment Findings
Victimization Explored.
Experiencing rude or mean comments. All participants faced online, rude, and mean
comments.
Experiencing harassment or All participants had experienced online
embarrassment the internet you. harassment.
Experiencing spread of rumors about Some participants experienced people spread
you on the internet. rumors about them on the internet.
Experiencing the sharing of Most of the participants faced the issue that
something personal online with others someone shared their personal information
about you. that made them too embarrassed, and after
this, they were unable to have trust in others.
All of them were victimized by their good
friends and family members.
Experiencing posting of a video or Most of the participants experienced that their
picture of you that you knew it would pictures and videos on social media were
hurt your feeling. shared by friends without their consent.

Online Bystander Behavior

All participants reported that they witnessed online harassment. Some reported
that harassment was public since both the members were threatening each other badly,
and no one was there to stop them. If anyone did so, he or she had to face his or her bad
comments as well. Therefore, most participants did not interfere.
Yes, I have seen online harassment many times. People use harsh
words with others. They forget their norms and values on social media.
People are harassing each other in public places, but no one-stop them
from this act. (Participant 13)
However, some tried to stop them and tried to settle the issue. They reported
that it was a common routine for them to see the people harassing and teasing others.
When participants were asked about stopping the person causing a problem on
social media, they reported that they did not interfere in others‟ matters, especially the
person causing problems unknown to them, so they did not even bother to stop them.
However, if he or she was known to them, they always tried to stop such activity on

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social media. They said that when they tried to stop them, they started harassing them.
Some tried to solve their problems and issues personally.
Most of the participants said that they did not talk to the harasser‟s friend
because both of them are unknown to them. They said that the best way was to get rid
of all such activities on social media because this was very common almost on every
post that negative people would comment badly and try to threaten others.
Most of the participants replied that they did not try to involve their friends in
any social media issue believing that this was their problem; they did not involve
others. The person creating the problem was mostly unknown to them, so they did not
involve them and their friends in other‟s problems. However, if someone known was in
trouble on social media, they themselves and their friends also tried to help them and
resolved their problems.
Almost all the participants mentioned that they reported different pages and
websites that they did not like, or they thought those websites and pages on social
media seemed to destroy the norms and values of society. Some highlighted that they
reported pages and IDs because their friends told them to do so.
Most of the participants believed that social media and their problems were
their personal matters, so they did not involve their family members in social media
matters. Most of the participants did not tell their social media matters to their family.
They themselves resolved their problems. Some of them reported that they did not face
any such a big issue that needed their family‟s involvement. They believed that they
used the internet only for entertainment. They did not do such bad activities that created
problems for them. However, a participant told her family about her online experience
that included a person harassing her and trying to trap her, so she told her mother to
resolve such an issue. One participant involved her sister in her matter on social media
because she believed that elders were more experienced and could give better advice.
The summary of findings related to dimensions of online bystander behavior
explored in this study is provided in Table 3.

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Table 3
Findings related to Dimensions of Online Bystander Behavior
Dimensions of Online Bystander Behavior Findings
Explored.
Witnessing online harassment. All participants had witnessed online harassment.
Stopping the person causing the They did not interfere in others‟ matters, especially
harassment problem. when the person causing a problem was unknown
to them for fear of harassment.
Talking to the harasser‟s friend to help it They did not talk to the harasser‟s friend because
stop. both of them are unknown to them. They just log
off all such activities on social media.
Getting friends to help to deal with Most of the participants replied that they did not try
the harassment problem. to involve their friends in any social media issue.
Reporting the harassment problem to Almost all the participants said that they reported
website. different pages and websites that they did not like,
or they thought those websites and pages on social
media that seems out of our culture and try to
destroy our norms and values.
Talking to an adult at home about Most of the participants believed that social media
the SNS harassment problem. and their problems are their personal matters, so
they did not involve their family members in social
media matters.

Online Harassment Perpetration

Analysis of the responses revealed that most of the participants made rude and
mean comments to others. All of them said that this was the result of their reaction to
the rude comments of others. Mostly they did not read comments on posts, and they
only enjoyed the post and ignored all other activities. Some of the participants reported
that after seeing wrong comments, they could not tolerate, and they reacted on it, and
such activities mostly happened on Facebook and in different groups. One respondent
told the story that she was a pet lover, and she joined different groups and pages related
to pets. A person on that group said,
No one should rescue a dog because it is prohibited in Islam. At this, I
replied to him that to rescue any animal is not prohibited in Islam. That
resulted in dispute, and no one was there to control it. (Participant 12)
All participants made mean and rude comments to unknown people because
they did not have to face them in their lives. However, with known people, they mostly
avoided such activities. Political talks were on the top trend since it was an election
season, so many respondents took an interest in the political debate, so mostly started
using harsh and rude words to support their party.

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Next, the participants were asked about online harassment activity done by
participants. Some of the participants used the internet to harass or embarrass someone.
One of them said that she wanted to teach a lesson to a boy that used to harass other
girls. Her purpose was not to harm others, not to embarrass someone, but she used
social media to teach a lesson to someone. She used the internet in different ways to
know about him and kept an eye on his activities. Another participant reported,
Yes, once I used the internet to harass someone. That was my class
fellow; he always followed me in the university, and I was very
disturbed by his act. I told this to my friend, and she gave me an idea to
make a fake ID to stop it. I made an ID with a male name and warned
him not to disturb that girl in the university. After this, he stopped
following me. (Participant 13)
Some participants said online harassment was beyond their thoughts. They
themselves had faced this many times, but they did not think to do this ever in their life
because they did not want to hurt anyone. Some respondents said that they were busy in
their studies; they did not have much time for such activities. They believed that we all
should use technology for a good purpose. For some participants, this question seemed
very weird. At first, they ignored this question and said nothing in their online life that
can be characterized harassment. Few participants shared their activities of spreading
rumors about someone through the internet. A participant reported,
Yes, once I did this but not to harm my friend but just for fun. As I told
you that, my friends make fun of me regarding my engagement and
spread rumors. Just to take a revenge about this, I spread a rumor
about my friend that she loves a boy in our university… but after some
days, I accepted that this was only a joke, nothing else. (Participant 10)
Some of the participants reported that they shared something personal about
others. For example, a participant stated,
Once I came to know about the second marriage of our professor
through our class fellow. He did not want this to be known to any of the
students. But I told this to my friends via Facebook that our professor
has a second marriage. I think this was his private matter, and if he
came to know, it would hurt him. (Participant 14)
All the participants stated that they shared pictures of their friends just for fun
or for some other purposes but not for harming anyone. To wish them birthdays on
Facebook, they posted their pictures and wished them good. None of them stated that
they used others‟ pictures to harm others. Some posted pictures on WhatsApp status or
Instagram, just to show love and friendship, nothing else. All of them said that they
shared other‟s pictures just for fun, but sometimes it might have hurt others. They

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mostly shared their pictures of friends and family in privacy. If they post others‟
pictures, most of them reported that they always asked them for permission to post.
Some said that they posted funny pictures of their friends, just to tease them.
Most of the participants took part in online groups and different conversation
pages. For example, a participant wanted to ask some questions related to online CSS
groups. She joined CSS groups, and she asked different questions in online groups and
on different education pages. There were MCQs on those pages and groups, so they
always took part and answered them. Sometimes they directly asked questions in online
groups, and if someone knew that answer, he or she directly responded to her.
Many times, I took and gave information to different groups. Recently,
we had many talks on politics, and I participated in them. Sometimes it
resulted in disputes and sometimes ended just as fun. (Participant 4)
A few participants reported that they used social media, just for time pass
nothing else, and they did not take part in any conversation even they did view the
comments. They just read the posts and then scrolled down. The summary of findings
related to dimensions of online harassment victimization explored in this study is
provided in Table 4:
Table 4
Findings related to Dimensions of Online Harassment Perpetration
Dimensions of Online Harassment Findings
Perpetration Explored
Making rude or mean comments to someone. All participants made mean and rude comments to
unknown people because they did not have to face
them in their lives. However, with known people,
they mostly avoided such activities.
Using the internet to harass or embarrass Some of the participants used the internet to harass
someone. or embarrass someone.
Spreading rumors about someone using the Few participants spread rumors about someone
internet. using the internet.
Sharing something personal online with Some of the participants shared something personal
others about someone. about others.
Posting or sharing a video or pictures of All the participants shared pictures of their friends
someone online when he knew it might just for fun or some other activities, mostly
hurt or upset them. privately.

Conclusion
This exploration of female university students‟ experiences related to online
harassment victimization, perpetration, and bystander behavior through qualitative
content analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with 14 graduate and

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postgraduate students from a private university in Pakistan revealed some interesting

findings. Most participants faced online rude and mean comments and had experience
of people spreading rumors about them on the internet, sharing their personal
information, pictures, and videos on social media without their consent to the extent
that they were now unable to have trust in others. All participants had witnessed online
harassment. However, they did not interfere in others‟ matters, especially when the
person was unknown to them for fear of harassment. They just logged off on social
media. However, they did report different pages and websites that they did not like, or
they thought immoral websites and pages on social media.
On the other hand, the same participants admitted that they made mean and
rude comments to unknown people because they did not have to face them in their lives.
However, with known people, they mostly avoided such activities. Even some
participants used the internet to harass or embarrass others on the internet, spread
rumors about someone using the internet, and shared personal information of others.
This was done for fun.
This study has helped in developing an in-depth understanding of the
prevalence of cyber-bullying and online harassment using a small sample recruited
from a private university in Pakistan. There is a need for resource development and
training to improve the views of female university students regarding online harassment
and bullying behaviors. Digital citizenship education can be made part of university
curricula so that students could be educated about the use of technology and appropriate
behavior online so that students should be taught to use the technology only for the
right purpose. Besides, they may be guided to develop online respectful civic behavior
and effective bystander behavior.
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