Cyberbullying Behavior: Characteristics, Development, and Prevention

As the computer-mediated communication technologies constantly evolve, they create new opportunities for people to communicate with one another. Due to some inherent characteristics of these technologies such as anonymity and persistence, the emerging communication platforms have become a hotbed for cyberbullying - a type of cyber threat. Previous studies have shown that there is greater incidence of cyberbullying, and the negative impact such as social anxiety and a tendency for low self-esteem may even be carried over into adulthood. This research proposes a behavioral development model of cyber-bullying based on psychology theories. The model consists of seven main stages: blameless exposure, trying out, addiction, escalation, desensitization, and exhibition. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to test the proposed model. Survey questionnaire and interviews were selected as the main data collection methods. The results of regression analysis provide empirical support for the proposed model