Cyberbullying and Other Risks of Internet Communication Focused on University Students

Abstract

The paper focuses on the occurrence of cyberbullying among university students as part of research on risky behaviour of Czech university students on the Internet. The article describes the results of descriptive research conducted on a sample of 386 students of the Pedagogical Faculty of Palacky University in Olomouc.The research focused on risky behaviour among students of PdF UP in Olomouc, which is associated with information and communication technologies (particularly the Internet), the research was in a descriptive level aimed to find out the number of victims and attackers involved in the various manifestations of cyberbullying. Simultaneously the research monitored who the victim would ask for help if needed (teacher, parent, sibling or friend). Another aspect the research followed was the switching of roles between victims and attackers and cyberbullying connection with the so-called sexting, thus sharing sexually oriented materials by children and adults. Among the monitored research problems there were communication platforms used most often for cyberbullying (to particular forms of cyberbullying). In this paper, we focus only on the occurrence of various forms and manifestations of cyberbullying from the perspective of the victim; we also complement the results with the actual cases.The research was conducted and guaranteed by Centre of Risky virtual communication Palacky University in Olomouc (www.prvok.upol.cz) within the project OP VK E-Synergie - Scientific Network for Risks of electronic communications (CZ.1.07/2.4.00/17.0062).