Presentation on Facebook and risk of cyberbullying victimisation

Abstract

Facebook is an environment in which adolescents can experiment with self-presentation. Unfortunately, Facebook can also be an environment in which cyberbullying occurs. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether specific self-presentation behaviours in Facebook were associated with cyberbullying victimisation for adolescents. The contents of 147 adolescent (15–24years) Facebook profile pages were recorded and used to predict cyberbullying victimisation. Coded contents included the presence or absence of Facebook profile features (e.g., relationship status) and the specific content of certain features (e.g., type and valence of wall posts). Participants completed measures of cyberbullying victimisation and traditional bullying victimisation and perpetration. More than three out of four participants reported experiencing at least one victimisation experience on Facebook in the preceding 6months. A series of Facebook features and experiences of traditional bullying victimisation/perpetration were found to be associated with an increased risk of cyberbullying victimisation. Number of Facebook friends and traditional bullying victimisation were also significant predictors of cyberbullying victimisation. These results support the hypothesis that self-presentation on Facebook can increase the likelihood of eliciting negative attention from potential perpetrators. This has important implications for the development of cyberbullying prevention and education programs that teach adolescents about measures they may take to decrease their risk for cyberbullying victimisation within social networking sites like Facebook.