Online Violence Research Articles

Impact Assessment of an Educational Intervention Programme Using a Serious Game on Cyberviolence against Women and Girls

AbstractCyberviolence among teenagers is a persistent problem addressed by several prevention programmes. In this article, we evaluate an educational intervention programme based on a serious game (CyberSafe Tool) that addresses cyberviolence against women and girls. The goal of the intervention and the serious game was to raise young people’s awareness of online violence against women and girls and to promote safe and responsible online behaviour. The intervention, conducted between 2020 and 2021, included 959 teenagers between 13 and 16 years old from Italy, Greece, Estonia and the United Kingdom. We used a survey questionnaire to conduct an impact assessment. It was administered three times – before the intervention, immediately after the intervention and three weeks after the intervention – to identify participants’ attitudinal changes. The results indicate significant positive attitude changes after the intervention that remained unchanged after the third questionnaire, which was administered three weeks after the intervention.

Online Violence in Adolescent and Young Adult Couples: The Role of Anxious Attachment and Hostile Sexism in a Dyadic Analysis.

This study explores how anxious attachment moderates the relationship between hostile sexism and online violence in adolescent and young adults' partners. Two hundred thirty heterosexual couples (total n = 460) participated in a dyadic design study. Both partners answered a questionnaire about online violence, hostile sexism, and anxious attachment. Results show that both members' hostile sexism positively correlates with the perpetration and victimization of online violence in boys and girls, but not in all the dimensions. However, actor-hostile sexism has a greater effect on both perpetration and victimization for both members than partner-hostile sexism, except for control perpetration and victimization of girls. Results also show that the actor-anxious attachment positively moderated the relationship between their hostile sexism and perpetration and victimization for both members, only when it was higher than average, and negatively when it was lower. In girls, when the anxious attachment is high, the relationship between the boys' hostile sexism and the girls' direct aggression perpetration becomes weaker. The opposite occurs between the boys' hostile sexism and boys' direct aggression perpetrated when their girlfriends' anxious attachment increases. In sum, anxious attachment and hostile actor and partner sexism play an important role in online violence in adolescent couples. Therefore, the protective effect of low levels of anxious attachment should be studied among other psychosocial factors and online violence.

Bridging Real and Virtual: An Ecological Approach to Prevent Cyberviolence Against Women

ABSTRACTWomen experience gender violence more than men, in the digital world as well as offline. To understand and prevent this phenomenon, we must consider the continuum between the virtual and the real world and highlight that cyberviolence and offline violence follow the same patterns. Therefore, to comprehend cyberviolence against women, the present study aimed to examine the feelings and emotions of those who have had direct and indirect experiences with it. The research involved 43 young Italians, aged 20–35 and used a narrative approach with a stimulus composed of six questions. The textual material was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and four main themes emerged: Emotional experiences of cyberviolence; the amplification of cyberviolence in the offline world; the role of bystanders; and actions to prevent cyberviolence. The results highlighted the importance of approaching cyberviolence against women from a holistic and multidimensional perspective through an ecological approach that integrates different levels of action: collective, organisational, interpersonal and individual. Cyberviolence against women entails interventions that are complex and multi‐focused on all those who inhabit the virtual dimension, as well as the offline dimension, where the consequences of online violence become evident.

Remedies of Online Gendered Violence against Women in the Digital Context

Online gendered violence (OGV) is a range of harmful behaviors committed through the use of technology as a means of enforcing gender norms that result in mainly sexual and psychological harm or suffering to women. Based on psychological studies, OGV can be classified into four distinct categories: digital sexual harassment, appearance-based violence, gender role-based violence, and anti-feminism violence. The impact of OGV on women is amplified by the systemic discrimination they face in society, making their experiences of online violence unique and especially harmful. This paper explores the legal recognition of OGV, the mechanisms for holding perpetrators accountable, and the potential relief paths available to victims. Through a detailed analysis of these issues, this study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the legal system can be enhanced to more effectively respond to OGV. It argues that a multifaceted approach—one that includes legal reforms, algorithmic transparency, and stronger social support systems—is essential in mitigating the effects of OGV and ensuring justice for women in digital spaces.

Adult attachment and dehumanization among Chinese college students: trait attachment and state attachment perspectives.

Current social issues such as bullying, online violence, and local conflicts are all prominent topics in the field of psychology and linked to dehumanization. However, research on dehumanization from a non-Western background has been rare. As a key factor influencing individual behavior, attachment has not been sufficiently integrated into studies on dehumanization. Therefore, this study provides empirical evidence to explore the relationship between adult attachment (both trait and state) and dehumanization. The sample consisted of college students from China. In Study 1 (N = 705) latent profile analysis was employed to exploring the potential categories of trait adult attachment in China, and to investigate how these categories impact dehumanization. Study 2 (N = 281) focused on activating secure attachment and examined the effects of three state attachment types, security, avoidance and anxiety, on dehumanization. Study 1 identified four types of adult attachment: preoccupied, secure, fearful, and dismissing, and revealed that these different attachment types have varying impacts on dehumanization. Study 2 showed that both security and avoidance predict dehumanization. This research established a link between adult attachment and dehumanization, offering new insights into the psychological mechanisms underlying dehumanization and suggesting novel strategies for its prevention and intervention.

“You Did It to Yourself”: An Exploratory Study of Myths About Gender-Based Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse Among Men

Gender-based technology-facilitated violence and abuse (GBTFVA) is a common experience for those engaging with digital technologies in their everyday lives. To better understand why GBTFVA persists, it is necessary to understand the false beliefs and cultural narratives that enable and sustain them. Drawing on the literature on rape myths, this paper explores the prevalence of seven gender-based online violence myths among Canadian men. To achieve this, we adapted the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance (IRMA) (Payne et al., in J Research in Personality 33:27–68, 1999) to assess GBTFVA, and surveyed 1,297 Canadian men between 18 and 30 years old on their GBTFVA beliefs. Our results show that GBTFVA myths and cultural narratives are prevalent across participants, though endorsement levels vary. Four myths were more strongly endorsed: It Wasn’t Really Gender-Based Online Abuse, He Didn’t Mean To, Gender-Based Online Abuse Is a Deviant Event, and She Lied. Overall, these findings help to name and thus begin to address the narratives that sustain and perpetuate gender-based online violence.

Research on Chinese Legal Regulation of Internet Violence in the Internet Era

The rapid development of network and communication technology has given rise to an open information society with free dissemination of information. The development of the Internet has provided a realistic possibility for the realization of the free dissemination of information, but at the same time, the vigorous development of the Internet and the application of various technical means have also posed challenges to China's traditional social governance. In recent years, various online chaos has emerged in Chinese society, such as the implementation of online human flesh searches, the creation and dissemination of online rumors, and the launch of online verbal abuse. This not only seriously infringes on the personal rights and interests of citizens, disrupts online order, but also has many negative effects on creating a harmonious and orderly social environment. Therefore, it is imperative for China to rely on legal means to govern online violence.

Hands labouring for safety: Mediated intimacy in influencer communities on Instagram

AbstractThe article explores how digital images of hands are used as a symbolic representation of intimacy and intimate emotions in influencer communication on Instagram. Based on digital ethnography with female influencers in the Czech Republic, the analysis focuses on three categories of communicative practices, where hands function as a visual representation of intimacy—creating community, a sense of vulnerability, and the notion of rawness and openness. The analysis points to the gendered nature of influencer communication. It explores how intimacy is established specifically by women influencers who need to navigate vulnerability with the need to protect themselves against gender‐based online violence in the form of hate comments and sexualized hate speech.

Criminal Law Regulation and Conviction Standards of Cyber Violence: Taking the Crime of Cyber Insult and Defamation as an Example

With the advent of the Internet era, interpersonal communication in real space has gradually spread to cyberspace. Whether the legal regulation of real space should follow and restrict the behavior norms of virtual space has become an important issue discussed by the academic community. Although civil law and other laws have certain regulations on the cyberspace, it is not enough to rely solely on general laws such as civil law to limit the escalating problem of online violence in cyberspace. Therefore, discussing the intervention of criminal law has become of utmost importance. Due to the ease of making comments in virtual spaces, as well as the large number of people and a mix of good and bad, the phenomenon of insult, defamation, and wanton abuse is the most widespread. Therefore, online insult and defamation has become a typical manifestation of online violence. The provisions of China's criminal law on the crime of online insult and defamation are still relatively broad and lack specificity, which brings certain difficulties to judicial practice when facing serious consequences of online insult and defamation. By exploring the criminal law regulations and conviction standards for online violence, using case analysis and comparative research methods, the criminal law rules for online insult and defamation can be further refined, effectively punishing and timely preventing online insult and defamation, purifying the online environment, safeguarding the rights and interests of netizens, and promoting the further development of criminal law in virtual space.

Cyber violence governance on digital platforms: criminal compliance and public-private co-governance

Cyber violence is endangering the order of cyberspace with the characteristics of depersonalization and de-accountability, and the governance of digital platforms is facing challenges such as lagging response, lax implementation and conflict of interest. Platforms, as providers of online services, have a natural technological advantage and should be responsible for the governance of public cyberspace. There is an urgent need to establish a detailed criminal compliance plan to reduce the criminal compliance risk due to online violence through the whole process of prevention beforehand, timely disposal during the incident, and reflection after the incident, and a positive incentive function can be expected. In addition, the prudent involvement and appropriate intervention of public power are key elements in the governance of online violence. Under the framework of binary co-regulation, the public and private sectors complement each other and dynamically synergize to make up for the inadequacy of the current legal regulation.

A resilience control method for mitigating the sudden change in online group opinion based on Q-Learning and PSO

In today's era, individuals can speak and communicate online anytime and anywhere. The Online Group Opinion (OGO), formed by the online statements of netizens, is regarded as a complex system. OGO is easy to get rapid and unpredictable sudden changes under external stimuli such as social emergencies, which may further lead to online violence, catalyze spread of emergencies, posing significant threats to social organization and cybersecurity. This paper proposes an innovative method to mitigate sudden changes in OGO using Q-learning from Reinforcement Learning and the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, aiming to mitigate these sudden changes by controlling the resilience of the OGO. First, an OGO resilience index based on catastrophe theory and resilience theory is established to portray OGO sudden changes phenomena. Next, a resilience control algorithm integrated with Q-learning to optimize particles’ parameter update process is proposed, called QLPSOND. QLPSOND is used to control the system’s resilience to improve its ability to resist external stimuli, thus mitigating the sudden changes crisis. Through comparisons with other three algorithms on two online forums datasets, our proposed QLPSOND resilience control method demonstrates significant advantages in addressing complex social control issues, with average fitness improvement of 37.59 % and 7.98 %, and best fitness improvement of 31.66 % and 10.28 %, respectively, compared to most competitive state-of-the-art baseline. Additionally, this paper further discusses the practical significance of resilience control strategies and management implications. These efforts can extend the opinion dynamics approaches in online environments and assist enterprises and governments in monitoring and managing online communities.

Research On the Interrelationship Between Various Types of Fake News and Cyber Violence

In the swiftly advancing landscape of technology, the era of the Internet is quietly fading away, assuming an increasingly pivotal role in people's lives. As individuals flock to the virtual realm, actively participating in shaping the network environment, complexities arise. The network environment becomes a dynamic space marked by the constant impact of false news and network violence, transforming the Internet from a center of information exchange into a breeding ground for malevolence. This prompts a critical examination of the nexus between fake news and cyber violence, raising questions about how different types of false information influence online violence. This study introduces various fake news typologies and elucidates the concepts of fake news and cyber violence, analyzing the role of false information in the emergence of cyber violence. A concise review of relevant literature underscores the correlation between cyber violence and fake news. The article aims to stimulate contemplation on enhancing the current network environment and reducing the propagation of false information and cyber violence. Additionally, it proposes insights to foster a healthier online ecosystem and advocates for collective efforts to mitigate the impact of misinformation and cyber violence on society.

Analysis of Social Media User Responses to Verbal Violence in the Cyber World

Violence on social media comes in various forms, one of which is verbal, such as rude or hateful comments, threats, or insults. This research will provide an overview of the responses of social media users to the verbal violence they experience in cyberspace. Researchers conducted interviews with five informants aged 19 – 21 years who had experienced violence on social media. Apart from that, researchers also completed the data by conducting interviews with expert informants in media literacy. The research results showed that all informants received indirect types of verbal violence through their social media in the form of teasing and body shaming, both from friends and strangers. Specifically, some informants experienced direct and indirect verbal violence, as well as repressive violence. The responses of the informants in responding to verbal violence were at the attitude and behavior level, including remaining silent because they felt like they were in the minority and did not need to reply, hiding their stories or status on social media from the perpetrator, and even contacting the perpetrator to get an explanation. Expert informants assess that violent behavior that appears in the media is caused, among other things, by the various backgrounds of media users, both in terms of economic education and literacy levels. Many responses or ways can be made in responding to online violence, but according to expert informants, the ideal way is to provide an answer or warning politely. It also aims to educate fellow media users.

"Internet Witch Hunt" is the Sharp Edge of the Internet Era

In the Internet era, personal freedom of speech has been fully reflected, but it has also brought a lot of negative effects."Internet witch hunting" refers to human flesh search, information collection, personal attacks on specific people on the Internet, and stirring people's emotions through the Internet. In recent years, with the development of the Internet, Internet rumors and online violence and other phenomena began to spread on the Internet. On online social media platforms, personal freedom of speech has been fully reflected, but it has also brought great hidden dangers to public security. With the development of technology, personal privacy has been paid more and more attention. How to protect personal privacy and prevent network violence has become a common problem in today's society. Starting from Python language, this paper will analyze the content of word frequency, word cloud map, theme modeling, emotion analysis results of mainstream media and social platforms for "online witch hunt" events, so as to provide a certain reference for us to better protect the personal privacy of ourselves and others.

A Review of the Past Decade's Research Outcomes on Classifying Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is a new form of online violence that has emerged as a result of the social media industry's explosive expansion since it allows for indirect communication. Despite the usefulness of digital media, it has been used by weak people to threaten and bully others online. In the last ten years, research has shown that children and teenagers are increasingly experiencing cyberbullying as a concern. This paper examines the research conducted during the previous ten years, categorizes it, and presents statistical analyses of the data collected during that time. A table is used to present various data, including the dataset that was used, its size (number of samples, posts, or messages), the methods that were employed, and the metrics that were gathered from the examined research that was taken from the publications that were looked into. This survey will be helpful to everyone who wants to advance their understanding of how machine learning may be used to identify cyberbullying, and it may help create a social media environment that is safe and relatively healthy by automatically identifying bullying communications.

Attitudes Toward Violence and Cyberstalking: Gender’s Moderating Role

ABSTRACT The present study aimed to investigate the moderating role of gender in the relationship between attitudes toward violence and cyberstalking. A total of 393 Brazilian’s volunteers composed the sample (Age mean = 29.3, SD = 8.54, EP = 0.43, 71.2% female). Overall, the results showed that a positive correlation between all four factors that compose the scale of attitudes toward violence with cyberstalking. Gender moderated this relationship (war: b = –0.45, t = –3.30, p<0.01, corporal punishment of children: b = – 0.40, t = –2.62, p < 0.01, penal code violence: b = –0.34, t = –3.20, p < 0.01, intimate violence: b = –0.74, t = –1.93, p = 0.05). Specifically, data indicated that the attitudes x cyberstalking relation only was significant in women. A possible explanation is that attitudes can function as a psychological mechanism to justify problematic behavior, increasing the probability of cyberstalking engagement. However, more studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis. Thus, it is concluded that the objectives were met, highlighting the role of attitudes in the perpetration of specific aggressive behaviors that are more prevalent among women, assisting in the study of online violence and its specificities.

The Scottish Melting Pot – Social Media, Politics, Scotland and Online Violence Against Women

In an increasingly digital Scotland, it is easy to think that generation equal has been achieved. Women make up almost 50% of MSPs at Holyrood, and Scotland has recently had the first woman First Minister. But, increasingly women in public and political life are being put off, turning away, and seeking to leave elected office because of the toll of social media abuse amounting to online violence against women. This paper will explore the concept of online violence against women (OVAW) in the context of women in politics and public life, and against the backdrop of Scottish society. It discusses the challenges, and obstacles of OVAW in Scottish political contexts, not least because of the impact that has been imposed on politically active and prominent women in Scotland. Finally, this paper explores whether the melting pot of misogyny, tempered by a new women-led political class, and facilitated by digital technologies is too much of an ask for women who are already shouldering the expectations and hopes of Scottish society.

Sociological approaches to the study of the problem of cyberbullying among young people

This scientific article analyzes sociological approaches to the problem of cyberbullying in the youth environment. It is noted that there are many approaches to the problem of cyberbullying, but only a set of approaches will make it possible to effectively combat this problem of online violence. Thus, the development of AIbased social technology is proposed to effectively prevent cyberbullying in society.

Community relations discovery methods for users in Fancircle based on sentiment analysis in China

PurposeThe identification of network user relationship in Fancircle contributes to quantifying the violence index of user text, mining the internal correlation of network behaviors among users, which provides necessary data support for the construction of knowledge graph.Design/methodology/approachA correlation identification method based on sentiment analysis (CRDM-SA) is put forward by extracting user semantic information, as well as introducing violent sentiment membership. To be specific, the topic of the implementation of topology mapping in the community can be obtained based on self-built field of violent sentiment dictionary (VSD) by extracting user text information. Afterward, the violence index of the user text is calculated to quantify the fuzzy sentiment representation between the user and the topic. Finally, the multi-granularity violence association rules mining of user text is realized by constructing violence fuzzy concept lattice.FindingsIt is helpful to reveal the internal relationship of online violence under complex network environment. In that case, the sentiment dependence of users can be characterized from a granular perspective.Originality/valueThe membership degree of violent sentiment into user relationship recognition in Fancircle community is introduced, and a text sentiment association recognition method based on VSD is proposed. By calculating the value of violent sentiment in the user text, the annotation of violent sentiment in the topic dimension of the text is achieved, and the partial order relation between fuzzy concepts of violence under the effective confidence threshold is utilized to obtain the association relation.

In-Hospital Violence and Its Impact on Critical Care Practitioners.

To provide a narrative review of hospital violence (HV) and its impact on critical care clinicians. Detailed search strategy using PubMed and OVID Medline for English language articles describing HV, risk factors, precipitating events, consequences, and mitigation strategies. Studies that specifically addressed HV involving critical care medicine clinicians or their practice settings were selected. The time frame was limited to the last 15 years to enhance relevance to current practice. Relevant descriptions or studies were reviewed, and abstracted data were parsed by setting, clinician type, location, social media events, impact, outcomes, and responses (agency, facility, health system, individual). HV is globally prevalent, especially in complex care environments, and correlates with a variety of factors including ICU stay duration, conflict, and has recently expanded to out-of-hospital occurrences; online violence as well as stalking is increasingly prevalent. An overlap with violent extremism and terrorism that impacts healthcare facilities and clinicians is similarly relevant. A number of approaches can reduce HV occurrence including, most notably, conflict management training, communication initiatives, and visitor flow and access management practices. Rescue training for HV occurrences seems prudent. HV is a global problem that impacts clinicians and imperils patient care. Specific initiatives to reduce HV drivers include individual training and system-wide adaptations. Future methods to identify potential perpetrators may leverage machine learning/augmented intelligence approaches.