Correlates and predictors of online victimisation among undergraduate students attending a South African university

Abstract

Technological advances continue to shape the world and technology has become a fundamental aspect of everyday life. University students rely on the internet for their academic and social lives, to such an extent that social media has become their primary means of communication. As a result, university students have been recognised as one of the most vulnerable groups in society to fall victim to online victimisation. Although there has been a growing interest in online victimisation, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the phenomenon among South African university students. Therefore, the study set out to describe undergraduate students’ access to and use of social media and other electronic platforms through which online victimisation can take place, identify correlates and predictors to construct a profile of undergraduate students who are more likely to experience online victimisation, and determine the nature and extent of and responses to online victimisation among undergraduate students.

The study made use of quantitative data that was descriptive in nature. Data was collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire and 1 001 students who were enrolled for undergraduate Criminology modules at a South African university participated in the survey. Logistic regression and chi-square tests were used to determine relationships, differences and similarities between variables. Evident from the empirical results and corroborating existing literature, respondents were typically between the ages of 19 and 21, mostly female and most commonly from the White and Black population groups. Furthermore, the survey found that the majority of respondents used the internet daily, typically spending four or more hours per day on the internet for study, social media or entertainment purposes.

The survey showed that students from high-income backgrounds were more likely to experience crimes such as identity fraud and the media being used as a slandering tool. In terms of gender, women were more likely to experience crimes that could have detrimental personal consequences such as crimes linked to cyberstalking, online harassment and cyberbullying. Men and students in their third year of university were more susceptible to falling victim to receiving a virus, and lastly, students living in a residence had their personal photos shared more frequently than those living with their family or on their own. The study further reports on the responses to online victimisation, with the most common response being ignoring the harasser. The researcher recommends that future research includes qualitative methods in order to gain a deeper understanding of online victimisation experiences.