For the second year in a row, we have been running an all-Russian campaign to combat cyberbullying - Anti-Cyberbullying Day. We invite everyone who believes that online and offline aggression is unacceptable.
We conducted a large-scale study and studied the behavior of people who, when faced with aggression directed at others, take an observant position. The results of the 2019 study showed that there are 60% of such in RuNet. And this year we learned why observers are inactive, what makes them help victims of aggression, and whether there is a difference between their actions on the Internet and in real life.
The research was carried out in September-October 2020 in collaboration with Research.me, the Mail.ru Group UX laboratory and UXSSR. Here you can download the full results of the study. Some of them are very sad for our society. The second quarantine, the economic crisis, the eve of winter - all this does not help people to be kinder and more tolerant of each other. This is confirmed by the survey: half of the respondents believe that the level of aggression in society has increased during the pandemic. Moreover, this aggression on the Internet is often not justified. It is curious that people consider rudeness and insults on the Internet unacceptable - but they are ready to use them for self-defense. The analogy with a physical attack is straightforward.
At the same time, most take the position of an observer when they witness cyberbullying. And the main reason is that a public debate is considered by many to be meaningless. The second most popular reason is that people do not know the victim personally. Strange logic, but 28% of the respondents think so. The third reason people simply watch cyberbullying is because they are unsure of the validity of their arguments. Finally, 13% admitted that they do not defend others for fear of being targeted.
So it is obvious that it is necessary to fight cyberbullying, it has become a part of our everyday life.
Summary of research findings
- The observer can become the aggressor himself if, instead of supporting the victim, he humiliates the aggressor. To write a rude or emotional comment in defense of another person is acceptable for 26% of Russian Internet users.
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