In my thesis I studied the characteristics of online sexual harassment of girls. The purpose of the research was to examine the manifestation of online harassment, specifically online sexual harassment of girls. The study included 318 second and third year students from four different high schools in Ljubljana (184 girls and 134 boys). The participants completed a questionnaire which I had designed myself for the purposes of this research.
The results showed there are no statistically significant difference between the sexes as regards the fequency of filling the role of victim or observer of online harassment; the same, however, cannot be said of the role of the person responsible of the online harassment. Boys reportedly enter this role more frequently than girls. The most common form of online harassment among boys and girls is flaming, writing hateful commentaries in public channels. The results showed a statistically significant difference of frequency regarding the form of happy slapping – boys having reported to encounter it more frequently than girls. Most of the participants reported that online harassment occurs publicly in social networks, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Regarding online sexual harassment of girls there were statistically significant differences in the frequency of filling the role of victim – girls reported having filled that role more often than boys, and the role of perpertator, in which case the frequency was greater amnog boys. The most common form of sexual harassment of girls were found to be dirty jokes, which are more frequent among boys redgardless of the role they play in them. Most of the participants reported that online sexual harassment of girls occurs in social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – with slightly more occurences in private than in public.
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