Report shows organisations failing to deal with cyber abuse and bullying

With Pink Shirt Day being marked tomorrow, it’s important to understand the developing nature of cyber abuse and bullying. In a report funded byNetSafe’s Online Safety Partnership Grant, Massey’s Healthy Work Group analysed data from 205 victims to better understand the barriers to reporting and resolving cases of workplace cyber abuse.

They found there are some specific features of cyber abuse, which includes cyberbullying, cyber sexual harassment, cyber discrimination and cyber stalking, that make it difficult to deal with, including its often public, but anonymous, nature.

• In 66 per cent of the cases, participants said their cyber abuse occurred in a public forum, including on social media
• One-third of incidents were perpetrated anonymously
• Nearly 50 per cent of targets experienced multiple forms of cyber abuse
• Nearly 85 per cent of targets experienced repeated cyber abuse
• More than three-quarters said they did not report the cyber abuse to their organisation.
• Of those who did report abuse, more than one-fifth found there was no organisational response.

Report co-author Dr Natalia D’Souza says when it comes to cyber abuse, processes and procedures have lagged behind technological and social developments and its clear organisations are not generally well-equipped to deal with the outcomes.

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