Cyber Bullying, Smart Phone Addicition and Personality

• In Event: Sex, Aggression, and Deviance: Exploring the Impact of Computer Technology

Abstract

Cyberbullying is one of the important issues in the cyber-crime area that in many countries laws against it have been developed. As social network users are spreading rapidly, the rate of cyberbullying through social media is also increasing. In Turkey, 82.4% of internet users have social media accounts. Most of the users access their social media accounts through smart phone applications. However, smartphone addiction and its relation to bullying are not widely studied. This research aims to examine the relationship among personality traits, smart phone addiction, and cyber bullying and cyber victimization. Participants were from the University of Istanbul whose age differs between 17 and 23. Smartphone addiction scale, Big Five Inventory and cyberbullying scale are used in research for collecting data. Preliminary results showed that smart phone use for social purposes has significant correlation with cyberbullying (r=.276, p < .005) and cyber victimization (r=.262, p < .005). Statistical results showed that neuroticism positively correlates with cyberbullying (r=.208, p < .005). Besides cyberbullying showed negative correlation with conscientiousness (r=.-272, p < .005) and cyber victimization (r=-.241, p < .005). To conclude, further researches should be conducted for better understanding of smart phone use and related victimization risk.

Authors

• Ezgi Ildirim, Istanbul Arel University

• Can Calıcı, Istanbul University Institute of Forensic Sciences Social Sciences Department

• Erdinc Ozturk, Istanbul University, Forensic Science Institute