Influence of cyber violence and online victimization on cognitive development of female students from Pakistani higher education institutions
| Date | 05 September 2024 |
| Pages | 330-347 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-03-2024-0892 |
| Published date | 05 September 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Aggression,conflict & peace,Sociology,Gender studies,Gender violence,Political sociology,policy & social change,Social conflicts,War/peace |
| Author | Muhammad Mujtaba Asad,Syeda Sabika Fatima |
Influence of cyber violence and online
victimization on cognitive development of
female students from Pakistani higher
education institutions
Muhammad Mujtaba Asad and Syeda Sabika Fatima
Abstract
Purpose –Cyber violenceis a global emerging issue which is growingwith technology or online spaces,
having a greatinfluence on individual’s development.The purpose of this study is to identify the dominant
factors of cyber violence and its influence on the cognitive development of female undergraduate
students.
Design/methodology/approach –In this quantitativestudy, a questionnaire is used as a data collection
tool. Moreover, this research is conducted on female undergraduatestudents (n¼300). Whereas, the
purposivesampling technique is used and Statistical Package for Social Science(SPSS 27.0) software is
used to analyzethe data.
Findings –The findings of this study showthat cyber bullying is the dominant factor of cyber violence,
whereas cyber doxxinghas high influence on cognitive development of female undergraduatestudents.
In addition, the value of correlational coefficient is 0.683, which indicates a strong positive correlation.
Therefore,it supports that the null hypothesis is rejected and alternativehypothesis is accepted.
Practical implications –The findings of this study are of great importance for policymakers to update
the regulations for cyberviolence and provide the protection laws for victims whereas it is helpful for the
investigation agenciesand cybercrime units to be more active and needs to take immediate actions on
reported incidents to minimize its further spread and support victims of it. Also, it helps society to
understand the influence of it on cognitive health, which helps them to create a safer environment.
Similarly, parents andteachers need to make a safe and comfortable environment aroundchildren and
keep an eye on them. Further,it is beneficial for companies or online platforms to keep theirsites or apps
more secure for the users. Moreover, future research studies could expand the topic by involving
differentgenders and age group peoples by using different methodologiesto explore in depth.
Originality/value –This study is unique as there are limited studies, which identify the factor of cyber
violence and its influence oncognitive development. Also, fewer studies can be seen inthe context of
Pakistan.
Keywords Cyber violence, Cyber bullying, Cyber doxxing, Cognitive development,
Online victimization, Female
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Imagine a world where battles are being fought not with weapons but with just a click. And,
yes! That is what is now happening and very common around us. Where technological
devices, social media apps and internet play a significant role in individuals’ life (Bosse
et al.,2020
) at the same time it is playing a negative and a very dangerous role. Moving
forward, from the word crime the first thing which comes in our mind is physical activities
such as robbery, financial fraud and murder (Kepper et al.,2019) or any type of crime
Muhammad Mujtaba Asad
and Syeda Sabika Fatima
are both based at the
Sukkur IBA University,
Sukkur, Pakistan.
Received 31 March 2024
Revised 6 June 2024
9 August 2024
Accepted 9 August 2024
This paper forms part of a
special section “Cyberviolence:
a plague of victimization and
exploitation online”, guest
edited by Catherine Marcum
and Kyung-Shick Choi.
PAGE 330 jJOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, CONFLICTAND PEACE RESEARCH jVOL. 16 NO. 4 2024, pp. 330-347, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1759-6599 DOI 10.1108/JACPR-03-2024-0892
which violent social norms but not the cyber crimes. Despite this, a silent battle is going on
which violent the technology in the name of cyber violence. In the early stage of internet
where there was less of connectivityand not everyone had access to technological devices,
internet and online platforms.At that time, there was also less misuse of the internet but after
growing of technology and rise of socialmedia platforms in 2000s era, people got access of
technological devices andinternet which they used for educational purpose, in business,as
means of communication and for some other purposes. On the other hand, such online
platforms at the same time were creating another dimension of technology as cyber
violence.
Moreover, the term“cyber” is often related with technology, internet oronline space whereas
“violence’ refers to use of power to harm or damage other psychologically, physically or
emotionally through actions, behaviors or by words. Furthermore, this unique form of
violence in which onlineplatforms are used to harm others is known as cyber violence andit
has arisen worldwidewith increasing usage of technological devices, social mediasites and
internet. With every passing year, online platforms have been used to bully, harass or to
threaten the targetedindividual or group of people. In addition to today’sworld of the fastest
growing of technology, cyber violence is also at its peak even it has reached in gaming
industry, where people use such platforms to threaten or doxing kids or teenagers.
Collectively, cyber violence is defined as such inappropriate actions or behaviors, which
harm individualor group of people through technology and internet in an online environment.
Additionally, cyber violence has various forms, like cyber harassment, cyber bullying, cyber
doxxing and money fraud which is simply done by hacking accounts, defaming others
through spreading rumors, hate speech, money theft or fraud and taking of revenge. These
all happen throughonline platforms and now becomea common thing in today’s society.
Additionally, in today’s advanced technological world, where day by day we are witnessing
great advancement in technology on the other side there is emerging issue of it. Similarly,
internet, social media platforms and electronic devices are becoming the alarming risk for
individuals. And those increasing threats from online platforms are all termed as cyber
violence. This becomes a threat in everyday life in everypart of the world. However, the fact
of this issue is that the females are the most affected gender or main victim of cyber
violence which has a negative influence on their psychological, social, emotional as well as
on their physical development (Hassan et al.,2020). Similarly, a recent case of a Pakistani
influencer happened that shows the case of cyber doxxing happening contextually and
shows misuse of technology. In which that woman’s AI-generated video went viral which
violated her privacy. And based on that video everyone started to judge her, it affected her
mentally that she had to record a video message to clear that it was a fake video of her
(SamaaTV, 2024).
In addition, the rate of cyber violence experienced by females worldwide are; 41% in Egypt
(Hassan et al.,2020), 21% of women (out of 30%)in USA (Duggan, 2017), 1 in 10 women in
Europe (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2014), 1:2 (one men, two women)
ratio in German (Staude-Mu
¨ller et al.,2012). Hence, from this statistic it is clearly
understood that at every region the rate of women victims are more than the men. Just as,
Al-Nasrawi (2021) reported that overall, 70% of the female’s become victims of cyber
violence.Since, cyber violence is a growing worldwide problem faced by individuals mostly
by female gender. Therefore, this study is a voice of many female cyber violence victims
and provides a platform by which society will understand this as a major issue and need to
address it. It helps them to make every platform safer place to be used or to work on.
However, this study has found out the factor of cyber violence which affects female
students in the context of Sindh, Pakistan and analyzes the influence of it on cognitive
development of female undergraduatestudents:
RQ1. What are the dominant factors of cyber violence among female undergraduate
students of publicsector university of Sindh, Pakistan?
VOL. 16 NO. 4 2024 jJOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, CONFLICT AND PEACE RESEARCH jPAGE 331
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