Recently, the famous social network Facebook announced its will to reinforce its fight against harassment on social media. This news appears in a context where this question is very important. In fact, a recent research made by an association called “e-Enfance” and the bank “La Caisse d’Épargne” showed that twenty percent of the young have already suffered from harassment on social media. This problem has been pointed out lately in France with the affair of the “2010”. It’s about the harassment endured on social media which has happen during summer. It has been extended in real life at the start of the school year for all the children born in 2010, only because of the year of their birth. However, even if this subject has been highlighted by the news, it’s not something completely new. In fact, in the French legislation, a law from 2018 can convict harassers and sentence them to three years of jail and a 45 000€ fine.
To give a definition of harassment we could say that it’s the fact to have repeated behaviours with the aim of worsening the victim’s living conditions. It leads to a deterioration of the physical or mental health of the harassed person (anxiety, stomach aches, etc.). Harassment is constituted by the frequency of the comments and their insulting, obscene or threatening content. More specifically, online harassment is characterized by the fact that it happens on the internet, it could be on social network, forums, blogs, etc. It can be expressed by messages, photomontage, video editing, etc.
In social psychology, harassment isn’t considered to be a situation involving only two persons. In fact, Olweus considers that we can distinguish different types of groups involved in this type of situation.
- First of all, there are the harassers, they are the leaders, the ones who are actively harassing the victim.
- Secondly, the group of the followers who takes part in the harassment only to follow the leaders.
- Thirdly, there are the passive supporters, they do not show open support, but they enjoy this situation.
- Then, the ones who know about the situation, but don’t act, they don’t support or denounce.
- Next, those who don’t like this violence, but don’t try anything to avoid it.
- Finally, the last group is also opposed to this violence, but unlike the former group they support the victim by different actions (talking to the targets or denouncing them to adults…).
With online harassment we can observe the same groups as in real life. The fact of explaining these groups allows up to understand the mechanisms of this problem.
Generally, all the people who are not in the first group considers that they don’t have the responsibility to deal with it, so they don’t feel guilty even if they have a role to play in this situation.
This feeling can be intensified when people act under the responsibility of someone else, like at work for example. In fact, a famous research leads by Milgram showed that people can carry out acts of violence without being forced to do it if they act under the responsibility of someone else.
In harassment, the fact that a group being against one or many people can also be explained by the in/out-group conflicts. Harassment can allow the in-group to be reinforced by all the actions led against the person or the group harassed.
To fight against this issue, the most important step is to educate and alert the general public of this problem. It could prevent the start of a situation of harassment or it could help people involved in this situation to fight against it. And realise that, even if the situation of harassment is implemented, solutions still exist. First, it’s very important that harassed people can be heard and as such, a lot of associations fighting harassment offer this listening. Secondly, harassed people need to know that the law can be a tool to avoid harassment because as seen previously, they can sentence their harassers.
Bibliography :
Article 222-33-2-2—Code pénal—Légifrance. (s. d.). Consulté 18 novembre 2021, à l’adresse https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000037289658/
Facebook renforce sa lutte contre le harcèlement en ligne. (2021, octobre 14). Les Echos. https://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/hightech/facebook-renforce-sa-lutte-contre-le-harcelement-en-ligne-1354831
Olivier. (2021, octobre 9). 20 % des jeunes ont subi du harcèlement en ligne. Journal du Geek. https://www.journaldugeek.com/2021/10/09/20-des-jeunes-ont-subi-du-harcelement-en-ligne/
Quinche, F. (2011). Cyber-harcèlement. Jeunes et violences « virtuelles ». Revue jeunes et médias. Les cahiers francophones de l’éducation aux médias, 143154.