Manifestations of Cyberbullying Among College Students

International Journal of Sciences:
Basic and Applied Research

(IJSBAR)
ISSN 2307-4531
(Print & Online)
http://gssrr.org/index.php?journal=JournalOfBasicAndApplied
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Manifestations of Cyberbullying Among College Students
Recka Olasimana, Melanie Quijanob, Necci Khate Tarayac, Nicole Trayad
abcd
College of Teacher Education, Cebu Normal University, Osmeña Blvd. Cebu City, Philippines
a
Email: [email protected]
b
c
d
Abstract
This study determined the manifestations of cyberbullying among college students through a mixed-methods
research design with phenomenology and descriptive approaches. 127 first-third year Bachelor of Secondary
Eduation (BSEd) Major in English students for year 2020-2021 at Cebu Normal University – witness accounts
and first-hand experiences – were interviewed via one-on-one interviews. Thematic Analysis revealed the
following: cyberbullying could be found in Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Steam, Reddit, Skout,
WeVerse, Vlive, Ask.fm, Snapchat, and RPG; majority of the students spent at least 3 hours on social media;
attacks were made through public comments, false and exaggerated stories, pervasive and insistent manner, use
of the victims’ identity, revelation of private information, and ostracism; victims’ management of the experience
were ignoring, keeping to oneself, confrontation, retaliation, sharing with friends, seeking help from figures of
authority, taking legal actions, and making public statements; the experience could lead to increased confidence,
low self-esteem, distance to the online world, depression, suicide ideation, trauma, problems with socializing, and
no impacts. From the findings, the following were concluded: the social media platforms with cyberbullying cases
depended on what was popular in each place and the platforms also extended to the gaming community; spending
at least 3 hours on social media daily led to more cases of cyberbullying experience and witness accounts;
cyberbullying was expressed in the forms of flaming, denigration, harassment, masquerade, outing, and exclusion
and masquerade had a new definition which was the use of a person’s identity to make fun of another person, not
to defame the real owner; the management of the victims involved both traditional and cyber handling depending
on what was accessible by the victims; the experience caused positive effects, negative effects, and no effect.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Corresponding author.
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International Journal of Sciences: Basic and Applied Research (IJSBAR) (2021) Volume 00, No 1, pp 00-00
Keywords: Cyberbullying; College Students; Platforms; Duration; Forms; Management; Effects
1. Introduction
Bullying is a widely-known issue around the globe. Government agencies created mental health programs due to
the severity of bullying incidents which lead to suicide ideation and actual suicide, and less productivity of the
people. With the popularity of the internet, bullying had shifted from the traditional form and invaded the cyber
space. One-fifth of all bullying happened in different social media platforms (Cook, 2020).
Cyberbullying affected the wide range of social media users all over the world. It became a huge problem since it
chooses no one – young people, adolescent, adult and even old people were targeted. Over the past decades,
cyberbullying had become the bigger problem among youth. This emphasized that the most common victims of
cyberbullying were the young ones including the students. According to Dr. Nelly Z. Limbadan, a clinical
psychologist and a professor, cyberbullying was a type of bullying but instead of traditionally accepted violence
like in a face-to-face interaction this happened in the world of cyber space (Casas and Lactaoen, 2014). It took
place with the use of electronic gadgets or social media platforms by humiliating through uploading mean pictures,
sending harmful messages or spreading fake news about a person. Hinduja (2009) Patchin (2006) defined
cyberbullying as ‘’willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other
electronic devices.’’ This definition had made relevant in understanding the issue because of its simplicity and the
important terms which explained thoroughly the issue. These important terms included: ‘‘willful,’’ which means
the behavior or act was not done unintentionally; ‘‘repeated,’’ which means bullying happened not only for a
single time and that there was a pattern of the behavior; ‘‘harm,’’ referred to what it could inflict to the victim;
and ‘‘computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices’’ which basically enabled bullying to transfer to the
cyber space and which made it differ from the traditional bullying. This kind of issue or incidence left harmful
effects to the victims because it targeted one’s self-esteem that trickles down a person’s self-confidence (Casas
and Lactaoen, 2014). Generally, a victim may be traumatized and locked himself/herself in his/her comfort zone
and worst was suicidal attempt. Cyberbullying also became an emergent issue not just in cyber space but also in
schools since it placed risk at student’s psychological health, safety, and well-being (Li, 2008; Mason, 2008).
Even if it took place in the virtual world, its effects can still be felt and observed in school settings. Some
researchers even suggested that cyberbullying was to be considered a serious health problem and not just a social
one. Dehue (2006) revealed from the literature that an individual who was a victim of cyberbullying could result
in different problems physically, socially, and psychologically like having stress and other serious depressive
symptoms. In fact, a study conducted by Patchin & Hinduja (2010) provided evidences that there was a negative
effect on development of the adolescents when one had experienced bullying. One specific effect that had been
identified was the effect of bullying on self-esteem. It was found out that those that were cyberbullied tended to
have lower self-esteem than non-victims. From a study conducted by Kowalski and Limber (2008), which was
based on students from year 7, 8, and 9, it was found out that 11% of them had been a victim of cyberbullying,
7% had been into both bullying and being bullied with the use of different cyber methods, and 4 % of them had
cyber bullied another individual from the last two months when the study was conducted. It was suggested from
these results that this issue on bullying can possibly be on rise as 50% of the youth in their own mobile devices,
and 97% of them had access to the internet, having a large portion of them using electronic devices each day.
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Some victims knew they were being bullied but do not reported the incident to figures with authority. In addition,
the frequency was higher in private schools than in public schools. Another study by Aunario, et al. (2018) showed
the types of bullying experienced by Filipino adolescents was often verbal bullying including teasing, insulting,
name calling, and cussing. Another type they usually experienced was emotional bullying which included
exclusion from the group, humiliation in front of important people, and deliberate ignoring. It was pointed out
that one reason why a person bullied was because that bully was also a victim of bullying or they may be unloved
at home and felt insecure with other people and bullying was their form of escaping (Casa and Lactaoen, 2014).
Another thing, regardless of what happened, those persons who experienced bullying had a bigger tendency to
become bullies as well (Silva, 2015). As a result of such experiences, the victims manifested emotional distress
which came in the forms of fright, dismay, uneasiness, weariness, and stress (Aunario, et al., 2018). The results
of the study by Sanapo (2017) paralleled this. Majority of the victims indicated negative reactions after being
bullied. These reactions included but were not limited to agitation, sadness, and discomfort. Moreover, cyberbully
victims in the Philippines, specifically in the Visayas region, preferred to tell their friends of their cyberbullying
experiences more than the adults such as parents and teachers (Ruangnapakul, et al. (2019).
Studies inhibited a commonality in terms of the lack of exploration of the online platforms, which was widely
used nowadays, with prevailing cases of bullying. In addition, there was an absence of investigation on the
“symptoms” of victims. With this, the importance of looking into the externalizations of cyberbully victims and
social media platforms which were dominated by cyberbullying was established. This venture, through a mixed-
methods approach of probing into the manifestations of cyberbullying in social media platforms among university
students, hopefully would allow parents, academic institutions, and government agencies to identify probable
and/or current victims of cyberbullying and to address such issues appropriately.
2. Literature Review
Willard (2004) defined cyberbullying as the process of posting or sending texts or photos that are harmful or cruel
through the use of the internet and other communication devices. The author also suggested that this issue can be
in different forms like harassment, masquerade, flaming, cyberstalking, denigration, and even through outing or
exclusion and trickery. His study believed that cyberbullying could lead to death threats and stalking which were
already a very serious matter.
A lot had been known about cyberbullying but according to Patchin & Hinduja (2006), more of the academic
disciplines had targeted research to understand better the bullying behaviors present in different settings like in
the workplace, classroom, and even through the new communication technologies. Aside from that, in a study
conducted by Hinduja & Patchin, (2007), Li, (2006), and Mason, (2008) there was also an increase in research
regarding bullying being a school issue as it brought harmful long-term effects to students and the whole school
community.
Marsh et al. (2004) suggested that there is an interconnection between the bullies and their targets and that their
roles co-exist with each other. Many of the similarities found between the bully and the victim roles were
displaying behaviors of a bully and external locus of control, having emotional-control problems, stressed or
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depressed, and most especially have lowered self-concepts. In addition, these roles also were observed to unlikely
use their pro-social skills as they tended to only ignore bullying situation, for instance. This study had concluded
that bullying leads to victimization and that victimization leads to bullying at the same time.
As for the motives of cyberbullying in the investigation made by Varjas, Talley, Meyers, Paris, and Cutts (2010),
it was found out that the different motives can be either internal or external. Internal motives include revenge,
boredom, jealousy, redirecting feelings and trying out for a new persona. External motives, on the other hand,
includes no consequences, non-confrontational (a situation in which the bully did not want to have a face-to-face
encounter with the victim or having fears of facing the person), and also when the target is viewed as different in
some way, like in the appearance for instance.
3. Research Objectives
This study determined the manifestations of cyberbullying among college student. It was specifically geared to
determine the following:
(i) In which social media platforms do students prevalently experience cyberbullying?
(ii) What is the frequency and duration of time that cyberbullied victims spend on social media?
(iii) What forms of cyberbullying do students dominantly experience?
(iv) How do the cyberbullied victims manage the bullying experience?
(v) What is the effect of the cyberbullying experience on the mental and social aspects of the student?
4. Conceptual Framework
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of the Study
The Online Disinhibition REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10627

Effect (Suler, 2004) also known as “Anti-Bullying
Act of 2013”
Cyberbullying
Interview Guide
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Manifestations of
Cyberbullying Among College
Students
Social Media
Forms of Bullying Mental and Social Effects of
Platforms with Cases
Cyberbullying
of Cyberbullying
Frequency and Duration of

Victims’ Management of the
Time Spent on Social Media
Bullying Experience
by Cyberbullied Victims
In trying to discover and understand the manifestations of cyberbullying in social media among university
students, this study anchored on the theory of Online Disinhibition Effect (1) and the Republic Act No. 10627 (2)
also known as Anti-Bullying Act of 2013. Online Disinhibition Effect is a theory which tries to explain why an
individual behaves in a certain way online which they are unlikely to do or convey in a face-to-face setting. On
the other hand, Republic Act No. 10627, also known as Anti-Bullying Act of 2013, is an act which ensures the
safety of the students from being bullied by requiring the schools to adopt guidelines and policies to address the
said issue.
This study gathered data through the use of an interview guide to reveal the manifestations among the participants
who were first-third year BSEd – English students at Cebu Normal University. The guide focused on the following
aspects: a.) social media platforms with high cases of cyberbullying, b.) forms of bullying, c.) frequency and
duration of time a cyberbullied spend on social media, d.) how victims manage their experience on cyber bullying,
e.) social media platforms that students experience cyber bullying, and f.) mental and social effects of
cyberbullying to the victim.
5. Significance of the Study
Alike most victims of bullying, silence is the instinctual response of cyberbullying victims. As such, this study
helped in showing the different variables leading to it. The study’s findings showed the different platforms where
cyberbullying was more prevalent in order to help the students and the parents identify which platforms the
students could use less in order to minimize the possibility of receiving bullying or repeated incidents. At the same
time, the rate of usage and time spent on these platforms were scrutinized by this study in order to help identify
whether there was a relation to the platform usage and the bullying. The parents would receive the benefit of
knowing the effects of cyberbullying, thus, it would possible for them to determine if their children are being
cyberbullied once they see them manifesting these effects. With this, it would be possible for the parents to get an
earlier help for their children. The results of this study would not only be helpful to the students and their parents
but also to the teachers as it could help in identifying which of their students are on the receiving end of
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cyberbullying. These results would help the teachers in looking out after the students and making it possible for
them to see and realize the early signs of cyberbullying, making it possible for them to offer guidance and advice
to the cyberbullied students. Lastly, the government would also benefit from the results of this study as the findings
could be used as evidences on the rampant cyberbullying in different platforms. The government could then
identify which platforms to which they need to pay attention and strengthen the cyber security.
6. Research Design
In this research, a mixed-methods research design was useful in analyzing and presenting the data being collected
wherein this applied to both qualitative and quantitative method to completely understand the research problem.
In the qualitative method, the researchers relied on words on the data analysis and a phenomenology approach
was used as means of determining the experiences of the victims in the cyberbullying phenomenon. In the data
collection, the researchers delved on the impacts and effects of cyberbullying and how the victims or participants
with bullying experiences responded to this phenomenon. In the quantitative method, researchers depended on
numerical data through table or graphic presentations in the data analysis and presentation. In this method, a
descriptive approach was employed in revealing the platforms being used in cyberbullying and the time spent of
the users on the different social media platforms.
The text and numerical analysis revealed how the issue of cyberbullying affected the daily living of the students
or respondents. As such, the use of mixed-methods design allowed the researchers to better understand the existing
research problem.
7. Research Environment
The study was conducted at Cebu Normal University- Main Campus, Osmeña Boulevard Cebu City, 6000
Philippines. It is one of the state universities in Central Visayas, Philippines and is considered to be one of the
oldest educational school or institutions founded by the Americans in 1902.
Cebu Normal University (CNU) offers different programs coming from the different colleges namely, the College
of Arts and Sciences (CAS), College of Teacher Education (CTE) and College of Nursing (CN). It is also the
home of the Integrated Laboratory School learners and Graduate studies. In the undergraduate programs for the
College of Arts and Sciences, the following programs are offered: Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, English
Language, Communication, Bachelor of Arts in Filipino, Psychology, Political Science, Bachelor of Science in
Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics, and Bachelor of Tourism Management. The College of Teacher
Education offers Bachelor of Secondary Education with various majors, Bachelor of Elementary Education,
Bachelor Technology Livelihood Education, Bachelor of Special Needs Education, Bachelor of Physical
Education and Bachelor of Early Childhood Education. The College of Nursing offers Bachelor of Science in
Nursing.
The data collection took place through the use of social media platforms specifically Google Meet and Facebook
Messenger wherein the researchers did one-on-one video conferencing, voice call, and chat conversation with the
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respondents by asking closed questions for quantitative research design and open-ended questions for a qualitative
research design.
8. Research Participants and Sampling Design
The sample size was taken from a population of 392 BSED English 1st - 3rd year CNU students with a confidence
level of 95% and with a margin error of 5%. Applying the Slovin’s formula, the ideal sample size was 198 BSED
English 1st - 3rd year CNU students.
The 198 respondents were chosen using the non-probability sampling method and applying the technique of
Convenience sampling and the Snowball sampling. As face-to-face interaction with the respondents was
impossible due to the pandemic, the respondents were selected based on their availability to the researcher and
the recruitment of other respondents. The availability of the respondents depended if they had the means for online
interaction such as the internet and whether they were contacted for the one-on-one video conference. This
sampling was the most convenient to use as English major students were more available and easier to contact by
the researchers and as the population was hard to reach the snowball method was ideal in reaching the sample
size. As such the sample size of this study was based on how many English major students were contacted for
their participation, be it by the researcher or by fellow respondents.
Table 1: Distribution of respondents according to age, year level, section, gender, and social status
Feature Variable f %
Age 18 9 7.1
19 32 25.2
20 53 41.7
21 31 24.4
22 2 1.6
Total 127 100.0
Year Level I 25 19.7
II 43 33.9
III 59 46.5
Total 127 100.0
Section A 39 30.7
B 49 38.6
C 35 27.6
D 4 3.1
Total 127 100.0
Gender Female 103 81.1
Male 24 18.9
Total 127 100.0
Social Status High Class 2 1.6
7
Middle Class 106 83.5

Low Class 19 15.0
Total 127 100.0
Of the 198 target participants, only 127 were interviewed from which more than half were female. Participants’
ages ranging from 18-22 years old were mostly in their 2nd or 3rd year in Cebu Normal University. As for the
sections, there was a close gap for sections A, B, and C but it was Section B which dominated. Also, most of the
respondents were from middle class.
9. Research Instrument
This study used a standardized instrument which is a modified multiple-item interview guide composed of open-
ended and close-ended questions that were essential in gathering data to probe the manifestations of cyberbullying.
The factors that could cause cyberbullying were measured through the 2 closed – close-ended and open-linked –
items developed by the researchers while the forms, management, and effects of cyberbullying were measured
through the 3 open-ended items modified from the questionnaire developed by Hamburger, Basile & Vivolo
(2011).
10. Data Gathering Procedure
To ensure a smooth sailing data collection, the researchers identified beforehand the potential participants for the
study. They were listed and were oriented as to how the study would be carried out and why this study had to be
conducted. The researchers made sure that the participants were given consent before the interview. The
researchers also made sure that the interview guide used were useful in gathering the desired data and didn’t bring
harm or reveal information that might put the participants in trouble.
For the gathering of data, the modified multi-item interview guide adapted by the researchers were used. The
questionnaire was administered by the researchers to the target participants through an online platform called
Google Meet and Facebook Messenger. The participants were interviewed by the researchers through a one-on-
one video conference, voice call, and chat conversation for approximately 30 minutes. Participants were given
enough time to express and share their experiences about cyberbullying. To secure the information given by the
participants, the said video conference and voice call were recorded by the researchers and responses were
encoded for data analysis. The research adviser supervised throughout the process of collecting the necessary data
for the study.
After the data collection, the recorded interviews of the participants including the encoded copies of their
responses were stored in a google drive owned by one of the researchers and were made accessible to the rest of
the researchers for data analysis and future use.
11. Ethical Consideration
The main ethical principles considered in conducting this research were conflict of interest, respect for persons,
beneficence/non-maleficence, confidentiality benefits, incentives or compensation, and recruitment.
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11.1. Conflict of Interest
The researchers detached personal biases to produce research results that were valid, reliable, and truthful. With
this, researchers remained disinterested in the whole research to avoid manipulation of data.
11.2. Respect for Persons
Prospective participants were informed of the research study, the confidentiality of the results, and their rights.
They were given 24 hours to fully consider their participation.
11.3. Anonymity and Confidentiality
Each participant was given a number code to ensure their anonymity. The participants’ responses were made
accessible to the researchers only for these responses contained sensitive data regarding personal experiences and
first-hand witness accounts of cyberbullying. Questions that sought such data were accompanied with the “if it is
okay with you” phrase to remind that participants that they did not have to share things which they did not wish
to share. After the research study, all responses were deleted. Because the responses were in electronic form, the
researchers deleted the files from all internet clouds and electronic devices such as computers and smartphones
that were used as a storage. For the chat conversations, the researchers deleted their copy of the conversation. All
data were used solely for the study and were deleted after the completion of the study.
11.4. Consent and Assent
The respondents were given the informed consent first and were assisted by one of the researchers to further
explain and clarify questions. Only those with normal mental abilities were allowed to give their consent by
themselves. Those with mental disabilities needed parental consent.
11.5. Vulnerability
Respondents who belonged to the vulnerable group would be handled by the lead researcher and the interview
would be done with the presence of a figure of authority such as parents. However, no vulnerable persons
participated in the study.
11.6. Recruitment
No prospective respondents were forced in any way – such as making them feel guilty or scorning them – to
participate in the study. The researchers communicated with the mayors of each class, then asked for permission
to communicate with each of the students.
11.7. Risks
For those who would have emotional breakdowns during the interview due to vivid recollections, the assigned
interviewer would immediately guide the participants through CNU hotline for proper referral. In the case that the
interviewer would be unable to do it, another researcher would take charge. The interviewer would then
communicate with them and the class mayor for observable changes for a few days to ensure safety.
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11.8. Benefits
The respondents, as users of the different social media platforms, benefited from this study by becoming more
aware of cyberbullying incidences – during the interview – and being a beneficiary of the actions that may possibly
be brought about by the results of the study.
11.9. Incentives and Compensation
The researchers gave P10.00 load to the respondents to thank them for their participation.
12. Presentation and Discussion of Findings
The primary aim of this study was to determine how cyberbullying manifested to college students. It specifically
looked for the platforms with cases of cyberbullying, victims’ frequency and duration of social media usage,
bullying forms, victims’ responses, and social and mental effects of the experience. For the quantitative data, they
were appropriated with descriptive statistics. For the qualitative data, Thematic Analysis by Braun and Clarke
(2006) was used as the standard protocol.
Table 2: Social media platforms with cyberbullying cases
Platform f % (Cases)
Facebook 117 94.4
Twitter 57 46.0
Instagram 25 20.2
Youtube 12 9.7
Steam 1 0.8
Reddit 1 0.8
Skout 1 0.8
WeVerse 1 0.8
Vlive 1 0.8
Ask.Fm 1 0.8
Snapchat 1 0.8
RPG 1 0.8
Total 219 176.6
Facebook was observed to be the most commonly used platform by the participants in which cyberbullying was
prevalent. It was followed by Twitter and Instagram, platforms which are also commonly used today by a lot of
people. YouTube was also observed to be a platform where cyberbullying happened even if it took only a small
portion of the total population. Platforms like Steam, Reddit, Skout, WeVerse, Vlive, Ask.fm, Snap, and RPG
also took a spot but were the least used among all the platforms mentioned by the respondents.
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Table 3: Victims’ frequency and duration of time spent on social media
Duration f %
Less than 1 hour 4 3.1
1-3 hours 23 18.1
3-7 hours 54 42.5
7-10 hours 30 23.6
More than 10 hours 16 12.6
Total 127 100.0
Most participants were observed to be using the internet between 1 and 10 hours a day with the range 3-7 hours
as the highest, covering almost half of the total population. Only a few of the respondents use internet for lesser
or greater than the timeframe mentioned above.
Table 4: Forms of cyberbullying
Theme Code f % (Cases)

Flaming Resorting to ad hominem 87 68.5
Forcing personal standards on beauty, body, and
behavior
Joking
Racism
Denigration Using people’s picture with a fake label 36 28.3

Spreading fake stories
Ranting with an exaggerated story
Outing Revealing secrets 15 11.8

Posting personal conflicts
Harassment Creating a dummy account to send harmful 14 11.0

messages multiple times
Catcalling and asking for nudes
Sending death threats
Taking photos
Masquerade Hacking 14 11.0

Creating poser accounts
Imitating a person’s typing style.
11
Exclusion Pranking 1 0.8

Total 167 131.5
The most dominant situation which led to the victims having a cyberbullying experience was disagreement in
political issues. The perpetrators resorted to ad hominem, a type of attack directed at the user’s person instead of
the argument. Demeaning words such as stupid, ugly, and fat were used in the attack. Aside from this situation,
students were also subjected to the standards of the cyberbullies when it came to beauty, body, and behavior.
There was also an account wherein the name of God was used by cyberbullies. “God forgot to turn off the stove
when making the person that’s why I’m very dark (Participant 53).” This was one of the many accounts where
cyberbullying was guised as a joke but was dismissed as an attack due to the victims’ discomfort. Lastly,
cyberbullies incorporated racial slurs in the lobby, a place in the platform where players can chat with each other.
This happened within the gaming community only.
The victims also had experiences of indirect attacks. Photos were used with false labels; fake stories about a person
were spread; jokes which exaggerated the student’s physical condition were taken as gospel truth. Furthermore,
there were rants about an anonymous person – the victim. However, the cyberbullies explicitly explain the victim’s
features which makes him/her identifiable.
There were cases where confidential information – secrets and personal conflicts – of the victims were revealed
in public, resulting in serious problems in the victims’ life. Nudes were released, and screenshots of private
conversations were disclosed.
Some cyberbullies attacked in a pervasive and insistent manner. Many victims received threatening messages
from dummy accounts. These messages suggested that the person behind the account had been stalking. Other
messages concerned the sexual aspect which asked for the nudes of the victims which came from both dummy
and real accounts. Political disagreements also led to death threats. Another pervasive attack was the case where
stolen shots of the victims were posted on social media many times – even after a teacher’s intervention – by an
anonymous person.
Other cases were about the cyberbullies pretending to be the victims and damaging the victims’ reputation by
attacking other people while under the pretense of the victims’ identity. Some users had their real accounts hacked
while other users had poser accounts. With regards to the posers, an interesting case appeared. An account was
created not to defame the real owner but to make fun of another person. This person had a crush on a girl and a
classmate created a poser account of the girl then chatted the boy.
One account talked about exclusion. The victim was left out of a group – her close friends – to make fun of her
which was a prank about COVID-19.
Table 5: Victims’ management of the bullying experience
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Ignore Respondent choose to disregard as it is not worth 49 38.6

it or is not a big issue
Let it be as it does not affect them or is not too
important
Don’t want to bother or pay attention
Public post Post something to defend one’s side or to explain 25 19.7

To call out on the bully’s action
To inform the public
Ask figures of authority for formal settlement of

Seek help from figures issue, reporting on site administrators, or to 23 18.1
of authority parents
Blocking the bully

Private Making the account private 22 17.3
Deactivation of account
Respondent choose to confront them via private

Confront message or in any medium 21 16.5
Fight back and argue

Retaliate Post something to retaliate 15 11.8
Respondent choose to ask advice or help from

Share with friends friends 14 11.0
Respondent choose to share experience to friends
and loved ones
Choose not to confront or retaliate both private

Keep to oneself and public but is nonetheless hurt and affected 9 7.1
Police blotter
Barangay or police report
Take legal action Suing the cyberbully 4 3.1
Total 182 143.3
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Many victims chose to do nothing about the incident due to their belief that the issue was not worthy or not big
enough to fuss over. It was also their way of not making the incident a big deal, of stopping the cyberbullies by
not giving them a response. As such, no actions were made to address the experience.
There were victims who kept the experience to themselves. Though the response seemed similar to doing nothing
about it, it was completely different in the sense that the victims' management of the experience was involuntary.
Victims expressed how they did not want to be deemed as overdramatic or too serious especially for attacks that
were guised as jokes and done by their supposedly close friends and relatives. Due to this, the victims were left
with no choice but to respond in such a way to the incident.
However, some victims could not keep the experience to themselves so they shared the incident with their friends.
This response was done to alleviate their feelings of distress, and to get emotional support and advice from other
people they considered close to them. Although there were comments that focused on cheering up the victims,
there was also quite a number of them that instigated the victims to respond in another way – fight back.
Whatever damage the cyberbullies inflicted was reciprocated by the victims. Sometimes, they even did more than
the intensity of the cyberbullying attack. One participant shared how his cyberbullied friend went to the
cyberbully's profile, took a screenshot of her photo, and posted it with a caption comparing her to a shrimp which
is a word used to describe someone who has a beautiful body but ugly face in the Philippine setting.
Other victims came into contact with the cyberbullies through private message or comment section to clarify
misunderstandings. However, victims who were attacked by large groups could not manage the incident this way
due to the size. Because of this, they resorted to making public posts to explain their sides. There were also victims
who were not attacked by large groups but still ventured into this response to raise awareness on bullying and to
inform other people about their current situation for those who were attacked through masquerade.
Some victims made their accounts inaccessible by the cyberbullies by deactivating their old account and creating
a new one, blocking the cyberbullies, and making their profiles private except for close friends and relatives. This
was mostly done by those who received harmful messages such as one of the participant's sister who was
victimized through death threats.
Before doing such things, a few victims reported the cyberbullies' accounts to the admins of the social media
platform. They also sought help from parents who gave them support to get through it without taking other actions.
Aid from teachers was also called for which led to school intervention. One account also talked about how Raffy
Tulfo was involved in the bullying experience of a role player, a person pretending to be another person – usually
non-existent.
There were also victims who went to legal authorities to settle the matter. Victims who were harassed and victims
whose identities were copied for defamation went to their local barangays and police stations for tracing and
blotter.
Table 6: Social and mental effects of cyberbullying
14

Low self-esteem Gets embarrassed and cannot face people at all 60 47.2
Bowing their heads when facing someone
Avoiding people
Problem with socializing Having hard time interacting or talking to other 28 22.0
people
Depression Self-isolation
26 20.5
Trauma Being nervous like someone is always following
Memories haunt down 23 18.1
Distance to the online Deactivating the account

world
17 13.4
No effect Being used to it
Suicide ideation Thinking of ending themselves as means of 16 12.6

ending the problem
12 9.4
Boost the confidence Became friendlier and stronger 6 4.7

Total 188 148.0
Due to the nature of the attacks which aimed at the victims' person, the victims' esteem trickled down. One
participant asked herself why she looked like herself while looking at the mirror. Quite a number of victims
stopped posting their photos to avoid getting the same comments. Some continued posting but they made sure
their photo was different from the photo wherein they got attacked.
Some victims started having problems when it came to interacting with other people especially strangers and
acquaintances. One participant shared how he would distance himself from religious people because he was
bullied when he was still in a religious academic institution. This was due to the fear that he would be attacked
again.
Victims who were struggling with other things fell into depression upon experiencing cyberbullying. Due to their
other responsibilities being heavy already, the addition of the attacks that made them lose trust in themselves
brought them to into such a situation. However, their depression was not clinically diagnosed.
Some even thought of ending their lives. In fact, other victims already harmed themselves. But these acts of harm
15
were not so grave to the point that they needed medical help.
There were also participants who were haunted by the bullying experience. One participant would get vivid
recollections of the incident. Another participant became paranoid if there was someone taking stolen shots of
her.
Since all this happened in the cyber space, many victims left the online world. They did this by deactivating their
social media accounts.
Luckily for others, they were used to this so they had grown immune to the experience. Other victims even had
their self-esteem increased. They believed it was a good way to improve themselves on aspects they were unable
to see without the pointing out of the cyberbullies.
13. Discussion of Findings
Based on the findings of the study, these were the following social media platforms with cases of cyberbullying:
Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Steam, Reddit, Skout, WeVerse, Vlive, Ask.fm, Snapchat, and RPG. In
addition, most cyberbullying victims and witnesses spent an average of 3-7 hours every day on social media. The
following forms of cyberbullying were revealed: denigration, harassment, flaming, masquerade, outing, and
exclusion. The victims' management of the experience as reported were ignore the incident, confront the
cyberbully/cyberbullies, keep to oneself, share with friends, seek help from figures of authority (teacher, parents,
Tulfo, etc.), seek legal actions, make account private, retaliate, and share a public statement for everybody.
Because of this experience, the victims' mental and social health have been affected in negative ways which are
low self-esteem, distance to the online world, depression (not clinically diagnosed), suicide ideation, trauma
(paranoia, fear), and problems with socializing. There was also a positive impact which was a boost in the
confidence. There were also cases with no effects at all due to the victims being used to the experience.
In a survey result by scientists from Ditch the Label (2017), it was stated that Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter,
Youtube, and Instagram are the platforms with cyberbullying cases. However, the findings of this study provided
more platforms which were Reddit, Steam, Skout, WeVerse, Vlive, Ask.fm, and RPG. In addition, the results of
the survey showed Instagram as the leading platform and Twitter as the platform with the least number of cases.
Contrary the survey’s results, the findings of this study showed Facebok and Twitter coming in first and second
respectively. Due to this, it was said that the social media platforms with cyberbullying cases depended on what
was popular in a country because Ditch the Label’s study was conducted in England. Furthermore, the survey did
not include the gaming platforms, but accounts in this study said otherwise.
Athanasiou et al. (2018) reported that the use of social media for more than 2 hours every day led to an increased
cyberbullying experience. This report had been observed in the findings of the study. Most of the respondents
spent more than 2 hours – specifically 3-7 hours – on social media daily. Categorizing all the duration provided
into two ranges – less than 3 hours and 3 hours or more – where there were still more respondents spending on
the latter range further proved this. Although 3 hours or more is already beyond 2 hours, stating as such would
16
mean to cater to even one second beyond 2 hours. Due to this, it should be stated that students spent at least 3
hours on social media every day.
Willard (2004) stated that these are the following forms of cyberbullying: flaming, harassment, cyberstalking,
denigration, masquerade, outing and trickery, and exclusion. The findings of this study conformed to his findings
except for the fact that cyberstalking and harassment were categorized as one. Moreover, this study had a finding
that deviated from Willard’s definition of one of the forms. Willard explained masquerade as an act of pretending
to be the victim to malign the victim’s person. However, one case in this study veered away from this definition
in the sense that the cyberbully pretended to be someone else to make fun of another person, not to defame the
real owner’s reputation. As such, a new definition of masquerade as a form of cyberbullying had been revealed
which was the use of another person’s identity to poke fun on a third person.
Casas and Lactaoen (2014) defined cyberbullying as an act of humiliating the victim. Though the specific deeds
they mentioned were quite different from the findings of the study, the main goal of bullying was the same. All
forms of bullying stemmed from the aim of humiliation. In addition, Hinduja (2009) and Patchin (2006) described
cyberbullying as repeated which matched up to cyber harassment as found by this study. However, the results
could neither conform to nor contravene against the part where there was a specific pattern in the bullying behavior
for there was not enough data to make such motions.
Quite a number of the victims’ management of the cyberbullying experience completely matched up to the
findings of Perren et al. (2012) and Aricak et al. (2008) but with more specifications since their findings
categorized the responses based only on to whom the actions were directed.
Ruangnapakul, et al. (2019) revealed how victims in the Visayas region in the Philippines told their friends and
adults about their cyberbullying experiences – although there was a preference towards friends over adults. The
reports of the victims’ responses matched up to these results. Victims did share with their friends and did seek
help from adults.
The effects of the experience as found by this study conformed to some of the effects stated by Gordon (2020)
with similar explanations but different names. Aunario, et al. (2018) and Sanapo’s (2017) studies which had
parallel results also revealed the negative impacts of this experience. What made this study’s findings deviate
from theirs were the physical sickness that had no reports in Gordon’s, and the cases of positive effects and no
effects at all.
Another key term of Hinduja (2009) and Patchin’s (2006) explanation of cyberbullying was harm which described
the act as having an effect on the victims. This did not limit the effects into the negative side, thus, suggesting that
the incident could have positive effects. But as mentioned before, it was possible for it to have no effects. This
was the part where this study’s findings were able to fill in the gaps of their study. This gap could also be found
Casas and Lactaoen’s (2014) findings where they said that the cyberbullying experience targeted one’s self-esteem
that led to a decrease in the victims’ self-confidence. The experience could lead to it, but it was not always the
case.
17
14. Conclusion
From the findings, the following were concluded: the social media platforms with cyberbully cases depended on
what was popular in each place and the platforms also extended to the gaming community; spending at least 3
hours on social media daily led to more cases of first-hand experiences and witness accounts of cyberbullying;
cyberbullying was expressed in the forms of flaming, denigration, harassment, masquerade, outing, and exclusion
and masquerade had a new definition which was the use of a person’s identity to make fun of another person; the
management of the victims involved both traditional and cyber handling depending on what was most accessible
by the victims; the experience caused positive effects, negative effects, and no effects at all.
15. Limitations and Recommendation
The limitations of this study were the sample size and the sample group. The ideal sample size of the study was
198. However, only 127 participants were interviewed due to the other students in the sample group having no
personal experiences and witness accounts. To make up for such a gap, an increase in the sample group – not just
BSED English students – was recommended as it would be a good solution for this limitation in future works.
Moreover, having a bigger – in terms of demographics and having international respondents – sample group may
reveal other manifestations of cyberbullying.
16. Acknowledgment
The researchers would like to extend their gratitude to Dr. Marchee Picardal for guiding and supervising
throughout the conduct of this study so that the results could be of significance to the needs of society.
The researchers would also like to thank the Research Ethics Committee of Cebu Normal University spearheaded
by Dr. Emmanuel V. Hernani for granting ethical clearance for this study based on sound grounds without which
this study would not have been actualized.
Lastly, the researchers would like to acknowledge all the participants for their willingness to be interviewed. It
was through their responses that the questions posited by this study were answered.
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22

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International Journal of Sciences:

Basic and Applied Research

Manifestations of Cyberbullying Among College Students

Recka Olasimana, Melanie Quijanob, Necci Khate Tarayac, Nicole Trayad

Keywords: Cyberbullying; College Students; Platforms; Duration; Forms; Management; Effects

(i) In which social media platforms do students prevalently experience cyberbullying?

(iii) What forms of cyberbullying do students dominantly experience?

(iv) How do the cyberbullied victims manage the bullying experience?

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of the Study

The Online Disinhibition REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10627

Frequency and Duration of

5. Significance of the Study

8. Research Participants and Sampling Design

Middle Class 106 83.5

10. Data Gathering Procedure

11. Ethical Consideration

11.1. Conflict of Interest

11.2. Respect for Persons

11.3. Anonymity and Confidentiality

11.4. Consent and Assent

11.9. Incentives and Compensation

12. Presentation and Discussion of Findings

Table 2: Social media platforms with cyberbullying cases

Table 3: Victims’ frequency and duration of time spent on social media

Table 4: Forms of cyberbullying

Theme Code f % (Cases)

Denigration Using people’s picture with a fake label 36 28.3

Outing Revealing secrets 15 11.8

Harassment Creating a dummy account to send harmful 14 11.0

Masquerade Hacking 14 11.0

Exclusion Pranking 1 0.8

Table 5: Victims’ management of the bullying experience

Theme Code f % (Cases)

Ignore Respondent choose to disregard as it is not worth 49 38.6

Public post Post something to defend one’s side or to explain 25 19.7

Ask figures of authority for formal settlement of

Blocking the bully

Respondent choose to confront them via private

Fight back and argue

Respondent choose to ask advice or help from

Choose not to confront or retaliate both private

Total 182 143.3

Table 6: Social and mental effects of cyberbullying

Theme Code f % (Cases)

Distance to the online Deactivating the account

Suicide ideation Thinking of ending themselves as means of 16 12.6

Boost the confidence Became friendlier and stronger 6 4.7

13. Discussion of Findings

15. Limitations and Recommendation

Casas & E. Lactaoen. (2014). ‘’Cyber Bullying’’. Pressreader. https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/sunstar-

D. Olweus. (2012). ‘’Cyberbullying: An overrated phenomenon?’’. European Journal of Developmental

(2020). ‘’Cyber Bullying Statistics’’. Bullying Statistics. Retrieved from

V. Šléglová, & A. Cerna, (2011). ‘’Cyberbullying in Adolescent Victims: Perception and

S. Yurtkoru, & Islamoglu. (2018). ‘’Incivility in Digital Era: A Student on Cyberbullying’’.

(2017). ‘’The Annual Bullying Survey 2017’’. DitchtheLabel. https://www.ditchthelabel.org/wp-

S. Gordon. (2020 Jul.). ‘’The Real-Life Effects of Cyberbullying on Children’’. VeryWellFamily

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