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41 Percent of Adults In the US Have Been Harassed Online, Says Pew Study (techcrunch.com) 242

According to a new Pew Research Center study, 41 percent of adults said they have experienced harassment online, and 66 percent of people said they've seen it happen to others. What's the most common form of online harassment? According to the study, it's offensive name-calling. TechCrunch reports: It's worth noting that while men are slightly more likely than women to be harassed online (44 percent versus 37 percent), women are more likely to be sexually harassed online. For example, 53 percent of women surveyed reported receiving explicit images they did not request. Unsurprisingly, social media is where people are most likely to experience online harassment, with 58 percent of those harassed saying the most recent incident happened on a social media platform. Also unsurprising is the fact that more than half of people harassed don't know the person harassing them. Pew also explored "emergent" forms of online harassment, like doxing (posting someone's personal information online without consent), trolling (intentionally trying to provoke or upset someone), hacking (illegally accessing someone's accounts) and swatting (when you call 911 for a fake emergency and have the police show up at that person's house). "While many Americans are not aware of these behaviors, they have all been used to escalate abuse online," the report states.
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41 Percent of Adults In the US Have Been Harassed Online, Says Pew Study

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  • 100% (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Narcocide ( 102829 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @09:33PM (#54790647) Homepage

    Have been harassed in real life.

    • Re:100% (Score:5, Interesting)

      by courteaudotbiz ( 1191083 ) on Wednesday July 12, 2017 @12:07AM (#54791343) Homepage
      The notion of "harassment" has got very blurry lately...

      Back in my days, I was the little big guy in the school yard. I had to deal with insults, punches in the belly and snowballs in the face. Guess what? The school director did absolutely nothing. I had to learn to defend myself. My grandfather taught me how to fight, and after a few lessons and practice, that's what I did.

      Never did I complain to my mother, it would have been cowardice.

      After a few good fights where I showed I would not let others make fun of me, they left me alone, and I made some good friends for the rest of high school. With all those millenials pouring in, defended by their parents and having never felt what it's like to be truly harassed, the notion of harassment has got down to almost considering unfriending someone on Facebook as harassment.

      I am happy to be born in the early 80's, I may be part of the last generation of real men that had to physically defend themselves to be respected, just as the nature gave us in our genes. Not being defended by our parents or going to the police for a slight schoolyard fight.
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        The notion of "harassment" has got very blurry lately...

        Reminder that this is the current definition of harassment. [twimg.com]

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Finding someone saying something silly on Twitter does not prove your point. And anyway, she was probably referring to the talk rather than the individual side, assuming the screen capture is even real (where is your usual archive.is link?)

          Harassment has a legal definition in most places. Where would you draw the line? Because endlessly questioning where to draw the line is the favourite tactic of people who want to avoid talking about the really unambiguous stuff.

          • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

            Finding someone saying something silly on Twitter does not prove your point. And anyway, she was probably referring to the talk rather than the individual side, assuming the screen capture is even real (where is your usual archive.is link?)

            You mean besides what you can dig directly out of the vine video? Just google it, it's not difficult. Where is my usual archive link, over there where I left it because I'm too lazy to post it. Why? Did you need me to do all the hard legwork for you or something?

            Harassment has a legal definition in most places. Where would you draw the line? Because endlessly questioning where to draw the line is the favourite tactic of people who want to avoid talking about the really unambiguous stuff.

            Harassment also requires intent. Saying "I'm tired of this person lying through their teeth and being an attention seeker" isn't harassment. Posting it online without sending it to them isn't harassment either. Posting it 43 times in a row to

          • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

            Oh and just because. Remember this is harassment [twitter.com] but it's not harassment when we do it. Also if someone on the "alt-right" or 3rd party troll used the #gamergate hashtag there would be around 40 articles on all the popular sites. But uh, kinda quiet out there isn't it. Must be because Laci Green walked off the plantation and that makes her an unperson now.

            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              I'm looking at the link but I can't see where it says "let's kill her instead", except for in the actual tweet you linked to. Who is supposed to have said that?

              All I see is someone pointing out that people do get killed and their killers get away with it because of "trans panic". That's actually a thing, there are numerous cases of it happening and the perpetrators using the "trans panic" defence successfully in court. Even if they went the jail, the victim is still dead/beaten.

              Laci Green is an interesting

              • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

                Who is supposed to have said that?

                You notice that little @ symbol in front of the name? That's the person who said it. @symbols in the body are who they are to. Check the chain, it's there though you might need to dust off archive.is

                ll I see is someone pointing out that people do get killed ...

                You mean you don't see a part where a group of pro-trans individuals are talking and then one in the threaded chain says "let's kill her instead"?

                Laci Green is an interesting example. As you have noticed, the mainstream media doesn't cover random YouTube bloggers

                Really? Green is such a nobody that she has millions of followers on social media, popular enough that she was employed by MTV but she's a nobody? Well that sure

                • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                  You mean you don't see a part where a group of pro-trans individuals are talking and then one in the threaded chain says "let's kill her instead"?

                  No. It's literally not there. A search of the page text shows that the only person who said that is the one posting the fake quote (the linked tweet). The screenshot they posted does not contain any suggestion to kill anyone either.

                  Green is such a nobody that she has millions of followers on social media

                  Er... She has 250k followers on Twitter, and many of them are probably following her on other platforms... So not quite the superstar you think she is.

                  Well that sure explains how literal nobodies like Wu and Quinn were all over the news right?

                  They were in the news because they were victims of gamergate. By the way, "literal nobodies" is part of gamergate's attempt to de

          • Because endlessly questioning where to draw the line is the favourite tactic of people who want to avoid talking about the really unambiguous stuff.

            How you define harassment and who gets to do it is part of the really unambiguous stuff. There are people out there who would say you are harassing them, merely because you happen to be existing in the same public space as they are; is anybody like that somebody you want to have defining what is harassment? It's also important to regularly checked to make sure that the definition of harassment being used is not constructed so only certain people can be harassed, be harassers, or both. I've been around a f

      • ...and your grand parents have probably been needing to learn to defend themselves with guns, whereas I (roughly the same age as you) live in a country where I don't even see why the hell I would be needing any weapon.
        (That's even if I live in one of the few western European nation where it isn't that complicated to legally obtain a gun and corresponding license).

      • by gtall ( 79522 )

        Yep, now days, you'd have been beaten silly by your tormentors' bigger brothers in a gang and left bloody in a ditch.

      • It's nice that you could fight back, but that's not the solution for everyone. I was harassed by a group of kids all through high school. Individually, they wouldn't bother me, but when five or more of them got together, they got very brave. One on one, I might have been able to fight them, but five on one I wouldn't have stood a chance. I would have been beaten up and then made fun of more for getting beaten up.

        I complained to my best friend, but to nobody else. That was a huge mistake in hindsight. Bullie

        • Similar here, except I finally did pop in HS and collapsed a guy's larynx.
          Never was picked on again...

          I've had a couple fights, some won, some lost, all were the end of it (whatever "it" was).

          As to my kids I teach them the following:
          I am 100% against fighting, unless I have to, then I am 100% for it.

          The message is to avoid conflict unless there is no choice, then don't hold back, hit hard, hit fast, hit first*, hit last.
          My daughter was physically cornered by a boy in elementary school. He tried to kiss her

          • My son was attacked back in elementary school. (He's in high school now.) They were, ironically, waiting in line for an anti-bullying program. A kid jumped forward in line right in front of my son. My son is touchy about his personal space (he's on the Autism spectrum), so he put his hands up to protect himself. The kid kicked him in the ribs hard enough to send him to the nurse and leave a mark.

            The next day I met with the principal, teacher, and teacher's assistant. First, they said nobody witnessed the in

            • I generally agree with you.
              The details were:
              daughter sent home for being involved in a fight, no mark on record.
              boy sent home, mark on record, suspension.
              boy came back to school with a gauzed nose to be greeted by "you got beat up by a girl" from his peers.

              Punishment fit the crime on an overall basis. Add to that he's treated my daughter like a princess ever since, and hasn't (to the best of my knowledge) bothered another girl at school either.

      • by mjwx ( 966435 )

        The notion of "harassment" has got very blurry lately...

        So you didn't read the article, the poll defined different forms of harassment. From offensive name calling right down to sexual harassment.

        Never did I complain to my mother, it would have been cowardice.

        Ahh yes, the attitude that costs lives.

        As someone who was bullied as a kid, I know exactly why the Columbine shooters did what they did. Because they didn't see any other way out of it. Bullies were untouchable, their parents would threaten and bully school teachers if they ever did anything, if you fought back, you were made to be in the wrong because the bullies ha

    • by Shoten ( 260439 )

      Why has this not been modded up?

  • got 'cha
  • Help! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Script Cat ( 832717 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @09:36PM (#54790659)

    Help Help, I'm being oppressed!

  • by Anonymous Coward

    People who spell it harassed deserve harrassment.

    • They may be Harised

    • No, "harassed" is the correct spelling. Both Oxford and Merriam-Webster say so.

      There. I corrected you without harassing you.

      • I corrected you without harassing you.

        Is that even possible? I think you just proved to everyone here that you are a shitlord bent on harassing the poor spelling-impaired minority.

        Yea, doesn't feel too good when you're receiving it, huh? That'll teach you to correct anyone's spelling and grammar!

  • What's the most common form of online harassment? According to the study, it's offensive name-calling.

    Name-calling is not mere "harassment": it's psychological violence, same as people (so-called "friends") not Liking a motivational image posted on Facebook while you never fail to Like theirs.

    The FBI or DHS should get involved, we can't let society go down that path.

    • Pretty much wrong (Score:4, Insightful)

      by s.petry ( 762400 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @11:30PM (#54791173)

      Saying "no", "you are wrong|irrational|delusional|ignorant|etc..." is not "harassment" but can be perceived as such by the recipient. If you receive some form of criticism and take it as harassment, perhaps you should check to see if the person criticizing is right!

      When people say I'm ignorant, I ask for references so that I can be a better person and educate myself. When I am told my opinion is wrong, I ask for facts so that I can challenge my opinion. Sometimes I am irrational and delusional. That is all part of being a normal, breathing, thinking human who also has emotions.

      But hey, keep promoting that victim culture. It's worked so well as a tool to educate the masses and make people accountable responsible members of society.

      • Re:Pretty much wrong (Score:5, Informative)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday July 12, 2017 @08:30AM (#54792705) Homepage Journal

        If you read the actual survey [pewinternet.org] it has categories like "physically threatened", "stalked" and "sexually harassed".

        Same that the summary links to some clickbaity reporting rather than the actual study. It's not the best study, but it's not measuring how often people were told they are wrong.

    • it's psychological violence

      Often, it isn't. Harassment implies sustained pattern of behaviour, but the legal definition (at least in the UK) does not and the problem with this is that it often trivialises real problems. Humans are pack animals and a sustained pattern of behaviour that isolates someone from their pack and demeans them can have real mental health consequences. Calling someone an asshat once almost certainly won't (unless everyone does it to the same person). Counting the two in the same category does a serious diss

      • by Kjella ( 173770 )

        Often, it isn't. Harassment implies sustained pattern of behaviour, but the legal definition (at least in the UK) does not and the problem with this is that it often trivialises real problems.

        Not necessarily. I can very easily imagine a teen gang roving around picking victims at random or harassing strangers wandering into their turf. Basically those who stop short of more serious crime like violence, robbery or sexual abuse. It's just a different form of harassment from the sustained bullying of a particular victim. I think for the law proving a single incident is enough, but that repeat offenders or harassment over long periods of time should be treated much more harshly. The alternative would

    • Bravo to you, gentle Sir.

      Post of the day.

      If we had one.

      We don't. It made some of the others feel inadequate and uncomfortable, comparatively speaking of course.

      To summerise: great post.

    • I don't understand why parents beat their children when psychological damage lasts so much longer.

  • have never been harassed online.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      have never been harassed online.

      You have now, ignorant fuckhead!

      [just kidding -- peace out]

  • by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @09:56PM (#54790781) Journal
    100% of Slashdotters have been harassed online. And if you're reading Slashdot, and you haven't been harassed, you're a stupid piece of shit.
    There. It's back at 100%.
    • if you're into that sort of thing? I'm asking for a friend.
    • And if you're reading Slashdot, and you haven't been harassed, you're a stupid piece of shit. There. It's back at 100%.

      Well no. I'm proud to be a stupid piece of shit, so telling me that isn't harassment. Even on the untoward assumption that 100% of Slashdot readers read that particular comment, there's enough of us around to stop you getting your 100%. :p

      And in any case, you forgot about yourself.

      • I'm a dumb fool, but I hope you die in a fire.
        • I'm a dumb fool

          Ah you've attempted include yourself (not sure this is actually possible), glad to be of assistance.

          I hope you die in a fire.

          The irony of fate being what is is that this will probably happen now. Not only to me, but to my lovely wife and our 4 and 2 year old daughters as well. Well done you!

          If you notice me stop posting ...

  • Cyber BS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by geekymachoman ( 1261484 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @10:04PM (#54790809)

    I'm on internet since 1998 roughly. I'm 32 now... so started pretty young. I also spend 10+ hours on the computer per day, since 2001), so one can say internet is pretty important thing in my life, more so to me than to these that got _harassed_ probably.

    First thing, most people are just asking for it. They subconsciously dig themselves into these holes, like they are unknowingly addicted to drama. It's like ghost stories.. the only people that seem to see ghosts are those people that believe in ghosts.

    Furthermore, "Cyber" bullying ? Seriously ? Bullying is if i slap the shit out of you, yell at you, and take your lunch money, and I REPEAT it every day. That's bullying.
    Somebody wrote a nasty comment on your facebook ? Are you kidding me ? Maybe I have this attitude because I "grew up" on IRC in early 2000s where these "abuses" were actually just a normal day, and I seen real bullying in the same time at school, but anything that happens on internet is totally insignificant, it's bordering make-believe, especially if you connect to internet with that intent, and it's not that hard people. Why take internet and platforms on it such as social media so seriously ?

    Maybe this is happening because people choose to upload their lives on retarded platforms like facebook, maybe not, either way... you have control over it all, so all you doing calling this bullying is marginalizing real bullying. There's only one life that matters, and it's called Real Life.

    I'm sure there are hordes of geeks that will attack me for saying cyber is make believe.. but that's just uh... like, your opinion man.
    And screw them too.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Re:Cyber BS (Score:5, Informative)

      by freeze128 ( 544774 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @10:27PM (#54790917)
      On usenet in the mid 90's, sure there were the occasional jerks who would just rip into everyone. You added them to your kill filter, and that was pretty much the end of that.

      More forums need kill filters.

      *PLONK*
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Let's be honest, kill filters were ineffective. They were okay if the person you blocked kept the same username or email address, but anyone really wanting to troll would just keep switching faster than you could keep adding them. Usenet was unauthenticated and easy to spoof.

        That's why kill files don't work for email spam, and why blocking users doesn't work on Twitter.

        • It's still better than nothing. I don't think there will be any solution to that unless you do paid subscriptions that people value. Obviously, the troll values the laughs they get more than the time they put into to annoy someone for said laughs. How can anybody make the amount of time for laughs not worth it? The adage has always been don't feed. It isn't perfect but it does work.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Why take internet and platforms on it such as social media so seriously ?...There's only one life that matters, and it's called Real Life.

      The internet is part of reality. The internet is real life.

      Social media is a serious medium of social interaction. People well-established in their careers and already married can possibly ignore it, but for anyone younger you need to have a social media presence to get a job and have good romantic prospects.

      Social media is how people network. Social media is how people build and retain contacts. Social media is how people get jobs. HR people have been saying for years that not having a Facebook account is

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Modern tech seems to have escalated the bullying. Back at school, at least when I was a kid, you were pretty unlikely to get doxxed or send unwanted dick pics. Nowadays... Kids will humiliate each other, take a photo and spread it online so fast it can't be stopped.

      Same thing happens online. It's just too easy to anonymously fuck with people can get away with it. And again, it's worse than it used to be.

      Trying to separate "real life" and "online" is silly. They are the same thing.

      • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        Modern tech seems to have escalated the bullying. Back at school, at least when I was a kid, you were pretty unlikely to get doxxed or send unwanted dick pics. Nowadays... Kids will humiliate each other, take a photo and spread it online so fast it can't be stopped.

        Yes and no. What's escalated bullying is that many bullies have figured out how to operate within the rules, this is doubly true in places that use "zero tolerance rules" and so on. A bully will push the bullied person to the point where they snap and fight back, the bully will receive zero punishment the person who fought back will be suspended and up to expelled. Said bullied person will then likely kill themselves because they see no way out of being constantly bullied. Check your local school board

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Not sure about US law, but in the UK sending someone an unwanted dick pic deliberately would almost certainly be sexual harassment. Could even be sexual assault if persistent.

          Isn't it illegal to flash your genitalia where you live? I mean, if someone went out in public and exposed their genitals to you, would there be nothing you could do about it? Personally I'm not bothered by nudity, although if it was done in a sexually suggestive way I might not appreciate it I guess, but legally speaking most places d

          • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

            Not sure about US law, but in the UK sending someone an unwanted dick pic deliberately would almost certainly be sexual harassment. Could even be sexual assault if persistent.

            In Canada it isn't sexual harassment, neither is it sexual assault. It may fall into corrupting morals, it may fall into publication of child porn(in an under 18 setting)--though the aggressor party would more likely get a stern talking to by police before it even went to juvenile law. In Canada we don't have a defacto "sexual harassment" law, because existing laws already cover this. Between adults it's more likely to be indecency.

            Isn't it illegal to flash your genitalia where you live? I mean, if someone went out in public and exposed their genitals to you, would there be nothing you could do about it? Personally I'm not bothered by nudity, although if it was done in a sexually suggestive way I might not appreciate it I guess, but legally speaking most places don't seem to tolerate it.

            Yes, and no at the same time. Welcome to Canada. It may be indecency, i

          • With respect sir, when it comes to people flashing their genitalia at me in public or vice-versa, it hasn't reached a situation in my life that I have involve the authorities and/or invoke legalities.

            Maybe life in Canada is different.

          • if someone went out in public and exposed their genitals to you

            Not sure if it would be sexual harassment it would depend on the state and city but it would be public indecency for certain. I honestly doubt it would be sexual harassment.

            But you missed another problem with the dick pic these days and when we are talking about school kids (high school and younger) the law defines those pictures as child pornography. Even if the recipient wanted to see that pic if the sender was caught and was underage they would be labeled a sex offender proliferating child porn. There ha

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @10:20PM (#54790901)
  • by Nyder ( 754090 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @10:25PM (#54790911) Journal

    I don't know what world people live in, but I have been harassed all my life. Long before we were online. If it's not neighborhood kids putting you down, it's the bullies, the fellow students, the teachers, all adults in your life and mainly your family.

    Most people just grow a thick skin and move on, because there isn't much else you can do.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12, 2017 @02:22AM (#54791759)

      I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you might be a nerd.
      The last several years I've been the only nerd moving in non-nerd circles, and apparently people like that don't get the lifetime of putdowns that someone like me just assumes are normal for everyone. I've seen major freakouts that ended with social sanctions against the "abuser" for stuff I wouldn't even notice.
      The interesting part for me is that these victims have the social power to fight back. There *is* something they can do, if they cry the right things the rest of the social circle flocks to their defense, so they never had to learn to grow a thick skin like you and I. Now they're in an environment where their social power doesn't work, and it's freaking them out. We're all nerds on the internet, and they never had to learn how to live with it.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Great insight. This also explains why many of the effective tools for dealing with harassment look a lot like the social consequences of harassing people in real life.

  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @11:07PM (#54791083)

    That seems more than a bit over the top. Or are people really this easily made to feel uncomfortable these days? That would not be good at all.

    • I understand what you're saying, and I follow you to a point.

      Yes, name-calling is not necessarily harassment. But repeated name-calling is harassment, IMHO.

      Harassment is not about lashing out at someone during a brief period of anger. (We have all done that -- even the best of us.) Harassment a systematic pattern of abuse that lasts for a longer period. And yes, it happens online. And some of the members of this site engage in it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Mashiki ( 184564 )

      That seems more than a bit over the top. Or are people really this easily made to feel uncomfortable these days? That would not be good at all.

      Sure it's over the top. But remember that this is what victim culture is pushing. And the people that are curating this victimization are feminists, social justice advocates, and so on.

      Let's compare: A feminist politician receives the following and claims it's harassment: "I wouldn't even rape you." Mass exposes in the media about how this is terrible, terrible harassment. A male politician receives actual identifiable threats to them and their family, but nary a peep in the media over it. Then there'

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      If you read the actual report, they looked at a spectrum of behaviour ranging from just name calling to doxxing and stalking. That's a pretty typical way of doing a study like this - you want to measure both how much low level asshattery goes on and how much serious, possibly illegal stuff happens and compare with other factors like age and gender.

      It's all just data to help understand what is happening, it's not meant to imply anything. Perhaps harassment isn't quite the right term for some of it, but let's

  • What's the most common form of online harassment? According to the study, it's offensive name-calling.

    Clutch your pearls! Harder!

  • ... were busy harassing.

  • 41 Percent... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I wonder, are the following concepts included or not in the definition of 'harassed' regarding this poll?
    1.) 'Triggered' - using the contemporary meaning
    2.) 'Micro Aggression' - as in having been, as determined only by the recipient
    3.) 'Called Out' - corrected on a point of objective fact
    4.) Being treated fairly based on merit rather than as if everyone deserves a trophy for participation

    These things are not harassment rained down on a victim. Rather, it is interacting with other people in the real world.

    2

  • by Anonymous Coward

    "We're really in a pussy generation. Everybody's walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I did Gran Torino (2008), even my associate said, "This is a really good script, but it's politically incorrect." And I said, "Good. Let me read it tonight." The next morning, I came in and I threw it on his desk and I said, "We're starting this immediately.”

    - Clint Eastwood

  • by Picodon ( 4937267 ) on Wednesday July 12, 2017 @02:56AM (#54791845)

    41 percent of adults said they have experienced harassment online, and 66 percent of people said they've seen it happen to others.

    Correction: it should read:
        “41 percent of adults said they have experienced harassment online, and 59 percent of people said they’ve, huh, seen it happen to, hum, well you know, others...”

  • by superwiz ( 655733 ) on Wednesday July 12, 2017 @03:32AM (#54791961) Journal
    Well, I, for one, am appalled (appalled!) that Democrats post their views online.
  • Then the number should be closer to 100% of anyone who has posted anything online in a place where comments can be left. Certainly 100% if you include meatspace interaction.

    When it comes to "being harassed online" I think of more dangerous harassment, including swatting, doxing, and otherwise taking the stream of trolling offline and into meatspace somehow. Name calling is the last resort of the weak mind precisely because grown-ups ought to be able to just ignore it without it troubling their psyche, it is

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