Abstract:
Cyberbullying is the act of an online user harassing and intimidating another
person in the cyberspace. Cyberbullying is sending or posting negative, mean,
hurtful or false messages about another person on the internet and on social
media sites. Cyberbullying is a problem that arises as a by-product
Cyberbullying of modern technology. Cyberbullying is a form of attack occurs
when one or more individuals use abusive, false or harsh words on social
media to intimidate or harm others. Despite the high-tech equipment that is
currently popular among young people in Nigeria, there remains a significant
gap in the literature on cyberbullying and its potential impact on social media
users due to inadequate research in this area of study. Therefore, this study
sought to investigate the possible ways of detecting and preventing
cyberbullying on the social networking sites. This study adopts Conflict theory
by Karl Max. While for primary data collection, the study uses a qualitative
research method as a total of 30 participants categorized into groups based
on demography in Nigeria were used for a focused group discussion. Results
of this research show that cyberbullying occurs mostly among youths and
teenagers as it hurts the victims and could lead to suicidal thoughts. Possible
ways of detecting and preventing cyberbullying have been underlined in the
study. Therefore, the study recommends among others, that regulatory bodies
should look further into it and ensure there are adequate penalties for those
involved in the act and compensations for the victims.
