Page 218 - RUICHSS 2023 Proceeding

University of Ruhuna ISSN: 2706-0063
Matara, Sri Lanka

people around them, and become introverted, anxious, depressed, and

suicidal.

Regarding the percentage of people who have been a victim of online

harassment at least once in their lives, out of a total of 243 people, 78
(32.1%) answered No while 165 (67.9%) answered Yes. This shows that

almost half of the total number of respondents have been victims of
cyberbullying.

When asked about the age that the respondents were at the time of the
harassment, to understand the most vulnerable age group, the following

results were obtained: 95% (n=76) belonged to the 14-18 age category, 3.7%
(n=3) to the 18-35 age category and 1.2% (n=1) to the over 36 age category.

These results show that the age group most susceptible to virtual attacks is
the under-18 age group.

As for the second research question, the study shows the main reasons for
people's bullying behaviour. Dissatisfactions, frustrations, and annoyances

that people experience in certain situations and aspects of their lives can

cause people to change their behaviour. At the same time, inadequate
childhood upbringing, traumatic experiences that have had a serious

emotional impact, and the opinions and words of people around them can
be triggers for objective manifestations of bullying. Frustration caused by

certain failures in life, material possessions they could not afford, envying

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