The Many Types of Cyberbullying
by Basti Arceo
- Exclusion
Exclusion the act of deliberately leaving one out of groups or group activities online. It is closely connected to the feeling of missing out, or FOMO, as being excluded or left out causes the victim to have feelings of isolation, loneliness, and even depression.
2. Harassment
Directly sending hateful, abusive, or threatening messages is a type of cyberbullying known as harassment. Harassment is done constantly once it starts and may leave long-term negative effects on one’s mental health.
3. Outing
Outing refers to humiliating another person by revealing what they do online. These include the sharing of personal, private, and embarrassing information on public social media sites or within certain circles without the consent of the victim.
4. Cyberstalking
A type of cyberbullying that is somewhat related to harassment is cyberstalking. This refers to the use of the internet to monitor one’s online life, along with threats and harassment directed at the one being stalked. This may also eventually lead to the attacker stalking the victim in real life as well. Cyberstalking, much like offline stalking, is considered a crime in various countries.
5. Fraping
Another type of cyberbullying is fraping, which is when a bully uses the victim’s social media accounts to post content that may damage the victim’s reputation. In some cases, it may be done as a joke among friends, but it could potentially be very harmful to the victim.
6. Fake Profiles
Fake profiles could refer to different things. The first could also be called masquerading and is the act of creating a profile made to specifically target a certain person online, sending threatening or harmful messages. The other type is when one creates a fake profile under the target's name to post inappropriate or false content.
7. Dissing
Dissing is when the attacker spreads information that could harm the target's reputation and relationships with others. This could be done through public posts on social media or through private messages, usually to those that the victim has connections with.
8. Trickery
Trickery involves deceiving a target and becoming a "friend" of theirs, making them feel comfortable and secure around them. Once the attacker is trusted, that trust is abused, with the attacker spreading secrets shared between them soon spread to others.