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

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.

28 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. 100% by Narcocide · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Have been harassed in real life.

    1. Re: 100% by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Internet tough guy trolls find out what's real when they wake up in county to a rapo pushing their shit in.

      The misinformation spewed by fools like you is extremely tired and more than slightly pathetic.

      I've spent time in a bunch of jails and a few prisons too. Rape is _extremely_ rare. I never once witnessed anyone being threatened with rape. Nor did I ever meet anyone who had been a victim of such things, nor did I ever hear anyone else talk about how it had happened. I did however witness people who were willing to engage in homosexual acts get ready to engage in said acts. No, I didn't see them fuck etc. because I don't want or need to see that shit, so I left the area and gave the lovebirds their privacy.

      Real life is not like the movies ( surprise ! ).

      If you go into jail or prison and act like a man, **always show respect for others**, and mind your own business, there's a very high probability that you will never even be in a fight, much less be the target of a rapist. I speak from close to ten years' experience, which is as real as it gets.

      Next time, try only speaking of that which you actually know, and don't pretend to know about things you have never experienced.

    2. Re:100% by courteaudotbiz · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    3. Re:100% by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Informative

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

      Reminder that this is the current definition of harassment.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    4. Re: 100% by kilfarsnar · · Score: 2

      I've spent time in a bunch of jails and a few prisons too. Rape is _extremely_ rare. I never once witnessed anyone being threatened with rape. Nor did I ever meet anyone who had been a victim of such things, nor did I ever hear anyone else talk about how it had happened.

      I'm actually quite glad to read this. Not that you were in jail, but that rape is not common there. Sexual assault is not okay, regardless of where it happens or who it happens to.

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    5. Re:100% by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      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.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. Help! by Script+Cat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Help Help, I'm being oppressed!

  3. Re:you're all idiots by Script+Cat · · Score: 2

    Stoppit! Your hurting my feelings :'(

  4. 100% of Slashdot has been harassed by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Informative

    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%.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  5. Cyber BS by geekymachoman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Cyber BS by freeze128 · · Score: 4, Informative

      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*

    2. Re:Cyber BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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 a mark against you. That story is from 2012. The importance of social media has only gone up since then.

      Although the majority of people that use linkedin exclusively for their job searches do not come up successful, the MO for hiring managers makes it so that if you are not on linkedin, you are invisible. People find eachother on social networks. They might not use those platforms for contact or hiring decisions, but if you don't have a presence at all, your odds of being hired tanks very hard.

      And these points don't even begin to cover the social pariah you make yourself out to be if you do not participate. Many people that do not have a Facebook account have stories of missing out on family news, social experiences, invites to events, and more. Your dating options dwindle down to less than your tiny circle of contacts if you are not participating. What do potential partners do before they willingly go on a date? Check a person's profiles and see if they are creepers, interesting, or have unnecessary drama in their lives.

      Why take internet and platforms on it so seriously? Because they are real life. Society moves on. Once you could get by without a telephone. For many years you could get by without internet. For a few years social media was no big deal, something teenagers foolishly post their entire lives to. Today, the internet and social media is a big part of your identity, your career, your dating prospects; your reputation in the world exists online.

      Technology improves and changes. Society changes too.

  6. the author is a bona fide SJW 'journalist' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  7. Been harassed all my life, nothing new by Nyder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Be seeing you...
    1. Re:Been harassed all my life, nothing new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

  8. Name-calling is harassment? by gweihir · · Score: 2

    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.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:Name-calling is harassment? by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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's all the claims that things like saying "you suck" is harassment. Or the claims that critiques of a persons work is harassment. Welcome to the always-victim mentality that's been fostered over the last 20 years by educators, the brilliant helicopter parents, the idiot young child educators and so on. Why do you think there's particular groups pushing safe spaces, push no-platforming, running off to the UN and claiming harassment. Hell you can look at the bullshit mentality in action, look at how many people supported CNN when they decided to threaten to dox a person for a gif. Actual harassment, and coercive behavior but the same people that claim someone else saying "your pov is shit" is harassment, are also defending that harassment.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    2. Re:Name-calling is harassment? by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Informative

      sounds just like a troll justifying trolling...

      abuse is abuse

      Sure let's go with that. Going by your own post, the above is harassment. Please send victimbux to email address next to UID.

      But let's roll with some examples: Kotaku defends why they incited harassment against nintendo. Leftwing journo say's they're being harassed after lying and sicing antifa on other journalists. One of the "big name" people who claimed Gamergate=harassment engaging in harassment. Her organization engaging in targeted harassment, media gives no shits because it doesn't fit the narrative. People directly linked to her organization engage in doxing and harassment. Just remember it's okay when one ideology does it, but only one. Also remember existing is harassment. If you want more examples, try Tim Pool.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    3. Re:Name-calling is harassment? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      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 not get bogged down in the language.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  9. Pretty much wrong by s.petry · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Pretty much wrong by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you read the actual survey 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.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Pretty much wrong by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh, so you are saying I should have added other non-harassment items to my list?

      No. If you could get past your assumption that everyone who disagrees with you is an "SJW" you might see a more reasonable interpretation, e.g. that the study is looking at a whole range of behaviours, some of which are quite serious and might even be illegal. Focusing on name calling and assuming that the report is trying to define harassment (it isn't) is silly.

      Conflating terms is marxist tool

      LOL, but yes, conflating a survey on frequency of incidents with an attempt to define harassment is deliberate misrepresentation, a common tactic in internet debates.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  10. 41 Percent... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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+2=4 even if that reality triggers you. The fact that black people have more melanin in their skin than white people is true even if you call it a racist micro aggression for saying so - nature doesn't care. Who the hell cares anyway? Melanin content isn't relevant to living in daily society its just a biological sunscreen. It isn't sexist to point out that health care for women actually is more expensive on average than it is for men. It isn't sexist to point out that auto insurance is actually is more expensive on average for men than it is for women. These are facts. Sexism enters the debate when we talk about whether they should be or not and are matters of opinion. Effort vs. results. In some things, results matter more. No, you don't get a trophy for TRYING to land that beach at Normandy - you just get shot or blown up. No, you don't get a renewed contract as a financial advisor for TRYING to give good advice - you should get fired or demoted when your clients move to other advisors.

  11. Clint Eastwood has some wisdom to share : by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "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

  12. Small math error in the study by Picodon · · Score: 2

    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...”

  13. Trolling is harassment? by superwiz · · Score: 2

    Well, I, for one, am appalled (appalled!) that Democrats post their views online.

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  14. Re:Society is so violent by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

    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 disservice to people who are actually harassed.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  15. Re:C'mon we can make it to 42%! by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fuck all of you.

    41% of adults have been harassed online. The other 59% haven't visited Slashdot yet.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch