Purpose

Cyber-bullying is a form of cyber-crime that has been propagated through extensive use of social networking sites (SNS). Despite the implementation of sophisticated security measures and government compliances, privacy intrusion is petrifying. Therefore, the purpose of this paper attempts to explore as follows: why cases of bullying are still snowballing year after year? Is it possible that advances in security measures are making users more vulnerable? Or, is it a social media addiction, which is making users vulnerable to cyberbullying?

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed research framework is grounded in the technology threat avoidance theory (TTAT). An empirical survey of 365 social media users was analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) to understand the impact of security measures, voluntary self-disclosure (VSD) and addiction on perceived vulnerability (PV) to cyber-bullying.

Findings

The findings indicate that security measures play a significant role in propelling users to disclose their personal information voluntarily, which, in turn, results in social media addiction, which further exposes users to cyberbullying. Moreover, the study unravels gender differences in perceived vulnerabilities to cyberbullying.

Practical implications

The findings of the current research contribute to a better understanding of gender differences in the awareness of security measures, addiction intensities, level of self-disclosures and propensity to cyberbullying victimization. Additionally, prevention and intervention efforts may benefit from using a more targeted approach to identify potential male and female victims that experience different forms of bullying on SNS.

Originality/value

In addition to other constructs, the current research investigates the role of user security measures (USM) and website security measures (WSM) on the PV to cyberbullying, typically, the role of these measures is to prevent the users from becoming the victims, whereas the research unravels that they could be the possible reasons for the increased number of cases in India. To the best of the knowledge, such conflicting roles of security measures have not been discussed earlier.

中文翻译：

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社交网站上网络欺凌的感知脆弱性：安全措施、成瘾和自我披露的影响

目的

网络欺凌是一种通过广泛使用社交网站 (SNS) 传播的网络犯罪形式。尽管实施了复杂的安全措施和政府合规性，隐私入侵仍然令人震惊。因此，本文试图探讨以下问题：为什么欺凌案件仍年复一年地滚雪球？安全措施的进步是否可能使用户更容易受到攻击？或者，它是否是一种社交媒体成瘾，使用户容易受到网络欺凌？

设计/方法/方法

所提出的研究框架以技术威胁回避理论（TTAT）为基础。使用结构方程模型 (SEM) 对 365 名社交媒体用户进行了实证调查，以了解安全措施、自愿自我披露 (VSD) 和成瘾对网络欺凌的感知脆弱性 (PV) 的影响。

发现

调查结果表明，安全措施在促使用户自愿披露个人信息方面发挥着重要作用，这反过来又会导致社交媒体成瘾，从而进一步使用户遭受网络欺凌。此外，该研究揭示了感知网络欺凌脆弱性的性别差异。

实际影响

当前研究的结果有助于更好地了解在安全措施意识、成瘾强度、自我披露水平和网络欺凌受害倾向方面的性别差异。此外，预防和干预工作可能会受益于使用更有针对性的方法来识别在 SNS 上遭受不同形式欺凌的潜在男性和女性受害者。

原创性/价值

除了其他结构，当前的研究调查了用户安全措施 (USM) 和网站安全措施 (WSM) 对 PV 对网络欺凌的作用，通常，这些措施的作用是防止用户成为受害者，而研究表明，它们可能是印度病例数量增加的可能原因。据了解，安全措施的这种相互冲突的作用之前没有讨论过。