School Bullying, Perpetration, and Cyberhate: Overlapping Issues

In an international context of increasing racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia in Europe and the USA (FRA, 2013; Hawdon et al. 2015), social media provide a privileged tool for propaganda and victimization. Issues of racism and xenophobia have become more prevalent both in "real life" and on the Internet. This study presents the results of a self-reported questionnaire survey on cyberhate among 1900 French students, age 12-20, where we investigated the association between school bullying and cyberhate victimization and perpetration. Findings show that bullying and cyberhate are a common experience for quite a few young people. Structural equation models provide evidence of the association between ordinary offline victimization and involvement in cyberhate. Our findings for cyberhate provide further evidence suggesting an overlap between traditional bullying and cyberbullying. They confirm the need for further research to acquire a better understanding of the processes that underscore individual involvement in online hate in order to inform effective interventions.