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Cyberviolence among teenagers is a persistent problem addressed by several prevention programmes. In this article, we evaluate an educational intervention programme based on a serious game (CyberSafe Tool) that addresses cyberviolence against women and girls. The goal of the intervention and the serious game was to raise young people’s awareness of online violence against women and girls and to promote safe and responsible online behaviour. The intervention, conducted between 2020 and 2021, included 959 teenagers between 13 and 16 years old from Italy, Greece, Estonia and the United Kingdom. We used a survey questionnaire to conduct an impact assessment. It was administered three times – before the intervention, immediately after the intervention and three weeks after the intervention – to identify participants’ attitudinal changes. The results indicate significant positive attitude changes after the intervention that remained unchanged after the third questionnaire, which was administered three weeks after the intervention.

Research Framework: In adolescence, romantic relationships play a significant role and provide a space where adolescents deepen the development of their emotional, social and cognitive skills, which they had already developed with their family and their friends. In the digital age, intimacy in teenagers’ relationships is tested, built and questioned in a social space that is part of both the real world and the virtual space. Sexting, a new modality for regulating intimacy under the prism of “extimity” in an environment dominated by digital technologies, raises questions about the real and perceived risks faced by young people and about the boundaries of intimacy. Objectives: Our studies aim to better define the contexts and motivations for sexting practices, abusive uses related to cyber violence as well as the representations and risks perceived by adolescents and the prospects and needs for prevention according to young people.Methodology: Two studies were conducted in Belgium among adolescents (study 1: N= 1321 - 45% male—middle age: 15.1 years [SD =2.1] and study 2: N= 340 - 65% male—middle age: 15.6 years [SD =1.7]). Questionnaires were collectively administered to participants met within schools.Results: 18.7% in study 1 and 26% in study 2 report that they have already sent or posted sexy messages, photos or videos of themselves. Boys are more likely than girls to have practised sexting at least once and more specifically to have posted this type of content online. More than 60% of adolescent boys and girls intended this content for a love partner. 17.1% of participants reported that they had already been victims of at least one form of sexual and/or sexist cyber violence, namely the unwanted dissemination of sexual messages or images or threats to do so and insulting messages or rumours of a sexual nature. Conclusions: As part of an exploration of adolescent sexuality, sexting serves “extimity” in the pursuit of developmental tasks. However, it is likely to give rise to major abuses and allow the virtual reproduction of sexist and dehumanizing attitudes and violence. The prevention needs suggested by both girls and boys reflect, among other things, the need for a framework containing these practices.Contribution: Prevention in the field of sexual and emotional life, including sexting, remains the way to educate and secure adolescents in healthy sexual and emotional life practises from childhood onwards in school settings.

Cyberaggression (CyA) embraces a broad spectrum of hostile behaviors through electronic means. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate features and outcomes of this phenomenon among Italian adults. A nationwide survey was distributed on social media platforms. Being victim and being perpetrator of CyA were the primary outcomes; positive scores for GAD-2 (generalized anxiety disorder) and PHQ-2 (depressive symptoms) scales were the secondary outcomes. In total, 446 surveys were collected. Considering the primary outcomes, 46.3% and 13.5% reported having been victims and perpetrators of CyA, respectively. Politics, ethnic minority, and sexual orientation were main subjects triggering CyA. A higher likelihood of being cyber-victims was observed for women and the LGBTQA+ group. Women were less likely to be CyA perpetrators. There was an association between being a CyA victim and a CyA perpetrator. A total of 22.4% and 34.0% respondents scored positive for PHQ-2 and GAD-2, respectively. The main mental health consequences after CyA exposure were anger and sadness, whereas sleep alterations and stomach ache were the most experienced psychosomatics symptoms. No significant relationships between PHQ-2/GAD-2 and CyA emerged. CyA also represents a crucial public health issue among Italian adults. Further investigations are needed to better define the phenomenon and to study the potential consequences on mental health.

Background Scholars have argued that cyberbullying should be characterized as an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) given its potential for traumatic impacts on youth development. Considering the current attention surrounding mental health and well-being among adolescents, it seems critical to empirically measure this relationship, and also determine if some types have a stronger negative influence. Methods Data utilized in this study were derived from a survey conducted on a nationally-representative sample in 2023 involving 2,697 English-speaking middle and high school students aged 13 to 17 residing within the United States. Results We identified a strong positive relationship between PTSD symptoms and experience with cyberbullying. Surprisingly, exclusion and rejection were just as harmful as overt threats when it comes to inducing trauma. Gossip and malicious comments were as detrimental as targeting someone based on their identity. Conclusion By becoming more trauma-informed and implementing school-based specific measures, those who work with youth can better safeguard and support them in the face of cyberbullying.

This paper investigates digital discursive practices of hostility against women in UK politics through quantitative and qualitative analysis of a corpus of Twitter data retrieved across the 3 weeks preceding the UK General Elections in December 2019. A mixed-methods approach was designed. First, we used quantitative semantic analysis to compare the large datasets of tweets about female and male MPs, with a view to detecting possible gendered patterns. We then triangulated our quantitative findings with an in-depth critical discursive analysis of the tweets mentioning female MPs. Rather than showing gendered patterns across the board, the results from the quantitative analysis brought out large inter-individual differences. Some female MPs received comments containing more lexis related to appearance, sexual history and violence, as well as more emotional or extreme language. Critical analysis of the hostile and abusive messages targeting women reveals them to be deeply embedded in a social perception of women’s political activity as breaching the rules of gender performativity.

Since the beginning of the Internet age, extremist groups have found new means to gather and share their beliefs (Zickmund, 1997). Despite efforts to counter these phenomena (Winter et al., 2020), academic research has yet to understand hidden and insidious manifestations of hate and violence, as digital tools offer ways to disguise themselves, be they technological, discursive, or visual. This article proposes to examine how extremism can be embedded in ordinary exchanges in a French online forum. Using a multimodal approach, several forms of instrumentalization of fiction were uncovered, revealing ways in which extremism can be discreetly disseminated online.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency with which boys “compliment” girls, know their perceptions about whether girls like compliments, and discen whether they believe that society expects them to make such comments. The relationship of such compliments with the level of ambivalent sexism and cyberviolence towards the partner was also evaluated. A total of 498 adolescent boys participated in this study, with a mean age of 16.01 years (SD = 1.02), recruited with the Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) system. The main results obtained show that younger boys more frequently emit objectifying messages about women’s bodies than older boys. They believe these comments positively impact girls, thinking they are appreciated. These boys, especially younger boys, show higher levels of hostile and benevolent sexism and perform more cyberviolence towards their partners. Boys’ level of partner cybercontrol predicts the emission of comments about women’s bodies, especially in boys with a high level of hostile sexism. Therefore, to prevent sexual harassment, gender-based cyberviolence, and sexism, it is crucial for the educational system to promote comprehensive sex education.

Suicidal behavior among adolescents and young adults represents a growing public health concern due to its high prevalence and its negative impact on psychological well-being. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between emotional regulation, attachment styles, cyberviolence, and suicidal ideation among Chilean university students. A descriptive cross-sectional design was employed with a sample of 1083 participants, using the Suicidal Ideation Frequency Inventory, the Close Relationship Experience Questionnaire (ECR-R), the Spanish Modified Version of the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24) and the Cyber Dating Violence Instrument for Teens (CyDAV-T). Bivariate analyses and binary logistic regression were conducted to identify significant predictors of suicidal ideation. The results revealed a high prevalence of suicidal ideation, particularly among women (19.06%; p < 0.001). Difficulties in emotion regulation were strongly associated with a higher likelihood of suicidal ideation (p < 0.001), whereas adequate (p < 0.001) or excellent (p < 0.01) regulation functioned as a significant protective factor. In addition, a disorganized attachment style was identified as a risk factor (p < 0.05), especially among women (p < 0.01). In conclusion, emotion regulation emerges as a key protective factor against suicidal ideation, underscoring the importance of implementing socioemotional training programs within university settings.

This article aims to offer an analysis of the presence of hate speech, harassment, and cyber‐violence towards women in the interaction within massively multiplayer online video games (MMOs), an act of gender‐based violence perpetrated through new technologies in an environment generally described as androcentric. Filling a gap in the experience in Spain, a qualitative methodology was applied that allowed us to analyse the forms of harassment towards female video gamers, as well as some of the consequences of experiencing these situations for them. A systematic analysis of the discourses was carried out after five focus groups and 15 in‐depth interviews with young people between 18 and 29. Amongst the results, it is worth highlighting that, as occurs in offline reality, in MMOs gender schemas and asymmetric relationships are reproduced that perpetuate gender‐based violence. On the one hand, female gamers affirm that they suffer sexist violence in gaming environments through the use of language focused on physical appearance, hypersexualisation, and undervaluation, and are often considered intruders. On the other hand, they also report experiencing overprotective and paternalistic behaviours. Female gamers sometimes decide to leave their games, or avoid certain types of games apriori, because of toxic behaviours perpetrated by male gamers, which generates feelings of discrimination in their experiences as players, perpetuating androcentric patterns in this sort of environment. Applying a gender approach, this article will examine the social implications of these behaviours in order to propose appropriate social and educational responses.

Este estudio analiza la prevalencia de la ciberviolencia y la cibervicitmización en parejas adolescentes y jóvenes y las diferencias en función del sexo, la edad, el número de parejas y el nivel de estudios. La muestra de conveniencia y compuesta por 984 personas, que cursaban Bachiller, Grados de Formación Profesional y universitarios. La media de edad fue de 20.61 años. Las personas participantes completaron la Escala de Violencia de Pareja en las Redes Sociales en Adolescentes (E-VPA) y un cuestionario Ad Hoc. Los resultados indicaron que 53.4% había ejercido ciberviolencia y el 45.8% la había sufrido. Se hallaron diferencias significativas en relación al sexo, al número y al nivel de estudios, pero no en función de la edad. En conclusión, la ciberviolencia es un problema social que afecta a cada vez más personas adolescentes y jóvenes por lo que se hace necesario seguir analizando este fenómeno para poder prevenirlo.