The determination of cyber bullying behaviour and exposure of university students

Technological developments has been increasing rapidly since the 1980’s and the information that people want to reach is becoming easier day by day. Especially since 2000’s in the diversity of information and communication technology has become faster and an indispensable part of individuals.This situation; bu yhe use of information and communication technologies, has led to new kind of bullying. The negative usage of infinity and access knowledge by the help of information and communication technologies, has become a major problem. One of its negative effect is a new dimension peer bullying in schools. This occurs as both a cyber and a virtual bullying. This kind of bullying hasn’t studied in our country yet. In this study, the questions, which are used to understand the type and frequency of being exposed to cyber despotism and also to understand if they practice the cyber despotism to others, are asked to university students. In this light, “Cyber Despotism/Victim Development Scale” is used. According to the results of this scale, exposing to and practicing the cyber despotism are clarified by the statistical method. The main purpose of the study is to determine the despotism, which is the dimension of violence and also to determine the reasons, frequency, and the way of solutions of the despotism in order to present the preventive solutions to parents and educators. In this study, the questions, which are used to understand the type and frequency of being exposed to cyber despotism and also to understand if they practice the cyber despotism to others, are asked to university students. In this light, “Cyber Despotism/Victim Development Scale” is used. The frequency of using information technology among university students is 37.63 and the purpose of using information technology can be listed in order this way: specific packet program research (97.63%), homework (69.13%), and lastly social network (59.00%). The students that are 25 years old and above are both cyber despot and cyber victim contrast to other age groups. Male students are more in the situation of cyber victim at subscale I and III and more in situation of cyber despot at subscale I, II, and III than female students. The students, who study in computer and education technology department, are more in the situation of cyber despot at despot subscale I and II behavior than the other students, who study in other departments. On the other hand, the results show that the students those are in the department of preschool teaching are the ones that are less cyber despot than the other students. The students, whose cumulative GPA are 1.99 and below 1.99, are more exposed to be cyber despot and cyber victim than the other students. On the other hand, the students, whose cumulative GPA are 3.00 and above 3.00, are less exposed to be cyber despot and cyber victim in contrast to other students. Moreover, the study shows that the students, whose family income level is 3400 TL and above, are exposed to be the most cyber despot and the students, whose family income level is 1200 TL and below, are the ones that are less cyber despots. Keywords: Virtual/Cyber Despotism, Virtual/Cyber Despot, Virtual/Cyber Victim, Virtual/Cyber Environment.