The Moderating Effect of Internet Ethics on the Relationship Between Cyberbullying Victimization and Perpetration Among Korean Adults*

Article information

Psychiatry Investig. 2025;22(1):47-56

Publication date (electronic) : 2025 January 15

doi : https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2024.0127

Se-Ri Park¹, Sung-Man Bae^,1,2

¹Department of Psychology, Graduate School, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

²Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, College of Health Science, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

Correspondence: Sung-Man Bae, PhD Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, College of Health Science, Dankook University, 119 Dandae-ro, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan 31116, Republic of Korea Tel: +82-41-550-8142, E-mail: spirit73@hanmail.net

*This paper has revised and submitted the first author’s master’s thesis.

Received 2024 April 9; Revised 2024 July 7; Accepted 2024 August 14.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

The Internet usage rate in South Korea is 96.5%, which is the highest among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries [1] and is increasing every year [2]. Although the Internet provides convenience and increases interpersonal interaction, it also leads to dysfunctions such as privacy invasion, hacking, and malicious comments [3-5]. Among these issues, cyberbullying, which refers to all violent acts in the Internet environment, is a serious problem that occurs worldwide [6,7].

Cyberbullying is defined as an intentional and repetitive act of threatening, harassing, and embarrassing others using electronic devices [8,9]. Many researchers have attempted to explain cyberbullying using the three elements of traditional bullying proposed by Olweus [10]: intention, repetition, and an imbalance of power between perpetrator and victim [11,12]. However, cyberbullying must be distinguished from traditional bullying because it is conducted non-face-to-face, using information and communication technology [13,14]. In particular, anonymity and non-face-to-face interactions cause disinhibition of individual aggressive behavior and expression of desire and, in fact, reduces fear of punishment [15,16]. In addition, the psychological pain is aggravated by the fact that it is difficult for the victim to identify the perpetrator [17], and it is easy for offenders to avoid taking responsibility for their actions, the frequency and intensity of the cyberbullying perpetration increases [18,19].

Meanwhile, according to the 2020 cyberbullying fact-finding survey conducted with 1,500 adults between the ages of 20 and 60 [20], the rate of cyberbullying victims and perpetrators among all adults were 65.8%, regardless of age; this rose every year and the cyberbullying perpetration rate was 40.9%—more than four times higher than that of youth (9.5%). Despite the seriousness of adult cyberbullying, research on cyberbullying has been conducted mainly among youth and college students; in other words, research on adult cyberbullying remains insufficient [7,21,22].

Victims of cyberbullying not only experience psychological distress such as depression, anxiety, stress, low self-esteem, and suicidal ideation, but also report functional decline in various areas of life, including low academic achievement, poor work ability, and difficulties in interpersonal relationships [23-26]. In addition, it may cause externalization problems such as increasing individual aggression and developing a permissive attitude toward violence, conversely leading individuals to become cyberbullying perpetrators themselves [27,28].

However, experiencing violence does not mean that all victims become perpetrators [29,30]. In a longitudinal study that verified the predictive factors of cyberbullying victimization and perpetration among university students, only 23.0% of cyberbullying victims were found to engage in cyberbullying perpetration [31]. In another study, cyberbullying victim experience did not predict cyberbullying perpetration [32].

Cyberbullying risk factors include victim experience, low self-control, and school life maladjustment. Particularly, cyberbullying victimization is one of the major risk factors predicting cyberbullying perpetration [7,33,34]. On the other hand, since the experience rate of overlapping cyberbullying bullyvictims is very high, there is a limit to explaining the causal relationship. Nevertheless, several studies have confirmed that cyberbullying victimization can lead to perpetrator behavior by mediating various variables such as internalization of anger [27], anxiety [35], moral disengagement [36], self-control [37]. Also, according to general strain theory, the strain caused by negative stimuli such as violence may cause depression, anger, and frustration, and individuals may engage in deviance and criminal acts to relieve strain [38]. Anger toward the perpetrator stimulates revenge and weakens self-control, promoting aggressive behavior [39]. Several studies have confirmed that cyberbullying victims may become cyberbullying perpetrators because of the motive of revenge against the perpetrator [27,34]. Therefore, this study intends to assume that the victimization precedes the perpetration based on previous studies and the general strain theory.

Although the roles of social participation, parental attachment, stress coping strategies, and peer relationships were identified as variables that can alleviate the relationship between victim experience and perpetrator behavior [22,35,37,40], but these results are limited to adolescents. Considering that adults are capable of more mature thinking than adolescents and that external control is difficult in Internet use [41], additional research on cognitive variables that can recognize cyberbullying issues and control one’s behavior related to online is needed.

For the reason that, researchers have emphasized the role of individual ethics in preventing and reducing cyberbullying [42,43]. Ethics is a concept related to individual morality. Generally, people with low ethical levels are more likely to engage in violent or delinquent behavior [44]. In the Internet environment, the role of individual beliefs or attitudes is emphasized because the power of control due to social ties is weakened [45,46]. On the other hand, since traditional normative ethics alone have limitations in coping with all the problems arising in the Internet environment, the concept of ‘Internet ethics’, which focuses on the standards of behavior related to the Internet, has been proposed [47]. Internet ethics is a norm necessary to properly judge and act on what is ethical and unethical in the information society, and consists of four sub-factors: respect, responsibility, justice, and non-maleficence [48]. Respect refers to recognizing and respecting the differences between oneself and others, and responsibility refers to performing one’s duty and being attentive to the needs of others. Justice is related to fairness, altruism, and compliance with laws and rules, also non-maleficence concerns the intention to not harm others.

According to previous studies, the more that cyberbullying is perceived as a serious ethical problem, the less likely are incidents of cyberbullying to occur [49-51]. A high level of Internet ethics in adults aged 20–50 years has a negative effect Internet violence [52]. In particular, the moderating effect of Internet ethics is found to be significant in the relationship between low self-control and cybercrime among college students [53]. The perception of the problems of cyberattacks moderates the relationship between exposure to violent online media and cyberattacks [54]. In addition, the moderating effects of Internet ethics is found in the relationship between cyberbullying victim experiences and cyberbullying using smartphones among college students [55].

Among demographic variables, sex and age have been related to cyberbullying perpetration. However, the degree of cyberbullying perpetration according to sex was different in each study [56-58], and the younger the age, the more the cyberbullying perpetration [59,60]. Additionally, cyberbullying perpetration behavior has been found to increase as Internet usage time increases [61,62]. Therefore, it is necessary to control for sex, age, and Internet usage time to explain cyberbullying perpetration behavior.

In summary, a negative relationship between Internet ethics and cyberbullying perpetration was confirmed; however, the moderating effect of Internet ethics on the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration among adults remains unclear. In addition, as most Internet Ethics Scales (IESs) used in previous studies were developed for adolescents, they consist of questions that are inadequate for adults [63]. This study modified the existing IES for use among adults and verified its validity. This study aimed to examine the moderating effect of Internet ethics on the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration.

METHODS

Participants and survey

In this study, an online survey was conducted using Google questionnaires with 601 adults between the ages of 20 and 59 years and residing in the Republic of Korea. The online survey was conducted from August 1 to 8. The questionnaire consisted of a total of 68 questions, all of which were self-reported, and generally took 15 minutes to complete. Prior to the start of the survey, it was informed that anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed, and that the survey could be discontinued at any time if respondents felt uncomfortable. Only those who voluntarily consented to this were allowed to participate in the survey.

For accurate results, cases with fixed responses to all questions in the survey were excluded from the analysis. Accordingly, eight participants were excluded and a final total of 593 participants were included in the analysis. All research procedures, including data collection, were approved by the Institutional Review Board of Dankook University (approval number:2022-06-003-005). Of the 593 participants, 286 (48.2%) were male and 307 (51.8%) were female. The distribution by age group was 152 participants in their 20s (25.6%), 167 in their 30s (28.2%), 140 in their 40s (23.6%), and 134 in their 50s (22.6%), with an average age of 38.06 years (SD=10.41). The details are presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Sociodemographic characteristics (N=593)

RESULTS

Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis

Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that cyberbullying victimization showed a significant positive correlation with cyberbullying perpetration (r=0.673, p<0.001). Cyberbullying victimization showed a significant negative correlation with Internet ethics (r=-0.520, p<0.001), respect (r=-0.571, p<0.001), responsibility (r=-0.319, p<0.001), justice (r=-0.426, p<0.001), and non-maleficence (r=-0.506, p<0.001). In addition, Internet ethics (r=-0.534, p<0.001), respect (r=-0.583, p<0.001), responsibility (r=-0.351, p<0.001), justice (r=-0.453, p<0.001), and non-maleficence (r=-0.464, p<0.001) were all found to have significant negative correlations with cyberbullying perpetration. Table 2 presents descriptive statistics and correlation analyses of the major variables.

Table 2.

Descriptive statistics and correlations of variables (N=593)

The moderating effect of internet ethics

Cyberbullying victimization (B=0.494, t=22.590, p<0.001) and Internet ethics (B=-0.055, t=-4.504, p<0.001) were significantly related to cyberbullying perpetration. In addition, the interaction effect of the two variables (B=-0.012, t=-11.066, p<0.001) significantly predicted cyberbullying perpetration. Cyberbullying victimization (B=0.392, t=17.464, p<0.001) and respect (B=-0.242, t=-7.522, p<0.001) were significantly related to cyberbullying perpetration. In addition, the interaction effect of the two variables (B=-0.039, t=-15.553, p<0.001) significantly predicted cyberbullying perpetration. Cyberbullying victimization (B=0.654, t=36.905, p<0.001) and responsibility (B=-0.112, t=-2.398, p<0.05) were significantly related to cyberbullying perpetration. Furthermore, the interaction effect of the two variables (B=-0.012, t=-3.051, p<0.01) significantly predicted cyberbullying perpetration. Cyberbullying victimization (B=0.612, t=32.185, p<0.001) and justice (B=-0.083, t=-1.992, p<0.05) were significantly related to cyberbullying perpetration. Additionally, the interaction effect of the two variables (B=-0.021, t=-5.869, p<0.001) significantly predicted cyberbullying perpetration. Finally, cyberbullying victimization (B=0.518, t=20.999, p<0.001) and non-maleficence (B=-0.216, t=-3.101, p<0.01) were significantly related to cyberbullying perpetration. Moreover, the interaction effect of the two variables (B=-0.052, t=-9.130, p<0.001) significantly predicted cyberbullying perpetration. Table 3 presents the results of the study.

Table 3.

The moderating effect of internet ethics in the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration (N=593)

Since the interaction effect was significant for both Internet ethics and subfactors, the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable was analyzed at the specific value of the moderating variable (Mean -1SD, Mean, Mean +1SD) (Table 4). The group with low Internet ethics (B=0.704, t=40.634, p<0.001) showed a stronger positive relationship between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration than the group with high Internet ethics (B=0.316, t=8.881, p<0.001) (Figure 1). In the group with high Internet ethics, the effect of cyberbullying victimization on perpetration was lower. Respect, responsibility, justice, and non-maleficence showed similar trends (Figures 2-5).

Table 4.

Moderated results for engagement across levels of internet ethics (N=593)

Figure 1.

The moderating effect of Internet ethics.

Figure 2.

The moderating effect of respect.

Figure 3.

The moderating effect of responsibility.

Figure 4.

The moderating effect of justice.

Figure 5.

The moderating effect of non-maleficence.

DISCUSSION

This study aimed to examine the moderating effect of Internet ethics on the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration among adults aged between 20s to 50s in republic of Korea. The main results of this study are as follows:

First, it was found that males were more likely to engage in cyberbullying perpetration than females, which supports previous studies’ findings that males are more likely to show aggressive attitudes and behaviors in the Internet space than females [72-74]. It has been shown that the more time spent on the Internet, the greater the increase in cyberbullying perpetration [61,62], suggesting that efforts to control Internet usage time are necessary to prevent cyberbullying perpetration [75,76]. Age did not show a significant relationship with cyberbullying perpetration, and these results contradict previous studies showing that cyberbullying perpetration increases as age decreases [59,60]. These results suggest that cyberbullying perpetration occurs significantly among those in their 20s to 50s but not in a specific age group.

Second, cyberbullying victimization positively impacted cyberbullying perpetration. This finding supports general strain theory, which states that people become involved in deviance and crime as a strategy to relieve strain [7,38]. Victims of cyberbullying experience various psychological maladjustments such as depression, anxiety, and stress, and may commit cyberbullying to relieve these negative emotions [27,53,77]. In addition, victim experiences can stimulate hostility and desire for revenge, and develop a permissive attitude toward violence, increasing aggressive behavior [28,78]. The characteristics of cyberspace, such as non-face-to-face interaction or anonymity, enables victims to express aggression more easily [15].

Thirdly, Internet ethics demonstrated a mitigating effect on cyberbullying perpetration. This finding aligns with prior research indicating that awareness of Internet ethics assists individuals in identifying cyberbullying as unethical and in curtailing such behavior [49,50,52]. While the main effect of Internet ethics on reducing cyberbullying is statistically significant, its impact is further magnified when considering its interaction with cyberbullying victimization. This implies that while a general adherence to Internet ethics contributes to reducing cyberbullying incidents, Internet ethics educational interventions tailored to those who have experienced cyberbullying victimization could effectively deter them from cyberbully-victims.

Fourth, Internet ethics moderated the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration. These results support several previous studies claiming that a higher level of Internet ethics can serve as a protective factor against cyberbullying perpetration [51,53,79,80]. The Internet is more freely available to adults than it is to adolescents, and it is more difficult to control deviant behavior in the Internet environment than it is in reality because of the nature of the Internet; therefore, internal factors such as personal beliefs and attitudes play an important role in cyberbullying [46]. A high level of Internet ethics contributes to recognizing various crimes and violence occurring on the Internet as negative acts, and can thus reduce cyberbullying perpetration [50,55,81]. Therefore, proper education on moral norms and responsibilities that must be observed in the Internet space can help individuals suppress inappropriate behavior and more strongly recognize Internet ethical issues [82-84].

Fifth, all sub-factors of Internet ethics such as respect, responsibility, justice, and non-maleficence showed moderating effects on the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration. Respect was found to weaken the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration more than the other subfactors. Respect in the context of Internet ethics refers to respecting the rights and personalities of others and not slandering them [48]. Cyberbullying occurs through disrespectful attitudes towards others [11,85]. Therefore, people with a high level of respect are more likely not to harm others to relieve their negative feelings. Responsibility refers to fulfilling one’s duties and being attentive to the needs of others [48]. In the Internet environment, it is easier to avoid responsibility for ones’ actions than in the real world through anonymity, non-face-to-face interaction, transcendence of time and space, and open access to information; accordingly, one can rationalize one’s negative actions or lower one’s sense of guilt [15,46]. Therefore, individuals with a high level of responsibility are expected to anticipate the consequences of their actions and take responsibility for them, and are therefore less likely to engage in cyberbullying. Justice refers to an attitude that fairness, altruism, and law, and sometimes transcends it [48]. The higher the tendency to pursue fairness and rightness, the stronger the tendency to act ethically. Therefore, cyberbullying perpetration is expected to decrease when negative influences such as anger, desire for revenge, and aggression caused by cyberbullying victimization are controlled. Nonmaleficence relates to not harming others [48]. All negative actions that can cause harm to others, such as slandering or criticizing others in the Internet space, distributing pornography, and illegal websites, are related to a low level of non-maleficence. It is suggested that non-maleficence reduces cyberbullying by controlling permissive attitudes towards violence.

In this study, it was confirmed in adults of a comprehensive age group that moral beliefs such as Internet ethics suppress the reproduction of cyberbullying perpetrators. This suggests that in order to reduce cyberbullying, it is necessary to cultivate individuals’ Internet ethics. As mentioned in the introduction, the rate of adults experiencing cyberbullying in South Korea is increasing every year. However, little has been done to prevent this. According to the 2021 cyberbullying survey [86], eight out of ten adults were unaware of the possibility of legal punishment following cyberbullying, 89.5% of teenagers reported receiving cyberbullying prevention education, and 90.4% of adolescents reported receiving no prevention education. This means that the sensitivity of adults to cyberbullying is significantly lower than that of adolescents. To prevent cyberbullying, it suggests that it is necessary to conduct regular Internet ethics education for adults at the regional and national levels. In addition, along with this education, people should try to be sensitive to cyberbullying issues personally, and avoid criticizing others in spaces such as social media and YouTube under the guise of freedom of expression, and avoid sympathizing with criticism. This study is significant in that it identified the protective factor value of Internet ethics and verified the detailed role through sub-factors, thereby emphasizing the need for cyberbullying prevention education for adults and providing a theoretical basis for an Internet ethics education program in a timely manner.

The limitations of this study and suggestions for follow-up studies are as follows: the frequency of cyberbullying victimization and perpetration were investigated without setting a specific period. However, because the degree of cyberbullying perpetration can differ depending on the time point of cyberbullying victimization, it is necessary to examine their relevance by including the time points of victimization and perpetration in future research. Finally, in future studies, it is necessary to comprehensively review by adding additional mediation variables. In particular, it is necessary to confirm the influence of Internet ethics according to the level of negative emotions such as anger and depression, that the general strain theory emphasizes. This can provide a broader understanding of victims and information on the direction of intervention.

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