Cyberbullying: Eliciting harm without consequence

• Over 44% of participants were categorized as cyberbully-victims.
• Participants perceived cyberbullying to be more likely to elicit harm than consequences.
• Cyberbully-victims scored higher on cognitive and affective empathy scales.

Students (N = 260; M age = 12.88 years) reported their involvement in cyberbullying as well as their perceptions of the likelihood of cyberbully behavior eliciting harm, being reported, and the initiator receiving consequences. Also, students’ scores on the Basic Empathy Scale were examined. The majority (67%) of students reported participation in cyberbullying and girls were more likely than boys to self-report cybervictimization and cyberbully-victimization. Students rated the likelihood of cybervictims being hurt significantly higher than the likelihood of cyberbullies receiving consequences. Furthermore, self-reported cybervictims and cyberbully-victims scored higher than students not involved in cyberbullying on the cognitive empathy scale and cyberbully-victims scored higher than cyberbullies and not-involved students on the affective empathy scale. These results suggest that youth are knowingly engaging in harmful behavior on the internet that they believe is unlikely to receive consequences.