The roles of monitoring and cyberbystanders in reducing sexual abuse

Offering a fresh perspective on the bystander effect beyond the conventional ‘street violence scenario’, this paper examines men’s time reactions to an online sex offence against minors. Study 1 shows that men advised of very high electronic monitoring take more time to intervene than men advised of very low electronic monitoring and non-monitoring, and when they are accompanied by strangers rather than acquaintances. Study 2 extends these findings by demonstrating that computerized surveillance, in contrast to user-assisted surveillance and non-surveillance, has a similar inhibitory effect. Drawing on these two studies, Study 3 suggests that the bystander effect also emerges under high monitoring and when the group size of unknown cyberbystanders is increased. Taken together, it appears that high surveillance and increased numbers of cyberbystanders, the factors unexamined jointly in previous research, inhibit intervention, although not in a linear way, and that the likely reasons for it are erosion of bystanders’ social bonds, diffusion of personal responsibility and diminished sense of making a difference.

► The paper examines men’s time reactions to an online sex offence against a minor. ► It bridges the classical bystander model with the research on bystander relations. ► High surveillance and increased number of cyberbystanders inhibit intervention. ► More responsibility for online safety should be vested with the cybercommunity.