The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is common all over the world and a crucial part of people’s lives, particularly in the case of young people. As in most of the world today, Portuguese youth use the Internet daily, becoming anxious when they are unable to access it. While using ICTs can be associated with positive interactions, it can also lead to negative ones, such as harassment and cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a form of behaviour that involves aggression, threat, intimidation, or other interactions intended to cause pain, embarrassment, fear and/or discomfort to the victim(s) through the Internet or other digital channels. This type of bullying has specific features that differentiate it from traditional bullying, since it allows the anonymity of the aggressor and can happen anywhere and anytime, involving both known and unknown persons. This kind of behaviour significantly targets people based on their race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or other aspects of their identity. This is referred to as bias-based bullying. 

Bullying and cyberbullying episodes usually have a large audience. Recent research shows that besides the target and the perpetrator or bully, there are many bystanders who witness episodes of bullying. These bystanders can either promote bullying by reinforcing the bully (e.g., spreading the incident), or stop it by helping the victim (e.g., defending them). When bystanders intervene in favour of the victim, their reactions can help to reduce the continuity of victimization by 50%. Efforts have been made to predict how bystanders respond to bullying and what determines their responses. Recent research has examined intergroup factors that promote or inhibit bystanders’ behaviours in face-to-face bullying episodes, such as intergroup contact. Positive contact between members of different social groups is an efficient strategy to reduce intergroup prejudice and improve intergroup relations and attitudes. However, less is known about the potential positive effects of intergroup factors on bystanders’ behaviours when witnessing bias-based cyberbullying episodes. This study sought to address this gap in the literature by investigating cyberbullying targeting different minority groups – i.e., LGBTI+ and Black youth – and exploring the factors that can influence bystanders’ behavioural intentions to intervene when they witness bias-based cyberbullying episodes. 

The TURN_ON HELP project aimed at understanding cyberbullying towards different minority groups, namely LGBTI+ and Black youth, and examining what can influence bystanders’ behaviours when they witness bias-based cyberbullying episodes. Different factors, such as having empathy and direct contact with LGBTI+ and Black youth, were explored. 

The sample included 4,507 Portuguese youth recruited through an online survey. Fifty-seven percent of participants self-identified as female, with ages ranging from 15 to 32 (average age was 17.27), most of them self-identified as heterosexual (80%) and as a White person/White Portuguese/of European origin (87%). Participants were asked to observe one of two different cyberbullying episode scenarios: targeting either an LGBTI+ youth or a Black youth. After observing the cyberbullying scenario, participants indicated their intention to engage in 10 helping behavioural intentions and responded to other scales, such as empathy. 

Overall, 18% of the surveyed participants indicated having experienced cyberbullying at least once or twice in the past six months. Participants who self-identified as female and those who self-identified as Transgender and Gender-Diverse (TGGD) reported higher levels of cyberbullying experiences, compared to participants who self-identified as male. Furthermore, non-heterosexual participants reported experiencing higher levels of cyberbullying than their heterosexual counterparts. Moreover, participants with a low socioeconomic status reported higher levels of cyberbullying experiences, compared to participants with a high socioeconomic status. Finally, ethnic minority participants, specifically individuals who identified as a Black person/Black Portuguese/Afro-descendant/of African origin; as an Asian person/Portuguese person of Asian origin/of Asian origin; as a Roma person/Portuguese Roma/Roma/of Roma origin, and as having another origin, or mixed origin, reported higher levels of cyberbullying experiences than did ethnic majority participants who self-identified as a White person/White Portuguese/of European origin.

Results revealed differences between the two cyberbullying episodes with LGBTI+ vs. Black youth on helping and negative intentions, empathy, group norms, inclusive identities, outgroup attitudes, and intergroup anxiety. Overall, participants who observed an episode of cyberbullying targeting an LGBTI+ youth exhibited fewer helping intentions, more negative intentions, less empathy, fewer positive group norms, fewer inclusive identities, fewer positive outgroup attitudes, and greater intergroup anxiety, compared to those who observed an episode of cyberbullying targeting a Black youth. This indicates that, although both incidents reflected bias-based cyberbullying, in cases of cyberbullying related to sexual orientation, defending the victim or having more positive attitudes may be less socially accepted or may result in higher social risks. Therefore, more efforts are needed to address cyberbullying targeting LGBTI+ youth and to promote empathy and positive attitudes among bystanders.

Results revealed that the more youth had LGBTI+ friends, and the more youth perceived heterosexual and LGBTI+ people as part of the same more inclusive ingroup, the more empathy they reported towards the victim of the cyberbullying episode. This empathy was then positively associated with their intentions to help the victim. In summary, having friends who identify as LGBTI+ and perceiving heterosexual and LGBTI+ people as part of the same more inclusive group was positively and indirectly related to the likelihood that youth would help LGBTI+ victims of cyberbullying by making them more empathic towards the victim. This highlights the importance of fostering conditions in which youth have positive social interactions with each other, which ultimately may increase their helping behaviours, thereby reducing the continuity of cyberbullying incidents. 

Results revealed that the more youth had Black friends, and the more youth perceived White and Black people as part of the same inclusive group, the more empathy they reported towards the victim of cyberbullying and the more they believed other people found it positive to have Black individuals as friends. Empathy and group norms were then positively related to their intentions to help the victim. In short, having Black friends and perceiving White and Black people as part of the same more inclusive group was positively and indirectly related to the likelihood that youth would help Black victims of cyberbullying by making them feel more empathy towards the victim and believing that having Black friends was seen positively by others. Again, this highlights that both intergroup contact and inclusive forms of identity can be promising tools for interventions to promote more assertive and empathic bystanders in the online context.

The results indicated that cyberbullying is a prevalent issue among youth, with 18% of participants reporting having experienced it in the past six months. Moreover, youth belonging to certain social groups, such as female, TGGD, non-heterosexual, ethnic minority, and lower socioeconomic status, were more likely to experience cyberbullying than others were. This highlights the need for targeted interventions and support for these groups.

The study also found that bystanders’ responses to cyberbullying episodes varied depending on the specific target of the bullying. Bystanders who observed an episode of cyberbullying targeting an LGBTI+ youth exhibited fewer helping intentions, less empathy, fewer group norms, fewer inclusive identities, fewer positive attitudes, and more intergroup anxiety compared to those who observed an episode of cyberbullying targeting a Black youth. This indicates that, although both incidents reflected bias-based cyberbullying, in cases of cyberbullying related to sexual orientation, defending the victim, or having more positive attitudes, may be less socially accepted or may result in higher social risks, such as being perceived and misidentified as LGBTI+ by association (i.e., social contagion concerns), as previous research showed. Thus, more efforts are needed to address cyberbullying towards LGBTI+ youth and to promote empathy and positive attitudes among bystanders.

Results also revealed that having direct contact with members of marginalized groups, such as LGBTI+ or Black people, is positively associated with bystanders’ helping intentions; that is, the more participants had direct contact with LGBTI+ or Black people, the more they were willing to help. However, different underlying mechanisms accounted for the relationship between intergroup contact and helping intentions, depending on the target of cyberbullying (i.e., an LGBTI+ or a Black person). This highlights the importance of encouraging positive social interactions between members of different groups as a means of reducing intergroup tensions and promoting positive attitudes towards marginalized groups.

Finally, the results indicated that more inclusive forms of identity are associated with increased helping behaviours via increased empathy and group norms. This suggests that promoting a sense of shared identity across different groups could be an effective means of promoting positive attitudes towards marginalized groups, as extensively shown in previous research.

Collectively, the results highlight the importance of fostering conditions in which youth have positive social interactions with each other and of promoting more inclusive identity representations, which ultimately may increase their helping behaviours and promote more positive intergroup attitudes. Such efforts could help promote positive attitudes and reduce intergroup prejudice, which in turn would lead to a more inclusive and supportive environment for all youth.

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