50.27% suffer cyberbullying: Study

At least 50.27 per cent of victims of cybercrime are the victims of cyberbullying in various ways and such types of crimes are increasing gradually in Bangladesh, found a study conducted by the Cyber Crime Awareness Foundation.

The findings of the study titled ‘Cybercrime tendency in Bangladesh 2022’ were unveiled at an event at the Bangladesh Crime Reporters Association Auditorium in Dhaka on Saturday. Technology service provider Cyber Paradise Ltd sponsored the study.

This year, the survey saw a slight increase in the number of victims of cyberbullying to 50.27 per cent from 50.16 per cent in the last report.

Monira Nazmi Jahan, a senior lecturer at the Law Department of East West University, presented the details of the report while CCA Foundation President Kazi Mustafiz was in the chair.

According to the study, abuse by doctoring images, pornographic content, abuse on social media, and online-phone-messaging threats are some significant cyberbullying in the country.

The study found that most of the victims do not report crimes anywhere for various reasons including fear of public embarrassment. At least 73.4 per cent of victims do not seek legal action after being harassed, it added.

The study was conducted on 1999 respondents who were asked 18 questions from February 15, 2021, to March 2, 2022. As online shopping became popular due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the number of victims of fraud while buying products online also increased at a huge rate.

According to the survey, about 15.06 per cent of respondents have been cheated while buying products online.

It also found hacking of online accounts including social media is in the first place, with a rate of 23.79 per cent. In the 2021 report, the rate was 28.31 per cent, 4.52 per cent higher than this year.

Victimising through misinformation on social media also increased to 18.67 per cent which was 16.31 per cent in the previous survey.

Sakif Ahmed of the Internet Service Provider Association Bangladesh (ISPAB), Mohammad Iqbal Hossain, former auditor general and former president of ISACA Dhaka chapter, and Sultana Esrat Jahan, additional deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police also joined in discussions at the report launching event.