Tribune survey: 34% respondents say they have been harassed online

An online survey reveals that online harassment is quite prevalent in Pakistan.

PAKISTAN: A recent online survey conducted by The Express Tribune revealed that 65% of the users had been victims of online harassment either themselves, or knew someone who had been harassed online.

With an increasing use of social media services throughout Pakistan, all kinds of people have started using these services for all kinds of reasons.

Of the 382 people who responded, 34% of the respondents stated that they had been a victim of online harassment themselves, while 38% knew someone who had been harassed online.



Most respondents felt that the blame for online harassment lies mainly with the harasser. Around 47% respondents blamed the harasser for online harassment, 18% blamed the victim, 9% said that the fault lied with the parents of the victim, 11% blamed the government, whilst 15% blamed the social networking service for online harassment.



Although all social networking sites have clear cut privacy policies to help protect individual users online, 73% respondents felt that privacy settings provided by social networking sites were not enough to protect personal information.



With social media sites being used both in the public as well as private spheres throughout the country, online harassment could prove more dangerous than thought. Of those who had been a victim of online harassment, or knew someone who had been harassed, just 29% respondents stated that they had reported the incident to the proper authorities, whilst 38% did not.

Just 8% respondents felt that the authorities helped by taking action against those involved while 38% stated that the authorities did not help.



Of the total 382 respondents that took the survey, 5% were aged below 18, 44% were between the ages of 18 and 24, 39% were between 25 and 31 and 11% were above 31.