Cyberbullying on the internet and mobile phones among Thai Youth

This study deals with Thai youths' use of the internet and mobile phones. Parameters included interests, duration of use, and abuse by means of the Internet and mobile phone, involving both cyberbullying perpetration and victimisation, in the form of threats, sexual solicitation, and harassment. We draw the random sample from three main geographical areas of Thailand: The West (rural area), Bangkok (metropolitan area) and the South (Muslim area). Two schools in each area were randomly sampled, which together included 1305 participants; 763 were female (58.5%). The main results indicate that Thai youths' use of the internet is moderate compared with international figures. While females use the internet and mobile phones to a higher extent than males, males are more likely to be cyberbullies and be cyberbullied on the net. Even though the participants from the Southern Muslim area use the internet and mobile phones less than in the other two regions, they experience abuse much more frequently. The theoretical contribution of this article to the field is the recognition of the family characteristics' influence on the cyberbullying of youth, and the strengthening of the ecological theory applicable to the explanation of the cyberbullying phenomenon.