“I feel like everyone does it”- adolescents' perceptions and awareness of the association between humour, banter, and cyberbullying

Literature has acknowledged the alliance between face-to-face bullying behaviours and humour. However, comparably, little is known regarding humour and cyberbullying. Humour may be a motivating factor and, as such, explain why some individuals engage in cyberbullying. This study aimed to gain insight into adolescents’ views and perceptions of how humour and ‘banter’ play a role within cyberbullying. Seven focus groups were carried out with 28 United Kingdom based secondary school students (female ¼ 20, male ¼ 8) aged between 11 and 15 years old. Reflexive thematic analysis identified three prominent overarching themes which became salient across each focus group: Banter as a social interaction, Online misinterpretation, and “Bad” banter and cyberbullying. Results indicate young people have a shared understanding of online humoristic aggressive behaviours, such as online banter, describing them as ambiguous and difficult to interpret. Participants demonstrated an understanding of how ambiguity, caused by the online environment combined with banter interactions, can be interpreted as perceived or fully acknowledged cyberbullying behaviour. Motivations for these behaviours are considered within the findings of the data analysis and previous literature. Findings are discussed with potential preventative implications and considerations for future research.

"This study demonstrates online humour or banter can be viewed as cyberbullying behaviour from a young person’s perspective. Owing to the online environment having a lack of nonverbal redressive cues and social context cues, online banter can be misinterpreted and perceived as targeted cyberbullying and therefore may occur more frequently. Findings also establish that humour can be a form of online aggression used to cyberbully others, motivated by the possible aim to achieve or maintain popularity and status. Aspects of these findings challenge two definitional criterion of cyberbullying, power imbalance and harmful intentions of the perpetrator. For example, the data suggest victims’ perceptions of a perpetrator’s intentions carry some weight in determining if an act of online aggression is cyberbullying behaviour. Overall, this study offers a unique perspective of how adolescents view humour and banter within the context of cyberbullying." (Steer et al., 2020: 9).