Revenge pornography and cyber-bullying in tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe: Unpacking the psycho-social effects

Abstract

The study unpacked the psychosocial effects caused by revenge pornography and cyber-bullying in Tertiary Education Institutions in Zimbabwe. Three institutions were used as study cases. The study was guided by Erickson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. The study used qualitative research methodology and employed the explorative research design for better analysis. Purposive sampling was used to select participants. Institutional administrators could not acknowledge the existence of revenge pornography for the sake of their institution’s reputations yet students and secondary data acknowledged the existence of both revenge pornography and cyber-bullying in these Institutions. The study also revealed that revenge pornography and cyber-bullying cause psychosocial effects such as depression, humiliation, embarrassment, anxiety, stress disorders, deterioration of performance in school, social difficulties and suicidal tendencies among others. Thus victims are unable to gain closure and graduate from being victims to survivors.