The race for popularity inherent to the functioning of social networks sometimes leads young users to take risks which can fuel different forms of cyberharassment. How can we teach them to protect themselves? Beyond technical mastery, is it not the acquisition of a critical digital culture that is at stake?
Digital platforms have features that encourage users to share more and more content or react to the publications of other Internet users. All these actions leave traces. And these traces, which participate in the construction of the digital identity of individuals, are transformed into visible indicators of popularity or “friendly capital”.
These features encourage users to implement tactics to gain an audience and sociability which can turn against them and fuel cyberharassment rooted in the sexist, racial or homophobic discrimination that runs through society.
In this logic, it happens that content escapes its first author and spreads virally, causing the lynching of a person, regardless of the initial intentions of publication. Likewise, applications are now being developed to bypass the guardrails of certain platforms and allow the capture of data that is supposed to be ephemeral, but which then leaves a trace capable of emerging at any time and being recovered at any time. malicious purposes.
A look behind the scenes of Snapchat, a network popular with adolescents, to better identify the risks they face and possible avenues for prevention.
How is digital identity built?
L’digital identity is built from the traces that users of the platforms leave behind them, but also according to the purpose of the latter and the presentation constraints that they impose. A person does not value the same facet of their identity when looking for a job on LinkedIn and when looking to meet someone romantically on Tinder:
“Self-presentation on the web closely articulates the instructions of registration interfaces and the calculations that users make to produce the best impression of themselves. Also, digital identity is a co-production where platform strategies and user tactics meet. ».
This identity can also be defined according to three dimensions : “declarative” (what users say about themselves or others through their publications), “active” (the traces that these publications leave and which appear in the form of notifications to the attention of their network) and “calculated » (number of friends or likes). The numerical dimension constitutes reputation markers integrated into platform interfaces, displaying the summary of judgments towards a person, often functioning as an indicator of popularity, that is to say the ability to be appreciated by the greatest number of people.
On the Snapchat platform, used regularly by 37 % under 13s in 2024 and by 80 % for 16-25 year olds in 2023, fun features materialize this calculated dimension. THE snapflammes count the number of days of reciprocal and uninterrupted exchanges between two people, the charms reward specific interactions when friends emojis distinguish the most regular interactions.
The functionalities of platforms serving cyberharassment
Cyberbullying relies on three dimensions of identity and feeds on the functionalities offered by the platforms.
Insults or rumors launched towards others are “declarative”. Once published, they escape their author. Shared and preserved through screenshots, they leave traces that are likely to resurface months or even years later. The attacks are amplified by the “acting” dimension which signals each new reaction to the contact networks of the victim and the aggressor.
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The dissemination of compromising content may be motivated by a desire to draw attention to oneself, to make others laugh by making fun of others and to gain popularitya race for audiences which refers to the “calculated” dimension of identity. The metrics on which the latter is based reinforce the daily engagement of users and encourage them to maintain constant exchanges. They participate in the creation of “friendly capital” measured in the number of interactions, sometimes captured and broadcast in a public story as proof of popularity, but without necessarily ensuring the quality of relationships.
Online “disinhibition effects”
Snapchat is an application that stands out for ephemeral image-centered exchanges and which changes the way young people construct their digital identity. The “figurative” identity depicted in photographs and videos takes precedence over “declarative”, textual or verbal identity. Designed for private conversations between “close friends”, the ghost network where most metrics are private is also hijacked by young users who seek to make connections there. meetings to promote their “calculated identity”.
Notifications materialize user popularity.
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By default, content sent to the application disappear after reading, notifying any screenshot from the recipient. These guarantees encourage users to share more than they would on a tracking platform or face-to-face, under the keen scrutiny of peers.
Cyberpsychologist John Suler talks about“disinhibition effect”which often remains benign, when it promotes sincere and intimate exchanges, but can turn out to be toxic, when it provokes malicious behavior. Behind the screen, the user may not realize the violence of their actions or feel protected from the consequences.
When Snapchat’s guardrails are bypassed
Third-party and various applications tips circumvent the safeguards of Snapchat by allowing users to take captures without the knowledge of the interlocutor. These can then be kept in “files” and brought out at any time to “build reputations”, start rumors against rivals or former friendly or romantic relationships.
In extreme cases, this stolen data can be blackmailed to obtain sexual favors (this is called sextortion), feed “fishas accounts”, provoke the lynching of a person and incite the audience to do the same . Broadcast in the chat, which can bring together groups of up to 201 snapchatters, these private content escape all moderation.
While flames, charms, and friend emojis reward regular conversations, they also put pressure on social performance. The flames, in particular, which count uninterrupted daily exchanges, encourage phatic exchanges, capturing empty screens for the sole purpose of keeping the flame alive, or even cause relationship breakdowns, when the message could not be sent. in time to save the flame.
To prevent forgetting or phone breakdowns, young users exchange passwords, exposing their personal data to the instability of adolescent relationships. Identity theft is also made easier to the extent that Snapchat allows its users to create as many accounts only email addresses, upon simple declaration of name, first name and date of birth.
Strengthening students’ digital culture to combat cyberbullying
In order to combat cyberviolence and cyberharassment, the Snapchat platform is taking steps to optimize the removal of certain content, the suspension of problematic accounts and speed up reporting procedures. These latter are now well known to adolescents who are more and more numerous to regularly report content that they consider shocking, hateful or suspicious.
In partnership with the association e-Childhood (listening line manager 3018), the company has also developed a guide intended for parents or legal guardians concerned with regulating the digital practices of their children.
However, it is “illusory” to believe that we can bring students to perfect digital mastery “certain strata of which stubbornly evade critical decoding”. The challenge lies rather in the acquisition of a “critical digital culture” through the development of technical and documentary skills as well as critical thinking allowing one to move in an increasingly info-communicational environment. complexbeing aware of the role played by the functionalities of the platforms in the staging and instrumentalization of the digital identity of individuals.
