Online victimisation in digital environments: A study on social media users

Purpose: This study examines the proportion of reported online victimisation experiences among social media users in Türkiye and identifies demographic and behavioural factors associated with these experiences. Methods: Using a quantitative, correlational approach, a cross-sectional survey was conducted with individuals aged 18 and over who actively use at least one social media platform. Data were collected through a three-part online questionnaire assessing socio-demographic characteristics, social media usage patterns, and online victimisation experience. Participants were recruited via convenience and snowball sampling, and the data were analysed using binary logistic regression. Results: In the primary analysis, 77.3% (n = 621) of participants reported at least one listed online victimisation experience at a frequency of “Rarely” or higher. Gender, income level, and use of Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Swarm were significantly associated with victimisation. In a sensitivity analysis using a stricter threshold of “Sometimes” or higher, the proportion classified as victims decreased to 54.4% (n = 437). Associations with Facebook, Twitter, and Swarm remained statistically significant, whereas several demographic and other platform-related associations varied according to the outcome threshold. Conclusion: Online victimisation was associated with selected demographic and platform-use characteristics. Associations involving Facebook, Twitter, and Swarm were comparatively robust across alternative definitions of victimisation, whereas several demographic and other platform-related associations were sensitive to the operational threshold. Given the cross-sectional, non-probability sampling design and the absence of a defined recall period, the findings should be interpreted as exploratory associations rather than causal or population-level estimates.