South Africans meanest online
SOUTH Africans are the world’s rudest people.
Microsoft’s digital civility index places the country last of 14 surveyed.
Microsoft safety officer Jacqueline Beauchere said the index was an attempt to get people to treat each other with respect and dignity online.
“The research shows people are concerned about the tone of online and social media interactions and worry that risks will increase‚” she said.
“We measured survey respondents’ lifetime exposure to 17 online risks across four categories – behavioural‚ reputational‚ sexual and personal-intrusive‚” Beauchere said.
The top five risks that emerged were being treated meanly‚ unwanted contact‚ trolling‚ receiving unwanted sexts and online harassment. Findings included:
Two out of three respondents said they had fallen victim to at least one risk‚ and the percentage swelled to 78% when participants also accounted for the experiences of their friends and family;
50% reported being extremely or very worried about life online generally; and
62% said they did not know where to get help when they encountered an online risk.
The index worked like a golf score – the lower the value (from zero to 100)‚ the lower the respondents’ risk exposure and the higher the perceived level of online civility among people in that particular country, Beauchere said.
The international score is 65‚ but South Africa scored 78 – with the next rudest countries being Mexico and Russia.
The politest countries were the UK‚ which scored 45‚ Australia, 51, and the US at 55.