Microsoft study shows online abuse coming from people’s own social circles

On Safer Internet Day 2018, Microsoft released its second annual Digital Civility Index (DCI)

based on a survey completed in June 2017 to gauge the attitudes and perceptions of teens (ages 13-17) and adults (ages 18-74) in 23 countries about the state of digital civility.

The survey asked questions such as, ‘which online risks have you and your close circle experienced?’, ‘when and how often have the risks occurred?’, and ‘what consequences and actions were taken?’, and measured respondents’ lifetime exposure to 20 online risks across four areas: reputational, behavioural, sexual and personal/intrusive.

According to the DCI, targets of online risks often named people they knew as perpetrators. For the Asia-pacific region, the majority of respondents (53 percent) said they had some familiarity with their online abusers.

Strong mobile telephony business and lower forex losses put Dialog Axiata PLC’S top and bottomline performances at elevated levels during its December quarter, reflecting a trend where people have spent more on mobile data and voice than a year earlier.

Releasing the interim results for the 4Q17, Sri Lanka’s leading mobile telecommunications group reported Rs.39 cents a share or Rs.3.17 billion in total earnings, an increase of 154 percent year-on-year (YOY).

Although the topline growth and the cost management helped propel the bottom-line growth, the company said this performance was mainly driven by the relatively strong rupee remained during 2017 as forex losses were contained by a half. The net finance cost also declined by 54 percent YOY to Rs. 467 million.