So a while ago in August, I went to SCDD’s San Diego Regional Youth Leadership Forum. It was pretty nice going there, there was lots of food, and the inspiring speakers like Toni Saia and Otto Lana talking about their experiences with the real world and what it means to them to have a disability, really left me feeling empowered. I was greatly moved by their speeches, emerged enlightened, and they helped me realize some things about myself that I have been denying for a long time. But one thing I noticed was that they often talked about their negative experiences, about how they self advocated and dealt with people who thought they were less than. That brought up another thought in my mind. Are neurodivergent people more vulnerable on the internet?
Long story short, I think, yes, neurodivergent people are more vulnerable on the internet. Some people will say “Thanks for telling me what I already know, Captain Obvious!” But I think that there needs to be more thought on why neurodivergent individuals are susceptible to online harm. Sure, it makes sense and is true, but what are the reasons behind it? Just as a clarification, this blog post is not a blanket statement. I will be mainly focusing on autistic individuals.
One of the first things that should be known is that it was difficult searching for research in order to back this blog post up. There aren’t many scientific answers on the exact reasons why autistic or neurodivergent individuals are more vulnerable to cyberbullying. All the sites either say the previous statement but provide no sources for it, and the few scientific articles that do measure social media and autism don’t cover the exact topic, just something related to it. This is concerning. Autistic people are a population that need to be seen to just as carefully as other minorities. There are many studies on bias towards Africans and African Americans, so why can’t there be studies on autistic people being targeted as well? If no one else would want to do it, I will happily step up and conduct a study myself. All I need is a google form and some autistic people, or any neurodivergents to fill it out and describe their experiences online. A study on this, whether observational or experimental, is badly needed.
Reason 1: Neurodivergents are a Minority
Neurodivergents, being a minority, naturally have a target on their back. Just like certain racial minorities have been historically harassed more, the same applies to neurodivergents. This stigma goes back a long time. Until recently, having disorders like autism and ADHD wasn’t really a concept people had considered. And in the cases where neurodivergency manifested itself in an obvious way, the people were locked up and were considered sub-human. They were subjected to lobotomy and eugenics, in the hopes of curing them or at least ensuring they would no longer be able to spread their “defective” genes to other people. The doctors at the time understood the body could get sick, and to some extent, the brain could as well in terms of brain tumors. But they never exactly understood what neurodivergency was and how it could be treated. Thus, they labeled those who didn’t respond well to their methods as “incurably defective”. “I can’t understand how to help this person so this person must be incurable. It’s not me, it’s the patient” kind of mentality.
They passed on that mindset to the adults, who passed on that mindset to their children. Compound that effect multiple times, and you can see how it can get ingrained in a society that people like me simply aren’t worth the effort to grow. That’s why neurodivergents are a minority: they’re trying to live as equals in a society that assumes they’re less than. Real change takes time. The 13th amendment abolishing slavery was passed in 1865, but 160 years later in 2025, there are still people in the US who think that African Americans should be slaves! If, after all this time, the fight for equality for the African minority still has not reached its conclusion, then surely, the autism movement, which started even earlier, also hasn’t been resolved either.
Despite all of the positive autism posts and organizations that have been spreading across the world, the truth is the majority of people still hold prejudices. Neurodivergents don’t always act like the rest of the population, and this difference makes it easy to alienate them or to forget that they’re human too. This, combined with the lack of inhibition the anonymity of the internet already provides, can lead people to cross lines of cruelty that should remain uncrossed. Harassers online pretend disabled people, neurodivergent individuals, are not really human, or that they have no right to voice their opinion because they can’t comprehend what the real world demands.
Reason 2: Lots of Misinformation about Disorders Circulating
Keep in mind, neurodivergents being more vulnerable online doesn’t just apply to being cyberbullied. It also applies to falling for misinformation and disinformation (for those of you who don’t know, misinformation is information that is misleading or false due to unintentional inaccuracy. Disinformation is information that is intentionally untrue). Looking at official, credible sources for answers can be frustrating. The text is super long and may include lots of jargon most people don’t understand like “serotonin reuptake inhibitor”. Even for people who can read through all of that fluff, the bottomline answer is still unclear. There’s a lot of “cause is unknown, wide range of symptoms, no clear diagnostic criteria”.
Go from one article of autism to the next and they’ll give similar responses: “We don’t really know this, the cause is unknown, the criteria for being diagnosed isn’t really clear, and people with autism can range from being incapable of taking care of themselves to successful high achievers”. It’s exhausting not having any clear answers, of always being hit up with a “on one hand…on the other hand….” Humans desire certainty. It’s natural. But oftentimes with complex disorders like autism and ADHD, the answer is complicated and largely uncertain. The researchers and academics who are writing these articles are not admitting they don’t know just to vex people. There are better ways to irritate people than that. They’re admitting they don’t know so viewers don’t do anything rash or make uninformed decisions. But once again, humans desire certainty. When the official sources again and again yield no straight facts, autistic people, people with ADHD, and other neurodivergents often feel their only alternative for answers is to turn to the “experts” on social platforms like Instagram and TikTok. These influencers may not be certified, but they present themselves as having absolute knowledge, or at least don’t use as many “I don’t knows” to undermine the credibility of their statement. To most casual viewers, that’s really all they need to take these statements as fact. No more technicalities or nuances. Just straight answers. But are these straight answers actually true? Usually, no. In one study done in 2023 about the accuracy of 133 informal autism information videos, researchers found that only 27% of the videos had accurate information. True, this is TikTok I am talking about, and I was expecting the number to be closer to 0%, but a 27% accuracy rate is low. Think about it, imagine an autistic individual scrolling through TikTok, searching for videos on their condition. When suddenly, he or she finds it, watches it, and finishes enlightened. Finally, some answers! Except 73% of the time, these answers are either downright untrue or misleading. Granted, this percentage only pertains to 133 videos in one study, but the point of my argument is made. Information is an important component in day to day life, and when the wrong information is given, it can lead to a neurodivergent individual making decisions that are more harmful to them, or can lead them to the wrong assumptions of how to handle their disorder.
Reason 3: Neurodivergents Typically Have a Desperation to be Liked
When I was little, I badly wanted to be liked by other kids. I would follow them around, try to engage in conversation, and try to agree with them whenever possible. Naturally, others found it weird, and I was left alone. I remember crying either because I had no other friends my age, or because when I did get someone to like me, something would happen, and the relationship would be lost. I don’t know if other autistic people also share this exact experience, but I do know this: Most autistic people want to be liked by other people. They usually want social approval just as much as their neurotypical counterparts, sometimes even more so. But here’s the problem: it’s difficult to be liked with autism, or for people to see past the neurodevelopmental disorder. Most people find autistic people weird, and not in a good way. The hand flapping, lack of expressions, and not making eye contact along with some other things is off putting to the majority of humans. As a result, most autistic people have difficulty making friends in person, so they often turn to the internet for companionship. It’s easy to see why they would do that. On the internet, there is no eye contact. Users can’t see each other hand flapping or making weird expressions, not unless they get on a group call. With the physical aspect removed, and the ability to plan out statements nonverbally, most autistic people feel more relaxed on the internet, and like their friends there truly understand them. Some of them are even super nice!
With me, whenever I find someone who likes me, whether it be in person or online, I latch on (in a nonparasitic way). I try extra hard to at least ensure the person doesn’t hate me, and attempt to spend quality time. I believe a similar thing happens with other autistic people when they find someone who likes them. Doubly so if that person reciprocates those efforts back. But a nice person isn’t always a good person, and sometimes, people have more sinister reasons for interaction.
This leads to reason 3 why neurodivergents are more vulnerable online: predators might use their desperation to be liked against them. People who want to be liked will do drastic things in order to attain social approval. Neurodivergent individuals are no different, and might be even more incensed to do so because social approval is a rarer commodity in their life. Predators take advantage of that. They continue to press the neurodivergent person for increasingly sexual requests, knowing their victim’s desire to be liked may very well override any hesitation or doubts at the prospect of being praised or complimented.
Additionally, it could be that autistic are more vulnerable to predators also because they fit more of the risk factors that cause predators to seek them out. Despite all the new advantages being online gives them, predators still choose the easiest targets they can. Low self esteem, isolation or exclusion from family or community, trusting nature, and over-eagerness for affection are all traits predators look for in an easy mark. Unfortunately, many autistic people also have those traits.
I don’t know if these 2 risk factors are always present in autistic individuals, but combine the 2 and you have a double vulnerability. Not only are neurodivergent individuals more vulnerable to online predators because they often fit the victim profile predators target, their desperation for social approval may also cause them to give into the predator’s demands more.
Reason 4: Missing the Signs of Bullying Due to Literal Mindedness
The last reason autistic individuals are more vulnerable online is because of autistic peoples’ tendency to take everything literally and to miss subtle social cues. Basically, autistic people might not even realize they are being bullied. Social interaction is complex and oftentimes dependent on tiny, technical circumstances. A smile doesn’t always mean a person is happy. It could also be used in a sad context, in a smug context, or in an angry, biting back rage context. Let me put it this way: Navigating social interaction is like navigating a busy street with multiple contradicting signs. It’s hard for anybody, but at least for a neurotypical person, he or she has a GPS that at least provides general directions on where to go. For an autistic person, navigating social interaction is like navigating a busy street with multiple contradicting signs, except you’re blind folded and can’t even see the signs, and the GPS is giving out directions in a language you only half understand.
Many neurodivergent people interpret cues differently and may not even recognize the cyberbullying, which may cause them to dismiss obviously cruel comments or harmful content. Some people at this point may be wondering, “if the autistic person can’t actually recognize being harassed online, how is it harmful?” Answer: A person might not consciously understand he or she is being bullied, but some part of the subconscious will. Boy does it hurt.
Let me tell you a story. Once, many years ago, my sister had this friend. We will call her Lucy. I was very bad at making friends at the time, so my strategy was to leech off of my sister and make her friends my friends by extension. Sometimes it worked, most of the time it didn’t. Lucy is one of those most of times. Whenever I would come around and try to say hi, maybe even strike up a conversation, Lucy would give me this look that I couldn’t quite read. She would scoff and say to her friends “Ugh, let’s go” before immediately leaving the area. It took me a long time (at least 1 year and my sister deliberately saying it) to figure out what Lucy was doing, why she was doing it, and what the expression on her face was. Lucy was looking at me in disgust, like I was a piece of rotten meat with maggots crawling out of it. She was subtly telling me she didn’t want my company and that I was too wacky for her taste. In hindsight, the signs were obvious, but I didn’t know it at the time. But even if I didn’t consciously know, my subconscious did. I still felt something was wrong, that my interactions with Lucy weren’t going right. It felt…disheartening and stressful. Like something wasn’t adding up and it was my fault.
This is why even though an autistic person might not actually know he or she is being harassed, the damage of the bullying is still dealt. Worst still, a neurodivergent person might not be able to deal with online harassment, as he or she might not even know it’s happening. Think of it this way: A mysterious disease rampages around a village and many fall sick. Just because the people there don’t know what it is, or might not even recognize they’re sick, doesn’t mean they can’t feel the symptoms. And not knowing what the disease is makes it worse, as they can’t eliminate the source of the disease, or find the cure. Being bullied, but not knowing you’re being bullied, is just like that. It’s an unforeseen sickness that saps away joy. You know there’s something wrong, but you don’t know what, or what to do about it.
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