Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of
bullying or
harassment using
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers, as the digital sphere has expanded and technology has advanced. Cyberbullying is when someone, typically a teenager, bullies or harasses others on the
internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
and other digital spaces, particularly on
social media sites. Harmful bullying behavior can include posting rumors,
threats
A threat is a communication of intent to inflict harm or loss on another person. Intimidation is a tactic used between conflicting parties to make the other timid or psychologically insecure for coercion or control. The act of intimidation for co ...
, sexual remarks, a
victims' personal information, or pejorative labels (i.e.
hate speech).
Bullying or harassment can be identified by repeated behavior and an intent to harm.
Victims of cyberbullying may experience lower self-esteem, increased
suicidal ideation, and various negative emotional responses, including being anxious, frustrated, angry, or depressed.
Cyberbullying is in many cases an extension of already existing traditional bullying.
Students who are bullied via the Internet have, in most cases, also been bullied in other more traditional ways before (e.g., physically or verbally). There are few students who are bullied exclusively over the Internet; these cyber victims are often physically stronger students, which causes bullies to prefer online confrontations over face-to-face contact at school.
Awareness in the United States has risen in the 2010s, due in part to high-profile cases.
Several US states and other countries have passed laws to combat cyberbullying.
Some are designed to specifically target teen cyberbullying, while others extend from the scope of physical harassment.
In cases of adult cyberharassment, these reports are usually filed beginning with local police.
The laws differ by area or state.
Research has demonstrated a number of serious consequences of cyberbullying
victimisation
Victimisation ( or victimization) is the process of being victimised or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimisation is called victimology.
Peer victimisation
Peer victimisa ...
.
Specific statistics on the negative effects of cyberbullying differ by country and other demographics. Some researchers point out there could be some way to use modern computer techniques to determine and stopping cyberbullying.
Other research has suggested an uptick in cyberbullying during the COVID-19 pandemic when many youth and adults were quarantined at home and, as a consequence, online more often than before the pandemic. For example, a study of adults published in the Journal of Social Psychology identified statistically significant increases in pro-cyberbullying attitudes as well as in cyberbullying offending behavior. However, another study involving over 6,500 Canadian youth in grades 4-12 did not find higher rates of cyberbullying involvement. The authors speculated that this might be a result of closer monitoring and involvement of online activities by parents while their children were at home.
Internet trolling is a common form of bullying that takes place in an
online community
An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...
(such as
online gaming or social media) in order to elicit a reaction or disruption, or simply just for someone's own personal amusement.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organization. It may include false accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity theft, thre ...
is another form of bullying or harassment that uses electronic communications to
stalk a victim; this may pose a credible threat to the victim.
Not all negative interaction online or on social media can be attributed to cyberbullying. Research suggests that there are also interactions online that result in
peer pressure
Peer pressure is the direct or indirect influence on peers, i.e., members of social groups with similar interests, experiences, or social statuses. Members of a peer group are more likely to influence a person's beliefs, values, and behavior. A g ...
, which can have a negative, positive, or neutral impact on those involved.
Definitions
A frequently used definition of cyberbullying is "an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a group or an individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself." It is to be distinguished from normal conflicts between people of comparable power or status that often also occur online.
There are many variations of the definition, such as the
National Crime Prevention Council
National Crime Prevention Council is an American educational 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C. whose mission is to enable people to create safer and more caring communities by addressing the causes of crime, drugs and violence ...
's more specific definition: "the process of using the Internet, cell phones or other devices to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person."
Cyberbullying is often similar to traditional bullying, with some notable distinctions. Victims of cyberbullying may not know the identity of their bully, or why the bully is targeting them, based on the online nature of the interaction. The harassment can have wide-reaching effects on the victim, as the content used to harass the victim can be spread and shared easily among many people and often remains accessible long after the initial incident.
The terms "
cyberharassment
A cybercrime is a crime that involves a computer or a computer network.Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing. The computer may have been used in committing the ...
" and "cyberbullying" are sometimes used synonymously, though some people use the latter to refer specifically to harassment among minors or in a school setting.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is a form of online harassment in which the perpetrator uses electronic communications to
stalk a victim. This is considered more dangerous than other forms of cyberbullying because it generally involves a credible threat to the victim's safety. Cyberstalkers may send repeated messages intended to threaten or harass, and they may encourage others to do the same, either explicitly or by impersonating their victim and asking others to contact them.
Trolling
Internet trolls intentionally try to provoke or offend others in order to elicit a reaction.
Trolls and cyberbullies do not always have the same goals: while some trolls engage in cyberbullying, others may be engaged in comparatively harmless mischief. A troll may be disruptive either for their own amusement or because they are genuinely a combative person.
Hate raids
On
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
and other
livestreaming services, hate raids are situations where a stream is "raided" by multiple viewers simultaneously that flood the chat with harassing and hateful messages, preventing the streamer from executing their stream. These viewers are typically automated
bots
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
, making it difficult to moderate and block these viewers by the streamer and their moderators.
Methods used
Manuals intended to educate the public about cyberbullying summarize that cyberbullying is inclusive of acts of intended cruelty to others in the form of posting or sending material using an internet capable device. Research, legislation and education in the field are ongoing. Research has identified basic definitions and guidelines to help recognize and cope with what is regarded as abuse of electronic communications.
* Cyberbullying involves repeated behavior with intent to harm.
* Cyberbullying is perpetrated through
harassment,
cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organization. It may include false accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity theft, thre ...
, denigration (sending or posting cruel rumors and falsehoods to damage reputation and friendships),
impersonation
An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone:
*Entertainment: An entertainer impersonates a celebrity, generally for entertainment, and makes fun of ...
, and exclusion (intentionally and cruelly excluding someone from an online group)
An Educator's Guide to Cyberbullying
' Brown Senate.gov, archived fro
the original
on April 10, 2011
Cyberbullying can be as simple as continuing to send emails or text messages harassing someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender. It may also include public actions such as repeated
threat
A threat is a communication of intent to inflict harm or loss on another person. Intimidation is a tactic used between conflicting parties to make the other timid or psychologically insecure for coercion or control. The act of intimidation for co ...
s, sexual remarks, pejorative labels (i.e.
hate speech) or defamatory false accusations, ganging up on a victim by making the person the subject of ridicule in online forums, hacking into or vandalizing sites about a person, and posting false statements as fact aimed a discrediting or humiliating a targeted person. Cyberbullying could be limited to posting rumors about a person on the internet with the intention of bringing about hatred in others' minds or convincing others to dislike or participate in online denigration of a target. It may go to the extent of personally identifying victims of crime and publishing materials defaming or humiliating them.
[Cyberbullying – Law and Legal Definitions](_blank)
US Legal
Cyberbullies may disclose victims' personal data (e.g. real name, home address, or workplace/schools) on websites or forums—called
doxing
Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this in ...
, or may use
impersonation
An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone:
*Entertainment: An entertainer impersonates a celebrity, generally for entertainment, and makes fun of ...
, creating fake accounts, comments or sites posing as their target for the purpose of publishing material in their name that defames, discredits or ridicules them. This can leave the cyberbully anonymous, which can make it difficult for them to be caught or punished for their behavior, although not all cyberbullies maintain their anonymity. Users of semi-anonymous chat websites are at high risk for cyberbullying, as it is also easy in this outlet for a cyberbully to remain anonymous. Text or instant messages and emails between friends can also constitute cyberbullying if what is said is hurtful.
![Email final](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Email_final.jpg)
The recent rise of smartphones and mobile apps have yielded a more accessible form of cyberbullying. It is expected that cyberbullying via these platforms will occur more often than through more stationary internet platforms because of constant access to the internet. In addition, the combination of cameras and Internet access and the instant availability of these modern smartphone technologies yield specific types of cyberbullying not found in other platforms. It is likely that those cyberbullied via mobile devices will experience a wider range of cyberbullying methods than those who are exclusively bullied elsewhere.
Some teens argue that some events categorized as cyberbullying are simply drama. Danah Boyd writes, "teens regularly used that word
rama
Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...
to describe various forms of interpersonal conflict that ranged from insignificant joking around to serious jealousy-driven relational aggression. Whereas adults might have labeled many of these practices as bullying, teens saw them as drama."
In social media
Cyberbullying can take place on social media sites such as
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
,
Myspace, and
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. "By 2008, 93% of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 were online. In fact, youth spend more time with media than any single other activity besides sleeping." The last decade has witnessed a surge of cyberbullying, which is categorized as bullying that occurs through the use of electronic communication technologies, such as e-mail, instant messaging, social media, online gaming, or through digital messages or images sent to a cellular phone.
There are many risks attached to social media sites, and cyberbullying is one of the larger risks.
One million children were harassed, threatened or subjected to other forms of cyberbullying on Facebook during the past year, while 90 percent of social-media-using teens who have witnessed online cruelty say they have ignored mean behavior on social media, and 35 percent have done so frequently. Ninety-five percent of social-media-using teens who have witnessed cruel behavior on social networking sites say they have seen others ignoring the mean behavior, and 55 percent have witnessed this frequently. Terms like "Facebook depression" have been coined specifically in regard to the result of extended social media use, with cyberbullying playing a large part in this.
![Submit The Documentary,March 2013](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Submit_The_Documentary%2CMarch_2013.jpg)
Cyberbullying has become more common nowadays because of all the technology that children have access to. The most common apps that teenagers use to cyberbully are
Instagram, Twitter, and
Snapchat.
Cyberbullying has become harder to stop because parents and teachers are unaware of when and where it is happening.
A 2006 study found that 45% of teens and 30% of adolescents were cyberbullied while at school.This was linked to the reason students had access to their online devices such as cell phones or computers. Teens will say awful things to one another online and what they do not realize is that once it is said and published online it will not go away. Home used to be a safe place for teens, but now a child is still within reach of becoming a victim of cyberbullying.- whether it is through
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
,
Ask.fm, or a
text message
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...
.
Wherever you face, it is easy to come across Cyberbullying making it almost impossible to escape.
According to a 2013
Pew Research study, eight out of ten teens who use social media now share more information about themselves than they have in the past. This includes their location, images, and contact information. In order to protect children, it is important that personal information such as age, birthday, school/church, phone number, etc. be kept confidential.
Two studies from 2014 found that 80% of body-shaming
tweets are sent by women, while they also accounted for 50% of
misogynistic
Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced f ...
tweets.
Cyberbullying can also take place through the use of websites belonging to certain groups to effectively request the targeting of another individual or group. An example of this is the bullying of climate scientists and activists.
In gaming
![Gamers Playin expo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Gamers_Playin_expo.jpg)
Of those who reported having experienced online harassment in a Pew Research poll, 16% said the most recent incident had occurred in an online game.
A study from National Sun Yat-sen University observed that children who enjoyed violent video games were significantly more likely to both experience and perpetrate cyberbullying.
Another study that discusses the direct correlation between exposure to violent video games and cyber bullying also took into account personal factors such as "duration of playing online games, alcohol consumption in the last 3 months, parents drunk in the last 3 months, anger, hostility, ADHD, and a sense of belonging" as potential contributing factors of cyberbullying.
Gaming was a more common venue for men in which to experience harassment, whereas women's harassment tended to occur more via social media.
Most respondents considered
gaming culture to be equally welcoming to both genders, though 44% thought it favored men.
Sexual harassment in gaming generally involves slurs directed towards women, sex role stereotyping, and overaggressive language. Keza MacDonald writes in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' that
sexism exists in gaming culture, but is not mainstream within it.
U.S. President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
made reference to the harassment of women gamers during his remarks in honor of Women's History Month.
Competitive gaming scenes have been less welcoming of women than has broader gaming culture. In an internet-streamed fighting game competition, one female gamer forfeited a match after the coach of her team, Aris Bakhtanians, stated, "The sexual harassment is part of the culture. If you remove that from the fighting game community, it's not the fighting game community."
The comments were widely condemned by gamers, with comments in support of sexual harassment "drowned out by a vocal majority of people expressing outrage, disappointment and sympathy."
The incident built momentum for action to counter sexual harassment in gaming.
Some game developers have been subjected to harassment and death threats by players upset by changes to a game or by a developer's online policies.
Harassment also occurs in reaction to critics such as
Jack Thompson Jack Thompson may refer to:
Sports
* Jack Thompson (footballer, born 1892) (1892–1969), English footballer who played for Sheffield United and Bristol City
* Jack Thompson (1920s footballer), English footballer who played for Aston Villa and Brig ...
or
Anita Sarkeesian
Anita Sarkeesian ( ; born 1983) is a Canadian-American feminist media critic and public speaker. She is the founder of '' Feminist Frequency'', a website that hosts videos and commentary analyzing portrayals of women in popular culture. She h ...
, whom some fans see as threats to the medium.
Various people have been harassed in connection with the
Gamergate controversy
Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized online misogyny, misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the hashtag "# ...
.
Harassment related to gaming is not of a notably different severity or tenor compared to online harassment motivated by other subcultures or advocacy issues.
Other developers have been harassed simply due to misogyny or anti-LGBTQ+ stances. A notable case was the death of "Near", the developer of
Higan
is a Buddhist holiday exclusively celebrated by Japanese sects for seven days; three days before and after both the Spring equinox ( shunbun) and Autumnal equinox ( shūbun). It is observed by nearly every Buddhist school in Japan. The tra ...
, a console emulator, who took their own life after becoming the subject to ridicule from members of the online
Kiwi Farms
Kiwi Farms, formerly known as CWCki Forums ( ), is an Internet forum that facilitates the discussion and harassment of online figures and communities. Their targets are often subject to organized group trolling and stalking, as well as doxx ...
board following their announcement of being nonbinary.
Sabotage among rival
crowdfunding campaigns is a recurring problem for projects related to gaming.
Some instances of
swatting in games such as ''
Call of Duty'' and ''
League of Legends
''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by '' Defense of the Ancients'', a custom map for ''Warcraft III'', ...
'' have resulted in law enforcement
SWAT units called on individuals' homes as a prank. On December 28, 2017,
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...
police officers killed Andrew Finch at his Kansas home in a reported swatting prank.
In search engines
Information cascades happen when users start passing along information they assume to be true, but cannot know to be true, based on information on what other users are doing. This can be accelerated by search engines' ranking technologies and their
tendency to return results relevant to a user's previous interests. This type of information spreading is hard to stop. Information cascades over social media and the Internet may also be harmless, and may contain truthful information.
Bullies use
Google bombs (a term applicable to any search engine)
to increase the prominence of favored posts sorted by the most popular searches, done by linking to those posts from as many other web pages as possible. Examples include the
campaign for the neologism "santorum"
The campaign for the neologism "santorum" started with a contest held in May 2003 by Dan Savage, a sex columnist and LGBT rights activist. Savage asked his readers to create a definition for the word "santorum" in response to then-US senator Ri ...
organized by the
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
lobby. Google bombs can manipulate the Internet's search engines regardless of how authentic the pages are, but there is a way to counteract this type of manipulation as well.
Law enforcement
A majority of states have laws that explicitly include electronic forms of communication within stalking or harassment laws.
Most law enforcement agencies have cyber-crime units, and Internet stalking is often treated with more seriousness than reports of physical stalking. Help and resources can be searched by state or area.
Schools
The safety of online privacy issues in schools is increasingly becoming a focus of state legislative action. There was an increase in cyberbullying enacted legislation between 2006 and 2010. Initiatives and curriculum requirements also exist in the UK (the ''Ofsted eSafety guidance'') and Australia (''Overarching Learning Outcome 13'').
In 2012, a group of teenagers in a design class
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
developed an application to help fight bullying, "Back Off Bully" (BOB). This is an anonymous resource for computer, smart phone or iPad, designed so when someone witnesses or is the victim of bullying, they can immediately report the incident. The app asks questions about time, location and how the bullying is happening, as well as provides positive action and empowerment regarding the incident. The reported information goes to a database, where it may be studied by administrators. Common threads are spotted so others can intervene and break the bully's pattern. "Back Off Bully" is being considered as standard operating procedure at schools across Connecticut, while recent studies carried out among 66 high school teachers have concluded that prevention programs have proved ineffective to date.
Teachers can also be cyberbullied by pupils,
[ as well as by parents and other school staff.][
]
Protection
There are laws that only address online harassment of children or focus on child predators, as well as laws that protect adult cyberstalking victims, or victims of any age. Currently, there are 45 cyberstalking (and related) laws on the books. While some sites specialize in laws that protect victims age 18 and under, Working to Halt Online Abuse is a help resource containing a list of current and pending cyberstalking-related United States federal and state laws. It also lists those states that do not yet have laws, and related laws from other countries. The Global Cyber Law Database (GCLD) aims to become the most comprehensive and authoritative source of cyber laws for all countries.
Several states, including Florida, California, and Missouri have passed laws against cyberbullying. California prohibits the use of an electronic device to cause someone to fear for their life. In Florida, the "Jeffrey Johnson Stand Up for All Students Act" prohibits any type of bullying including cyberbullying. In Missouri, anyone who violently threatens someone over social media can be convicted with a Class A misdemeanor, but if the victim is seventeen years or younger, they can be convicted with a Class D felony.
Age
Children report negative online behaviors occurring from the second grade. According to research, boys initiate negative online activity earlier than girls. However, by middle school, girls are more likely to engage in cyberbullying than boys. Whether the bully is male or female, the purpose of childhood bullying is to intentionally embarrass, harass, intimidate, or make threats online.
Studies on the psycho-social effects of cyberspace have begun to monitor the effects cyberbullying may have on the victims. Consequences of cyberbullying are multi-faceted, and affect both online and offline behavior. Research on adolescents reported that changes in the victims' behavior as a result of cyberbullying could potentially be positive. Victims "created a cognitive pattern of bullies, which consequently helped them to recognize aggressive people."[Cyberbullying in Adolescent Victims: Perception and Coping](_blank)
Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace
However, the ''Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace'' abstract reports critical impacts in almost all of the respondents, taking the form of lower self-esteem, loneliness, disillusionment, and distrust of people. The more extreme effects included self-harm. Children have killed each other and committed suicide after cyberbullying incidents. Some cases of digital self-harm have been reported in which an individual engages in cyberbullying against themselves, or purposefully and knowingly exposes themselves to cyberbullying.
Adults
Cyberstalking may be an extension of physical stalking,[https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/australian_covert_bullying_prevalence_study_chapter_1.pdf ] and may have criminal consequences. A target's understanding of why cyberstalking is happening is helpful to remedy and take protective action. Among factors that motivate stalkers are envy
Envy is an emotion which occurs when a person lacks another's quality, skill, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it.
Aristotle defined envy as pain at the sight of another's good fortune, stirred b ...
, pathological obsession (professional or sexual), unemployment or failure with own job or life, or the desire to intimidate and cause others to feel inferior. The stalker may be delusional
A delusion is a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some o ...
and believe they "know" the target. The stalker wants to instill fear in a person to justify their status, or may believe they can get away with these actions due to online anonymity.
The US federal cyberstalking law is designed to prosecute people for using electronic means to repeatedly harass or threaten someone online. There are resources dedicated to helping adult victims deal with cyberbullies legally and effectively. One of the steps recommended is to record everything and contact police.[What to Do About Cyberbullies: For Adults](_blank)
, by Rena Sherwood; YAHOO Contributor network In Mexico, Olimpia Coral Melo, promoted the creation of a law against digital harassment that took her name, the Olimpia Law.
Research
Australia
The nationwide Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Survey (Cross et al., 2009)[Cross, D., Shaw, T., Hearn, L., Epstein, M., Monks, H., Lester, L., & Thomas, L. 2009. Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study (ACBPS). Child Health Promotion Research Centre, Edith Cowan University, Perth](_blank)
. Deewr.gov.au. Retrieved on July 6, 2011. assessed cyberbullying experiences among 7,418 students. The results indicated that rates of cyberbullying increased with age, with 4.9% of students in Year 4 reporting cyberbullying compared to 7.9% in year nine. Cross et al., (2009) reported that rates of bullying and harassing others were lower, but also increased with age. Only 1.2% of Year 4 students reported cyberbullying others compared to 5.6% of Year 9 students.
China
In mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
, cyberbullying has yet to receive adequate scholarly attention. A study investigating the risk factors of cyberbullying sampled 1,438 high school students from central China. Data showed that 34.84% had participated in bullying and 56.88% had been bullied online.[Zhou, Zongkui. "Cyberbullying and its risk factors among Chinese high school students". School Psychology International. December 2013 34: 630–647, first published on May 8, 2013.]
A study on cyberbullying in Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
chose 48 out of 7,654 students from elementary school to high school who were classified as potential aggressors related to cyberbullying. 31 out of 48 students declared they barely participated in cyber-attacks. It is common among high school students (28 out of 36 students) to participate in social media platforms; 58% admitted to changing a nickname for others, 56.3% to humiliation, 54.2% to making fun of someone, and 54.2% to spreading rumors. The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups interviewed 1,820 teenagers, 17.5% of whom indicated having experienced cyberbullying. This included insults, abuse, and the publishing of personal private pictures on social media without permission.
European Union
In a study published in 2011, across 25 EU member states studied, an average 6% of children (9–16 years old) had been bullied and only 3% of them confessed to having been a bully. However, in an earlier publication by Hasenbrink et al. (2009), reporting on the results from a meta analysis from European Union countries, the authors estimated (via median results) that approximately 18% of European young people had been "bullied/harassed/stalked" via the internet and mobile phones.[Hasebrink, U., Livingstone, S., Haddon, L. and Ólafsson, K.(2009) Comparing children's online opportunities and risks across Europe: Cross-national comparisons for EU Kids Online. LSE, London: EU Kids Online (Deliverable D3.2, 2nd edition),]
secondedition.pdf lse.ac.uk
Cyberharassment rates for young people across the EU member states ranged from 10% to 52%.
Finland
Sourander et al. (2010) conducted a population-based cross-sectional study that took place in Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
. The authors of this study took the self-reports of 2,215 Finish adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 about cyberbullying and cybervictimization during the previous six months. It was found that, amongst the total sample, 4.8% were victims only, 7.4% were cyberbullies only, and 5.4% were cyberbully-victims.
The authors of this study were able to conclude that cyberbullying, as well as cybervictimization, is associated not only with psychiatric issues, but with psychosomatic issues as well. Many adolescents in the study reported headaches or difficulty sleeping. The authors believe that their results indicate a greater need for new ideas on how to prevent cyberbullying and what to do when it occurs. It is clearly a worldwide problem that needs to be taken seriously.
Ireland
The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) pilot survey was carried out in eight post-primary schools across Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, including 318 students aged 15–18. 59% were boys and 41% were girls. Participation in this survey was voluntary for students, and consent had to be obtained from parents, students and the school itself. This survey was anonymous and confidential, and it took 40 minutes to complete. It asked questions on traditional forms of bullying, as well as cyberbullying, risk behaviors and self-reported health and life satisfaction
Life satisfaction is a measure of a person's well-being, assessed in terms of mood, relationship satisfaction, achieved goals, self-concepts, and self-perceived ability to cope with life. Life satisfaction involves a favorable attitude towards one ...
.
66% of the students said that they had never been bullied, 14% had been victims of traditional forms of bullying, 10% had been victims of cyberbullying, and the remaining 10% had been victims of both traditional forms of bullying and cyberbullying. Boys mostly said they were victims of traditional forms of bullying, and girls mostly were victims of both traditional forms of bullying and cyberbullying. 20% of the students in this survey said that they had been cyberbullied, showing that cyberbullying is on the rise.
Arrow DIT claims that 23% of 9–16 year olds in Ireland have been bullied online or offline, compared to 19% in Europe. Although online bullying in Ireland stands at 4% according to Arrow DIT, this is lower than the European average, which stands at 6%, and half that of the UK where 8% reported being cyberbullied. Traditional forms of bullying in Ireland occur more often than in Europe.
A 2018 study by Dublin City University (DCU)'s National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC) found that almost 10% of post-primary teachers were victims of cyberbullying, and 15% knew of a colleague who had experienced it in the previous 12 months. 59% of the bullying was by pupils, mainly on social media, with the rest perpetrated by parents and other school staff.[ Various effects on bullied teachers included increased stress and ]anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...
, "negative impacts on their working environment, and a reluctance to report the issue and seek help from management".[
]
Japan
According to recent research, in Japan, 17 percent (compared with a 25-country average of 37 percent) of youth between the ages of 8 and 17 have been victims of online bullying. The number shows that online bullying is a serious concern in Japan. Teenagers who spend more than 10 hours a week on the Internet are more likely to become the targets of online bullying, though only 28 percent of the survey participants understood what cyberbullying is. However, they do know the severity of the issue; 63 percent of the surveyed students worried about being targeted as victims of cyberbullying.
Since teenagers find themselves congregating socially on the internet via social media, they become easy targets for cyberbullying. Cyberbullying may occur via email, text, chat rooms, and social media websites. Some cyberbullies set up websites or blogs to post the target's images, publicize their personal information, gossip about the target, express why they hate the target, request people to agree with the bully's view, and send links to the target to make sure they are watching the activity.
Much cyberbullying is an act of relational aggression
Relational aggression or alternative aggressionSimmons, Rachel (2002). ''Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls''. New York, New York: Mariner Books. pp. 8–9. . Retrieved 2016-11-02. is a type of aggression in which harm is cause ...
, which involves alienating the victim from peers through gossip or ostracism. This kind of attack can be easily launched via texting or other online activities. One 19-year-old Japanese student was targeted by classmates who posted his photo online, insulted him constantly, and asked him to die. Because of the constant harassment, he did attempt suicide twice. Even when he quit school, the attacks did not stop.
Cyberbullying can cause serious psychological impact to the victims. They often feel anxious, nervous, tired, and depressed. Other examples of negative psychological trauma include losing confidence as a result of being socially isolated from their schoolmates or friends. Psychological problems can also show up in the form of headaches, skin problems, abdominal pain, sleep problems, bed-wetting, and crying. It may also lead victims to commit suicide to end the bullying.
United States
2000
A 2000 survey by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, m ...
found that 6% of the young people who completed the survey had experienced some form of harassment, including threats and negative rumors, and 2% had suffered distressing harassment.[Finkelhor, D., Mitchell, K.J., & Wolak, J. (2000). Online victimization: A report on the nation's youth. Alexandria, VA: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.]
2004
The 2004 I-Safe.org survey of 1,500 students between grades 4 and 8 found:
* 42% of children had been bullied online. One in four had experienced it more than once.
* 35% had been threatened online. Nearly one in five had experienced it more than once.
* 21% had received mean or threatening e-mails or other messages.
* 58% admitted that someone had said hurtful things to them online. More than four out of ten said this had happened more than once.
* 58% had not told their parents or an adult about something hurtful that had happened to them online.
2005
The Youth Internet Safety Survey-2, conducted by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, m ...
in 2005, found that 9% of the young people in the survey had experienced some form of harassment.[Wolak, J., Mitchell, K.J., & Finkelhor, D. (2006). Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later. Alexandria, VA: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.] The survey was a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,500 youth 10–17 years old. One-third reported feeling distressed by the incident, with distress being more likely for younger respondents and those who were the victims of aggressive harassment (including being telephoned, sent gifts, or visited at home by the harasser). Compared to youth not harassed online, victims are more likely to have social problems. On the other hand, youth who harass others are more likely to have problems with rule breaking and aggression.
Hinduja and Patchin completed a study in the summer of 2005 of approximately 1,500 Internet-using adolescents and found that over one-third of youth reported being victimized online, and over 16% of respondents admitted to cyberbullying others. While most of the instances of cyberbullying involved relatively minor behavior (41% were disrespected, 19% were called names), over 12% were physically threatened and about 5% were scared for their safety. Notably, fewer than 15% of victims told an adult about the incident. Additional research by Hinduja and Patchin in 2007[Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2007)]
Offline Consequences of Online Victimization: School Violence and Delinquency.
Journal of School Violence, 6(3), 89–112. found that youth who report being victims of cyberbullying also experience stress or strain that is related to offline problem behaviors such as running away from home, cheating on a test, skipping school, or using alcohol or marijuana. The authors acknowledge that both of these studies provide only preliminary information about the nature and consequences of online bullying, due to the methodological challenges associated with an online survey.
According to a 2005 survey by the National Children's Home charity and Tesco Mobile
Tesco Mobile Limited (trading as Tesco Mobile) is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. It is operated by British retailer Tesco, using the network O2 as its carrier except i ...
,[National Children's Home. (2005]
Putting U in the picture. Mobile Bullying Survey 2005.
(pdf) of 770 youth between the ages of 11 and 19, 20% of respondents revealed that they had been bullied via electronic means. Almost three-quarters (73%) stated that they knew the bully, while 26% stated that the offender was a stranger. 10% of responders indicated that another person had taken a picture and/or video of them via a cellular phone camera, consequently making them feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, or threatened. Many youths are not comfortable telling an authority figure about their cyberbullying victimization
Victimisation ( or victimization) is the process of being victimised or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimisation is called victimology.
Peer victimisation
Peer victimisat ...
for fear their access to technology will be taken from them; while 24% and 14% told a parent or teacher respectively, 28% did not tell anyone, and 41% told a friend.
2006
According to the 2006 ''Harris Interactive Cyberbullying Research Report'', commissioned by the National Crime Prevention Council, cyberbullying is a problem that "affects almost half of all American teens".
2007
Studies published in 2007 in the ''Journal of Adolescent Health
The ''Journal of Adolescent Health'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering adolescent health and medicine, including biological, psychological, and social aspects. The journal publishes original research articles, review articles, letters to ...
'' indicated young people reporting being victims of electronic aggression in a range of 9% to 35%.
In 2007, Debbie Heimowitz, a Stanford University master's student, created ''Adina's Deck
''Adina's Deck'' is a 2007 American DVD film series about internet safety and aimed toward 9- to 15-year-old children. The series is intended to be used alongside the series' official website and curriculum to inform and instruct children about cy ...
'', a film based on Stanford-accredited research. She worked in focus groups for ten weeks in three schools to learn about the problem of cyberbullying in northern California. The findings determined that over 60% of students had been cyberbullied and were victims of cyberbullying. The film is now being used in classrooms nationwide as it was designed around learning goals pertaining to problems that students had understanding the topic. The middle school of Megan Meier
Megan Taylor Meier (November 6, 1992 – October 17, 2006) was an American teenager who died by suicide by hanging herself three weeks before her 14th birthday. A year later, Meier's parents prompted an investigation into the matter and her sui ...
is reportedly using the film as a solution to the crisis in their town.
2008
In 2008, researchers Sameer Hinduja (Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-ca ...
) and Justin Patchin (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
) published a book on cyberbullying that summarized the current state of cyberbullying research (''Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying''). Their research documented that cyberbullying instances had been increasing over the preceding several years. They also reported findings from a then-recent study of cyberbullying. In a random sample of approximately 2000 middle-school students from a large school district in the southern United States, about 10% of respondents reported being cyberbullied in the previous 30 days while over 17% reported having been cyberbullied at least once in their lifetime. While these rates are slightly lower than some of the findings from their previous research, Hinduja and Patchin pointed out that the earlier studies were predominantly conducted among older adolescents and Internet samples; that is, older youth use the Internet more frequently and are more likely to experience cyberbullying than younger children.
2011
According to the 2011 National Crime Victimization Survey, conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
, Bureau of Justice Statistics, School Crime Supplement (SCS), 9% of students age 12–18 admitted to having experienced cyberbullying during that school year (with a coefficient of variation between 30% and 50%).
2013
In the Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2013, the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...
published results of its survey as part of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) in June 2014, indicating the percentage of school children being bullied through e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, websites, or texting ("electronically bullied") during the course of 2013.
2014
In 2014, Mehari, Farrell, and Le published a study that focused on the literature on cyberbullying among adolescents. They found that researchers have generally assumed that cyberbullying is distinct from aggression perpetrated in person. Mehari et al. suggest that the media through which aggression is perpetrated may be best conceptualized as a new classification of aggression, rather than considering cyberbullying as a distinct counterpart to existing forms of aggression. They suggest that future research on cyberbullying be considered within the context of theoretical and empirical knowledge of aggression in adolescence.
Mary Howlett-Brandon's doctoral dissertation analyzed the National Crime Victimization Survey: Student Crime Supplement, 2009, to focus on the cyberbullying victimization of Black and White students in specific conditions.
2015
WalletHub
WalletHub (formerly CardHub.com) is a personal finance website that was launched in August 2013. It is based in Miami and owned by Evolution Finance, Inc.
WalletHub offers free consumer tools, such as its WalletLiteracy Quiz and its Financial ...
's 2015's ''Best & Worst States at Controlling Bullying'' report measured the relative levels of bullying in 42 states. According to the report, North Dakota, Illinois, Louisiana, Rhode Island, and Washington D.C. have the most attempted suicides by high school students. The five states with highest percentage of students being bullied on campus are Missouri, Michigan, Idaho, North Dakota, and Montana.
Cyberbullying on social media has usually been student-to-student, but recently, students have been cyberbullying their teachers. High school students in Colorado created a Twitter site that bullies teachers. This ranges from obscenities to false accusations of inappropriate actions with students.
Gender
Research conducted to try to determine differences in cyberbullying patterns comparing male to female and ages of each are relatively inconclusive. There are some factors that lean towards males being more involved in cyberbullying behaviors due to males tending to have more aggressive behaviors than females. This is not proven, but speculated based on literature reviews of research indicating that significant data is self-reported. Comparatively, the review of articles indicates that age differences have some indicators of cyberbullying; increasing age indicates increasing bullying behaviors. Gender differences have mixed results, but one finding indicated that younger females (10 or 11) and older males (13+) tend to engage in cyber bullying behaviors.
Cyberbullies mostly have at least one common trait. Cyberbullies generally get angry and discouraged easily and usually have strong personalities. They connect with others belligerently and do not care for the feelings of their victims. Both males and females engage in cyberbullying. Females are involved in cyberbullying just as much as males, and females are sometimes even found more involved in cyberbullying than males are. The reason behind this is because of the way they respond; men will usually respond with physical retaliation, while women will use "indirect forms such as gossiping." As cyberbullying is a more indirect form, women are more likely to be involved.
Also, women tend to have less face-to-face confrontations than men, and since cyberbullying occurs online, this allows women to have a greater chance to be attacked. According to a 2017 Pew Research study on online harassment, 14% of Americans have been harassed because of their political views. Such harassment affects men and women differently; men are approximately twice as likely as women to have experienced online harassment because of their political views. However, women politicians are disproportionately more likely to be sexually harassed online. Women lawmakers are three times more likely than their male counterparts to receive sexually abusive comments, including threats of rape, beatings, death, or abduction.
Legislation
Jurisdictions
United States
Legislation geared at penalizing cyberbullying has been introduced in a number of U.S. states including New York, Missouri, Rhode Island and Maryland. At least 45 states have passed laws against digital harassment. Dardenne Prairie of Springfield, Missouri, passed a city ordinance making online harassment a misdemeanor. The city of St. Charles, Missouri passed a similar ordinance. Missouri is among the states where lawmakers are pursuing state legislation, with task forces expected to have cyberbullying laws drafted and implemented. In June 2008, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) proposed a federal law that would criminalize acts of cyberbullying.
Lawmakers are seeking to address cyberbullying with new legislation because there is currently no specific law on the books that deals with it. A fairly new federal cyberstalking law might address such acts, according to Parry Aftab, but no one has been prosecuted under it yet. The proposed federal law would make it illegal to use electronic means to "coerce, intimidate, harass or cause other substantial emotional distress."
In August 2008, the California state legislature passed one of the first laws in the country to deal directly with cyberbullying. Assembly Bill 86 2008 gives school administrators the authority to discipline students for bullying, offline or online. This law took effect on January 1, 2009.
A law in New York's Albany County that criminalized cyberbullying was struck down as unconstitutional by the New York Court of Appeals in '' People v. Marquan M.''
A recent ruling first seen in the UK determined that it is possible for an Internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...
(ISP) to be liable for the content of the sites it hosts, setting a precedent that any ISP should treat a notice of complaint seriously and investigate it immediately.
criminalizes the making of threats via the Internet.
While some states have laws that require schools to mediate cyberbullying conflicts, several states have been sued on First Amendment grounds for doing so. By examining the decisions of three such lawsuits heard in lower courts, Alvin J. Primack and Kevin A. Johnson argued that current First Amendment doctrine, particularly the case of ''Morse v. Frederick'' (2007), may offer interpretive resources for justifying administrative reach to some online digital speech. They concluded, " thout clearer standards, school administrators are likely to feel constrained and err on the side of inaction."
United Kingdom
In early February 2022, ministers of the UK parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
planned to add to their proposed Online Safety Bill
The Online Safety Bill is a proposed Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to improve internet safety, published as a draft on 12 May 2021. Following the earlier 2019 Online Harms White Paper, the Bill gives the relevant Secretary ...
several criminal offences against those who send death threats online or deliberately share dangerous disinformation about fake Covid cures. Other new offences, such as revenge porn, posts advertising people-smuggling, and messages encouraging people to commit suicide, would fall under the responsibilities of online platforms like Facebook and Twitter to tackle.
Philippines
The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012
The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, officially recorded as Republic Act No. 10175, is a law in the Philippines that was approved on September 12, 2012. It aims to address legal issues concerning online interactions and the Internet in the Phi ...
defines cyberlibel
The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, officially recorded as Republic Act No. 10175, is a List of Philippine laws, law in the Philippines that was approved on September 12, 2012. It aims to address legal issues concerning online interactions an ...
as a punishable offence under Section 355 of the Revised Penal Code
The Revised Penal Code contains the general penal laws of the Philippines. First enacted in 1930, it remains in effect today, despite several amendments thereto. It does not comprise a comprehensive compendium of all Philippine penal laws. The ...
of 1930.
European Union
Since the 1990s, the United Kingdom and other European countries have been working to solve workplace bullying
Workplace bullying is a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes either physical or emotional harm.
It can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, and physical abuse, as well as humiliation. ...
since there is no legislation regulating cyberbullying. The pervasive nature of technology has made the act of bullying online much easier. A 24-hour internet connection gives bullies a neverending opportunity to find and bully victims. Employers in the European Union have more legal responsibility to their employees than do those in other countries. Since employers do not have the ability to fire or hire an employee at will like in the United States, employers in Europe are held to a high standard in how their employees are treated.
In 2007, the European Union developed the Framework Agreement on Harassment and Violence at Work, a law that prevents bullying occurring in the workplace and holds employers accountable for providing fair working conditions. The law defines the responsibilities of an employer such as protecting their employees from bullies in a work environment and the psychological pain a victim faces from bullies during business hours. Lawyers pursuing cyberbullying cases use the Ordinance on Victimization at Work law, since there are not any laws specifically condemning cyberbullying.
In 1993, Sweden was the first European Union country to have a law against cyberbullying. The Ordinance on Victimization at Work protected victims from "recurrent reprehensible or distinctly negative actions which are directed which are directed against individual employees in an offensive manner and can result in those employees being placed outside the workplace community".
In 2002, France passed the Social Modernization Law, which added consequences to the French Labor Code for cyberbullying such as holding employers accountable for their involvement in harassment. The legislation defines "moral harassment" as "repeated acts leading to a deterioration of the working conditions and that are likely to harm the dignity, the physical or psychological heath of the victim or his professional career."
The United Kingdom does not have anti-bullying legislation. However, it does have the Protection From Harassment Act, an anti-stalking law. U.K. courts have used this legislation in bullying cases.
The United States and some other countries have more extensive legislation on cyberbullying than the European Union. Cyberbullying incidents on social media are widespread and have increased drastically in number. However, the process of getting a claim against a bully is not an easy one because of the victim's need to provide sufficient evidence to prove the existence of bullying.
As of mid-2015, countries in the European Union like the United Kingdom are in the process of creating laws specially related to cyberbullying. Since the process takes time, the government is supporting school programs to promote internet safety with the help of teachers and parents. This will allow the government to take the time it needs to create the cyberbullying laws while helping safeguard students from cyberbullying as much as possible.
Research on preventive legislation
Researchers suggest that programs be put in place for prevention of cyberbullying. These programs would be incorporated into school curricula and would include online safety and instruction on how to use the Internet properly. This could teach the victim proper methods of potentially avoiding the cyberbully, such as blocking messages or increasing the security of their computer.
Even in a perfect world, no crime can be stopped fully. That is why it is suggested that within this prevention method, effective coping strategies should be introduced and adopted. People can adopt coping strategies to combat future cyberbullying. Coping strategies may include social support groups composed of victims of cyberbullying, which could allow students to share their stories, and remove the feeling of being alone.
Teachers should be involved in all prevention educational models, as they are essentially the "police" of the classroom. Most cyberbullying often goes unreported as the victim feels nothing can be done to help in their current situation. However, if given the proper tools with preventive measures and more power in the classroom, teachers can be of assistance; if the parent, teacher, and victim can work together, solutions may be found.
There have been many legislative attempts to facilitate the control of bullying and cyberbullying. Some existing legislation is incorrectly thought to be tied to bullying and cyberbullying (including terms such as " libel" and "slander
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
"). The problem is that the existing legislation does not directly apply to bullying, nor define it as its own criminal behavior. Anti-cyberbullying advocates have even expressed concern about the broad scope of some of the bills attempted to be passed.
In the United States, attempts have been made to pass legislation against cyberbullying. Few states attempted to pass broad sanctions in an effort to prohibit cyberbullying. Problems include how to define cyberbullying and cyberstalking, and, if charges are pressed, whether this violates the bully's freedom of speech. B. Walther said that "Illinois is the only state to criminalize 'electronic communication(s) sent for the purpose of harassing another person' when the activity takes place outside a public school setting." This was criticized for infringement on freedom of speech.
Preventing a child from being cyberbullied is hard, but now they are working to form programs and laws to help stop the issue from getting worse than it already is. They have created movies such as '' Cyberbully'' by Charles Biname and ''The Duff
''The DUFF'' (teen slang for "Designated Ugly Fat Friend") is a 2015 American high school teen comedy film directed by Ari Sandel. The screenplay by Josh Cagan was based on the 2010 novel of the same name by Kody Keplinger. The film stars Mae ...
'' by Ari Sandel for teenagers to watch and see how cyberbullying can affect an individual. Children that are victims of this problem feel they can not go to an adult for help because they may feel embarrassed by the situation. Bullying online will not only hurt the teenager emotionally, but there is also a risk of the child hurting themselves physically as well; in 2017, suicide was the tenth leading cause of death among persons in the United States.
Being able to tell if a child is being hurt from this issue can be tough, but there are certain things that a child will do that should give a red flag that they are being bullied. A cyberbully could have said nasty words to that child and the victim could be looking for compliments. If the victim is always online wondering when the bully will strike next that could also be a sign. Being an active parent in their children's lives will make a difference on whether their child is experiencing online bullying or not. Also bringing police involved in the case will be a problem solver too.
Harmful effects
Research has demonstrated a number of serious consequences of cyberbullying victimization. Victims may have lower self-esteem, increased suicidal ideation, and a variety of emotional responses, including being scared, frustrated, angry, and depressed. Cyberbullying may be more harmful than traditional bullying, because there is no escaping it. One of the most damaging effects is that a victim begins to avoid friends and activities, which is often the very intention of the bully.
Cyberbullying campaigns are sometimes so damaging that victims have committed suicide. There are at least four examples in the United States in which cyberbullying has been linked to the suicide of a teenager. The suicide of Megan Meier
Megan Taylor Meier (November 6, 1992 – October 17, 2006) was an American teenager who died by suicide by hanging herself three weeks before her 14th birthday. A year later, Meier's parents prompted an investigation into the matter and her sui ...
is an example that led to the conviction of the adult perpetrator of the attacks. Holly Grogan committed suicide by jumping off a 30-foot bridge near Gloucester in the UK. It was reported that a number of her schoolmates had posted a number of hateful messages on her Facebook page.
According to Lucie Russell, director of campaigns, policy and participation at youth mental health charity Young Minds, young people who suffer from mental disorder
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
s are vulnerable to cyberbullying as they are sometimes unable to shrug it off:
When someone says nasty things healthy people can filter that out, they're able to put a block between that and their self-esteem. But mentally unwell people don't have the strength and the self-esteem to do that, to separate it, and so it gets compiled with everything else. To them, it becomes the absolute truth – there's no filter, there's no block. That person will take that on, take it as fact.
Social media has allowed bullies to disconnect from the impact they may be having on others.
Intimidation, emotional damage, and suicide
According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, "there have been several high‐profile cases involving teenagers taking their own lives in part because of being harassed and mistreated over the Internet, a phenomenon we have termed cyberbullicide – suicide indirectly or directly influenced by experiences with online aggression."
Cyberbullying is an intense form of psychological abuse, whose victims are more than twice as likely to suffer from mental disorders compared to traditional bullying.
The reluctance youth have in telling an authority figure about instances of cyberbullying has led to fatal outcomes. At least three children between the ages of 12 and 13 have committed suicide due to depression brought on by cyberbullying, according to reports by ''USA Today'' and the ''Baltimore Examiner''. These include the suicide of Ryan Halligan and the suicide of Megan Meier
Megan Taylor Meier (November 6, 1992 – October 17, 2006) was an American teenager who died by suicide by hanging herself three weeks before her 14th birthday. A year later, Meier's parents prompted an investigation into the matter and her sui ...
, the latter of which resulted in '' United States v. Lori Drew''. Teen suicides tied to cyberbullying have recently become more prevalent. Rebecca Ann Sedwick committed suicide after being terrorized through mobile applications such as Ask.fm, Kik Messenger
Kik Messenger, commonly called Kik, is a freeware instant messaging mobile app from the Canadian company Kik Interactive, available on iOS and Android operating systems.
The application uses a smartphone's internet connection to transmit and re ...
and Voxer.
On youth and teenagers
The effects of cyberbullying vary, but research illustrates that cyberbullying adversely affects youth to a higher degree than adolescents and adults. Youth are more likely to suffer since they are still growing mentally and physically. Jennifer N. Caudle, a certified family physician, says, "Kids that are bullied are likely to experience anxiety, depression, loneliness, unhappiness and poor sleep".
Most of the time cyberbullying goes unnoticed; the younger generation hides their bullying from anyone that can help to prevent the bullying from occurring and from getting worse. Between 20% and 40% of adolescents are victims of cyberbullying worldwide. The youth slowly change their behaviors and actions so they become more withdrawn and quiet, but this may go unnoticed since the change is subtle. Metin Deniz believes cyberbullying will "become a serious problem in the future with an increase in the Internet and mobile phone usage among young people".
If preventive actions are not taken against cyberbullying, younger children in addition to teenagers will feel more lonely and depressed along with having significant changes in their eating and sleeping patterns as well as loss of interest in their normal activities. These changes will affect their growth and development into adulthood. Younger children and teenagers are 76.2% less likely to display suicidal behaviors and thoughts, but are still at risk depending on other factors such as mental health status, home care, and relationships with others. The risk of suicide increases by 35% to 45% when victims do not have any support from anyone in their life, and cyberbullying amplifies the situation.
Young people seem particularly vulnerable to the effects of cyberbullying through anonymous social media Anonymous social media is a subcategory of social media wherein the main social function is to share and interact around content and information anonymously on mobile and web-based platforms. Another key aspect of anonymous social media is that cont ...
, perhaps because adolescents are attracted to these platforms as a means of seeking validation from their peers. Abuse on these platforms, such as ASKfm
ASKfm (Ask.fm until 14 January 2016) is a question and answer network launched in June 2010 as a competitor to Formspring. After registration, the user fills out his profile and can ask questions (anonymously or openly), reply on their profile, ...
, Yik Yak
Yik Yak is a pseudonymous social media smartphone application that initially launched in 2013 and relaunched in 2021. The app, which is available for iOS and Android, allows people to create and view discussion threads within a radius (termed ...
and Sarahah
Sarahah ( ar, صراحة, ṣarāḥa) is a Saudi Arabian social networking service for providing constructive feedback. In Arabic, ''sarahah'' means "frankness" or "honesty". It was created by Zain-Alabdin Tawfiq at the end of 2016 and reached a ...
, can be particularly keenly felt by young people, leading to issues of loss of confidence. There have been a number of suicides related to bullying on these platforms in the US and Britain.
Suppression of speech
By at least 2018, some doctors have been targets of online harassment from anti-vaccine
Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain abou ...
activists responding to their social media posts, including hundreds of negative false reviews on doctor ratings sites. This made some of the doctors more reluctant to share information about vaccines, but others formed groups to spread factual information about vaccine safety on social media in response.
Awareness
Campaigns
International
The Cybersmile Foundation is a cyberbullying charity committed to tackling all forms of online bullying, abuse, and hate campaigns. It was founded in 2010 in response to the increasing number of cyberbullying related incidents of depression, eating disorders, social isolation, self-harm and suicides devastating lives around the world. Cybersmile provides support to victims and their friends and families through social media interaction, email and helpline support. They also run an annual event, Stop Cyberbullying Day, to draw attention to the issue.
Spain
Multiple non-profit organizations fight cyberbullying and cyberstalking. They advise victims, provide awareness campaigns, and report offenses to the police. These NGOs include the ''Protégeles'', ''PantallasAmigas'', '' Foundation Alia2'', the non-profit initiative ''Actúa Contra el Ciberacoso'', the National Communications Technology Institute (INTECO), the Agency of Internet quality, the ''Agencia Española de Protección de Datos'', the ''Oficina de Seguridad del Internauta'', the Spanish Internet users' Association, the Internauts' Association, and the Spanish Association of Mothers and Parents Internauts. The government of Castile and León has also created a ''Plan de Prevención del Ciberacoso y Promoción de la Navegación Segura en Centro Escolares'', and the government of the Canary Islands has created a portal on the phenomenon called ''Viveinternet''.
United States
In March 2007, the Advertising Council in the United States, in partnership with the National Crime Prevention Council
National Crime Prevention Council is an American educational 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C. whose mission is to enable people to create safer and more caring communities by addressing the causes of crime, drugs and violence ...
, U.S. Department of Justice, and Crime Prevention Coalition of America, joined to announce the launch of a new public service advertising
A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
campaign designed to educate preteens and teens about how they can play a role in ending cyberbullying.
As of 2008, the Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded ...
's 2008 edition of '' The Boy Scout Handbook'' addresses how to deal with online bullying. A new First Class rank requirements adds: "Describe the three things you should avoid doing related to use of the Internet. Describe a cyberbully and how you should respond to one."
In 2008, KTTV
KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV ou ...
Fox 11 News in Los Angeles put out a report about organized cyberbullying on sites like Stickam by people who call themselves " /b/rothas". The site had put out a report on July 26, 2007, about a subject that partly featured cyberbullying, titled "Hackers on Steroids".
On June 2, 2008, parents, teens, teachers, and Internet executives came together at Wired Safety's International Stop Cyberbullying Conference, a two-day gathering in White Plains, New York and New York City. Executives from Facebook, Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas ...
, MySpace, Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
, and many others talked with hundreds about how to better protect themselves and their personal reputations, children and businesses from online harassment. Sponsors of the conference included McAfee
McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American global computer security software company head ...
, AOL, Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
, Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...
, Girl Scouts of the USA, WiredTrust, Children's Safety Research and Innovation Centre, and KidZui.com. Cyberharassment versus cyberbullying was a forefront topic, where age makes a difference; abusive internet behavior by adults with the repeated clear intent to harm, ridicule or damage a person or business was classified as stalking
Stalking is unwanted and/or repeated surveillance by an individual or group toward another person. Stalking behaviors are interrelated to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person or monitoring them. The term ...
harassment, versus bullying by teens and young adults.
An organized movement to make revenge porn illegal began in August 2012: End Revenge Porn. Currently revenge porn is only illegal in two states, but the demand for its criminalization is on the rise as digital technology has increased in the past few generations. The organization seeks to provide support for victims, educate the public, and gain activist support to bring new legislation before the United States Government.
In 2006, PACER.org created a week-long event that was held once a year in October. Today, the campaign is a month-long event and is now known as the National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month.
Canada
Originating in Canada, Anti-Bullying Day
Anti-Bullying Day (or Pink Shirt Day) is an annual event, held in Canada and other parts of the world, where people wear a pink-coloured shirt to stand against bullying.
The initiative was started in Canada, where it is held on the last Wednes ...
is a day of celebration for those who choose to participate wearing a symbol of colors (pink, blue or purple) as a stance against bullying. A British Columbia teacher founded the Stop A Bully movement, which uses pink wristbands to represent the wearer's stance to stop bullying.
Pink Shirt Day was inspired by David Shepherd and Travis Price. Their high school friends organized a protest in sympathy for a Grade 9 boy who was bullied for wearing a pink shirt. Their stance from wearing pink has been a huge inspiration in the Great Vancouver Mainland. "We know that victims of bullying, witnesses of bullying and bullies themselves all experience the very real and long term negative impacts of bullying regardless of its forms – physical, verbal, written, or on-line (cyberbullying)".
ERASE (Expect Respect and A Safe Education) is an initiative started by the province of British Columbia to foster safe schools and prevent bullying. It builds on already-effective programs set up by the provincial government to ensure consistent policies and practices regarding the prevention of bullying.
Community support
A number of organizations are in coalition to provide awareness, protection and recourse for this escalating problem. Some aim to inform and provide measures to avoid as well as effectively terminate cyberbullying and cyberharassment. Anti-bullying charity Act Against Bullying launched the CyberKind campaign in August 2009 to promote positive internet usage.
In 2007, YouTube introduced the first Anti-Bullying Channel for youth (BeatBullying), using the assistance of celebrities to tackle the problem.
In March 2010, a 17-year-old girl named Alexis Skye Pilkington was found dead in her room by her parents. Her parents claimed that after repeated cyberbullying, she was driven to suicide. Shortly after her death, attacks resumed. Members of eBaums World began to troll
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human be ...
teens' memorial pages on Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
, with the comments including expressions of pleasure over the death, with pictures of what seemed to be a banana as their profile pictures. Family and friends of the deceased teen responded by creating Facebook groups denouncing cyberbullying and trolling, with logos of bananas behind a red circle with a diagonal line through it.
In response and partnership to the 2011 film '' Bully'', a grassroots effort to stop cyberbullying called the Bully Project was created. Their goal is to start "a national movement to stop bullying that is transforming children's lives and changing a culture of bullying into one of empathy and action."
See also
*Best Enemies
Best Enemies is an education resource and film created by Ross and Darren Bark that discusses the cyber bullying problem in Australian schools, and explores how to tackle it and help students become pro-active in reporting and stopping it.
Program ...
*Character assassination
"Character Assassination" is a four-issue Spider-Man story arc written by Marc Guggenheim with art by John Romita, Jr. and published by Marvel Comics. The arc appears in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #584-#588. An interlude, "The Spartacus Gambit" ...
*Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organization. It may include false accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity theft, thre ...
* Cyber defamation law
* Digital safety
*Digital media use and mental health
The relationships between digital media use and mental health have been investigated by various researchers—predominantly psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and medical experts—especially since the mid-1990s, after the growth of ...
* Dogpiling
*Gamergate controversy
Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized online misogyny, misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the hashtag "# ...
* Instagram's impact on people
* Jessi Slaughter cyberbullying case
*Mobbing
Mobbing, as a sociological term, means bullying of an individual by a group, in any context, such as a family, peer group, school, workplace, neighborhood, community, or online. When it occurs as physical and emotional abuse in the workplace, suc ...
*Online shaming
Online shaming is a form of public shaming in which targets are publicly humiliated on the internet, via social media platforms (e.g. Twitter or Facebook), or more localized media (e.g. email groups). As online shaming frequently involves expo ...
*Sexting
Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21st ...
*Whataboutism
Whataboutism or whataboutery (as in "what about…?") denotes in a pejorative sense a procedure in which a critical question or argument is not answered or discussed, but retorted with a critical counter-question which expresses a counter-accu ...
*Empathy in online communities
Empathy has been studied in the context of online communities as it pertains to enablers of interpersonal communication, anonymity, as well as barriers to online relationships, such as ambiguity, cyberbullying and internet trolling. The importan ...
References
Further reading
*
* Burgess-Proctor, A., Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2009). Cyberbullying and online harassment: Reconceptualizing the victimization of adolescent girls. In V. Garcia and J. Clifford ds. ''Female crime victims: Reality reconsidered''. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. In Print.
* Keith, S. & Martin, M. E. (2005). ''Cyber-bullying: Creating a Culture of Respect in a Cyber World. Reclaiming Children & Youth'', 13(4), 224–228.
*
*
* Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2009). ''Bullying beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying''. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
* Patchin, J. & Hinduja, S. (2006). Bullies Move beyond the Schoolyard: A Preliminary Look at Cyberbullying. ''Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice'', 4(2), 148–169.
* Tettegah, S. Y., Betout, D., & Taylor, K. R. (2006). Cyber-bullying and schools in an electronic era. In S. Tettegah & R. Hunter (Eds.) Technology and Education: Issues in administration, policy and applications in k12 school. PP. 17–28. London: Elsevier.
* Wolak, J. Mitchell, K.J., & Finkelhor, D. (2006). ''Online victimization of youth: 5 years later''. Alexandria, VA: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Available a
unh.edu
*
* Ybarra ML (2004). Linkages between depressive symptomatology and Internet harassment among young regular Internet users. ''Cyberpsychol and Behavior''. Apr;7(2):247-57.
* Ybarra ML, Mitchell KJ (2004). Youth engaging in online harassment: associations with caregiver-child relationships, Internet use, and personal characteristics. ''Journal of Adolescence''. Jun;27(3):319-36.
* Frederick S. Lane (Chicago: NTI Upstream, 2011)
External links
Cyberbullying Research Center
Cyberbullying
at Stopbullying.gov
Cyberbullying Searchable Information Center
ebrary
ebrary (the "e" is lower case) was an online digital library which held over 100,000 scholarly e-books in 2014. It was available in many academic libraries and provided a set of online database collections that combined scholarly books from ove ...
Cyberbullying.org.nz
– cyberbullying information, support, and teaching resources from the New Zealand non-profit NetSafe, including the short fil
''At a Distance''
Cyberhelp.eu
– practical advice for teachers and guardians
– resource for teenagers
Cyberbullying
– Cyberbullying, Haters, and Trolls
Media Smarts – Cyberbullying
{{Authority control
Abuse
Bullying
Cybercrime
Digital media use and mental health