Cyberbullying Gilberto Marzano Rezeknes University Of Applied Sciences Cyberbullying Bullying has traditionally been considered to be a school problem. It usually occurs before an audience of peers and on the school playground (Craig & Pepler, 1997; Olweus, 1993). Bullying takes a wide range of forms including hitting, pushing, holding, hostile gesturing, threatening, humiliating, degrading, teasing, name-calling, put- downs, sarcasm, taunting, staring, sticking out the tongue, eye rolling, silent treatment, manipulating friendship and ostracising (Ma, 2001; Beran,2006) Cyberbullying not necessarily occurs among peers and at school. Cyberbullying A large segment of the total users of the Internet are children and youth under the age of 18. In fact, internet users under the age of 18 tend to view the Internet primarily as a social tool contrasted with older internet users who tend to view it as a tool to work, pay bills, or shop. Cyberbullying actions concern the damage of victims’ social relationships; they include exclusion, spreading rumours, breaking confidences, ridiculing, and garnering support for physical attacks on identified victims. Cyberbullying Dan Olweus, the pioneering researcher in the field of bullying prevention and the creator of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, argues that the claims about cyberbullying made in the media and elsewhere are often greatly exaggerated and that such claims, by and large, have very little scientific support. Dan Olweus, Cyberbullying: An overrated phenomenon?, EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2012, 1–19 Cyberbullying For Dan Orweus a student is being bullied when another student, or several other students: •say mean and hurtful things or make fun of him or her or call him or her mean and hurtful names •completely ignore or exclude him or her from their group of friends or leave him or her out of things on purpose •hit, kick, push, shove around, or lock him or her inside a room •tell lies or spread false rumours about him or her or send mean notes and try tomake other students dislike him/ her •and other hurtful things like that. Cyberbullying Dan Olweus observes that when we talk about bullying, these things may happen repeatedly, and it is difficult for the student being bullied to defend himself or herself. We also call it bullying when a student is teased repeatedly in a mean and hurtful way. But we don’t call it bullying when the teasing is done in a friendly and playful way. Also, it is not bullying when two students of about the same strength or power argue or fight. Cyberbullying There are two different visions about cyberbullying: •cyberbullying is bullying through the use of technology. •cyberbullying is a new form of malicious/aggressive behavior which uses ICT technologies. Often, a cyber aggression is viewed as cyberbullying. The same thing happens for bullying: people look at any aggression as bullying. Cyberbullying However, there are some differences between cyberbullying and other forms of bullying. Early investigations in the cyberbullying scope had identified the anonymity as one of more specific factor of cyberbullying, claiming that cyberbullying was different from traditional bullying because people can use the disguise of anonymity to harass their victims, e. g. sending blind items or dissimulating their own identity. Cyberbullying Indeed, cyberbullies take advantage from the features of online communication (anonymity, asynchronicity, and accessibility) to torment their targets (Valkenburg & Peter, 2011), and it has been observed that the hidden nature of electronic communication can offer to victims, or self-presumed victims, of traditional bullying the opportunity to retaliate on line or to attack their real- world violence perpetrators (Kowalski, 2008). Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J., & Schouten, A. P. (2006). Friend networking sites and their relationship to adolescents' well-being and social self-esteem. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9(5), 584-590. Kowalski, RM, Limber, SP, & Agatston, PW (2008). Cyber bullying. Blackwell Cyberbullying An interesting review of literature on the conceptual and theoretical similarities and differences between cyberbullying and face-to-face bullying, has indicated how the two primary constructs, imbalance of power and repetition, are related to face-to-face and cyberbullying contexts (Dooley et al., 2009): Dooley, J. J., Pyżalski, J., & Cross, D. (2009). Cyberbullying versus face-to- face bullying. Zeitschrift für Psychologie/Journal of Psychology, 217(4), 182- 188. Cyberbullying •Repetition in bullying is based on behavioral repetition over time conducted by perpetrators, while in cyberbullying may be based on technology and the specific features of the content published, going beyond the initial perpetrator’s intentions and behavior •Imbalance of power in bullying is physical power, while in cyberbullying corresponds to a power of technology, and relationship between anonymity and power in cyberbullying may reveal other important differences. Cyberbullying An other factor which characterizes bullying and cyberbullying is a form of helplessness of the victim, who feels defenceless and doesn’t see or even try to find a way to escape the situation (Olweus, 1993; Smith & Brain, 2000). Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at School: What we know and what we can do. Oxford: Blackwell. Smith, P. K., & Brain, P. (2000). Bullying in schools: Lessons from two decades of research. Aggressive Behavior, 26, 1-9. Cyberbullying Nevertheless, there are other factors which differentiate cyberbullying from bullying. Technology offers to cyberbullies a much wider audience than in schoolyard bullying. For example, emails could be forwarded to all the student’s contacts, hurtfull messages could be posted on community network sites and viewed by all members, websites could be created that millions of people could visit, etc. Cyberbullying Cyberbullying actions may include the wide dissemination of: •embarrassing information (true or fabricated) about individuals, their families and/or friends; •confidences intended for the sender alone; •photographs taken with or without consent of the subject; •videos clips taken without consent or made by the victim for a select audience; •social exclusion practiced on victims influencing groups to ‘block’ someone from their list of friends/contacts. Cyberbullying In cyberbullying, the attribute of repetition changes. In face-to-face or traditional bullying the concept of repetition is seen as the person or group engaged in doing the bullying repeating it to the same victim. In cyberbullying because of the viral nature of technology the repetition can occur with many people posting hurtful messages to the victim. Cyberbullying Moreover, in cyberbullying, a specific feature is the difficulty to control the consequences of evil actions. The Internet is an uncontrollable and unregulated world. Emails can be forwarded and messages replicated against the will of its author. Pictures or videos can be viewed and downloaded by an unpredictable number of persons who can send them to others. Digital contents remain online indefinitely and can proliferate beyond the intention of their creators. Cyberbullying Verba volant scripta manent In cyberbullying there is the power of the written word or visual images. In a face-to-face bullying verbal aggression, victims might not remember every word, but in the case of emails and text, chat rooms and web sites the targeted student can read or see what the bully has said over and over. Cyberbullying There is less escape from cyberbullying than from bullying. While schoolyard bullying might only happen in the schoolyard or on the way home or to school, cyberbullying can happen anywhere and at any time. Cyberbullying targets cannot feel safe anytime and anywhere. Cyberbullying A recent research has suggested the hypothesis that cyberbullying causes more mental health problems such as anxiety and depression in victims than face-to-face bullying because of the wider audience and the h24 nature of this bullying (Campbell et al., 2010). Campbell, M., Spears, B., Slee, P., Butler, D., & Kift, S. (2012). Victims’ perceptions of traditional and cyberbullying, and the psychosocial correlates of their victimisation. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 17(3-4), 389-401. Cyberbullying The recent cases of cyberbullying, especially the more extremes, e. g. that were ended with the targets suicide, show that the new technologies of communication are used for a non-stop harassment, to continue to torment when physical contacts are not possible. In certain cases anonymity ceases to be an important factor: targets well know their perpetrators, and cyberbullying seem to appear more close to traditional bullying, as suggested by Kowalski et al. (2008). Cyberbullying However, considering cyberbullying as merely the electronic form of face-to-face bullying may be a limit. Bullying and cyberbullying behaviors share the intentionality to harm someone and like traditional bullying, cyberbullying typically involves repeated behavior and a power imbalance between aggressor and victim. Nevertheless, the virtual environment, the amplifier power of communication, the possible loss of control about contents, the nature of virtual personality and the role of virtual group dynamics represent intricacies that appertain only to cyberbullying. Cyberbullying Cyberbullying definitions Classic definition Cyberbullying is a particular form of bullying (Kowalski and Limber 2007). Kowalski, R. M., Limber,