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What is cyberbullying?
In This Article
Online harassment can happen to anyone, but cyberbullying is the term most commonly used when children receive online threats and abuse from their peers. As young people, like the rest of us, go online to study, socialise and play, bullying has also migrated to their online interactions.
One in three children is estimated to have experienced cyberbullying in some form, according to information from cybersecurity firm ESET, working in cooperation with psychologist Jarmila Tomková. Research shows that cyberbullying goes hand-in-hand with offline bullying and most frequently involves peers from children’s day-to-day lives. Digital tools and spaces are simply another avenue for attackers to harm their victim.
This form of peer abuse was in some cases exacerbated by the move to online schooling in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020/21 the NSPCC’sChildlineservice delivered 2,500 counselling sessions on cyberbullying.
One 14-year-old who contacted the charity said: “The bullying I used to get at school has gone online now because we are not going to school due to the virus. I am getting horrible messages sent to me and nasty comments about everything I post. One message that really upset me said my mum was going to die of coronavirus. The bullying is getting worse now than when I was at school.”
Because online environments have their own distinct forms of interaction, mediated by the tools available (such as posts and blogs, social media likes and comments, video and image sharing), cyberbullying can look a little different to its offline equivalent, and it can be harder for the victim to get away from.
According to ESET, cyberbullying most frequently occurs on social network, in group chats, via direct messages sent to the victim’s mobile device and in email messages.
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Examples of cyberbullying
Signs that your child may be being bullied online
What to do about cyberbullying
The NSPCC offers the following advice to children experiencing cyberbullying in the UK:
And for parents and guardians who suspect that their child may be being cyberbullied:
Where cyberbullying is being carried out by a child’s offline peer group, ESET highlights the important role ofteachersin monitoring and stopping harassment and helping children to resolve conflicts and maintain functioning relationships with their peers.
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If action needs to be taken against a cyberbully, it’s important to store the bullying communication as evidence, in the form of SMS messages, chat messages, humiliating photographs, comments or screenshots of online applications
Where possible, accounts belonging to bullies should be blocked and prevented from further interaction with the victim. However, in the case of offline relationships, further resolution is likely to be required, involving parents, teachers and other professionals involved in the child’s welfare.
This article draws on information provided by the NSPCC and ESET. All names and potentially identifying details have been changed to protect the identity of the child or young person. Quotes are created from real Childline service users but are not necessarily direct quotes from the child or young person.
K.G. Orphanides is a writer and developer whose areas of expertise include internet security, VPNs, Linux for the desktop, small-scale game development, software preservation and computer audio techno…
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
