Cyberbullying Issues

Introduction

Digital era is the age of the internet where technology becomes more widely accessible to the general public, particularly students. While the internet has become a massive factor of millions of adults' ordinary activities, it has also become a key part of daily lifestyle of children also. Smartphone Internet connectivity has undoubtedly opened up new and fascinating possibilities. It allows young people, in particular, to seek out social support, explore their identities, improve interpersonal and critical thinking skills, and benefit educationally from easy access to information. The Internet has become a prerequisite for information dissemination for children and individuals of all ages due to its ferocious ability to fetch information needed in a matter of seconds, making it an integral informational/educational tool that parents find challenging to deny. Unfortunately, technological advancements such as the Internet and Smartphones provide a potent weapon for antisocial behaviour. It introduces the child to all of the information on the web, which may or may not be appropriate for their developing minds, as well as to various social networking sites, where they are likely to encounter strangers who may have hidden agendas ranging from money to seeking sadistic/sexual pleasures. Befriending these people puts a strain on these young minds, diminishing their self-esteem and promoting depression (Anderson et al. 2014), and driving them to commit suicide on exceptional cases. It has introduced a new platform for bullying, which has switched from the physical world to the virtual cyber-world of school-aged children and teenagers. Some children are being exposed to unpleasant, threatening, or unsafe cyber interactions that jeopardise their safety and emotional well-being in this cyber-world (Li, Smith & Cross, 2012). Cyberbullying is an aggressive, intentional act committed by a group or individual, via electronic forms of contact, against a victim who cannot easily defend himself or herself, repeatedly or over time” (Smith et al. 2008). The anonymous electronic posting of despicable things about a person (such as a student) is referred to as cyberbullying (Merriam-Webster, 2017). Belsey (2004) defined it as the use of ICT to encourage deliberate, recurrent, and aggressive behaviour by a person or group with the intent to damage others. It can happen on social media sites, chat rooms, gaming platforms, and cell phones. Cyberbullying is more likely than other forms of bullying to go unnoticed by parents and administrators. This is due to victims' feelings that they needed to learn how to cope with it on their own, as well as their fear of their internet privileges being restricted or taken altogether if they told their parents. The existing literature consistently reveals that bullied teenagers do not report their experiences to others (Petrosino et al., 2010; Black et al., 2010; Mishna and Alaggia, 2005; Naylor and Cowie, 1999; Charach et al., 1995). For example, Ybarra et al. (2006) discovered that 33% of cyberbullying victims in their study did not acknowledge the incidence to anyone at all. Petrosino et al. (2010) work is especially relevant because their data was collected from a nationally representative sample of American schools and was based on data from the National Crime Victimization Survey School Crime Supplement (2007), which brought to light that 64% of adolescents aged 12 to 18 didn't disclose their experience. Cyberbullying is a real issue, and it's imperative to study the consequences of cyberaggression on people of all ages, particularly adolescents and emerging adults, as well as provide some insight into how individuals cope with or handle cyberbullying. This chapter will give an overview of the available literature on cyberbullying in order to explain and discuss the key areas: