Abstract
The development of new information technologies has led to new forms of violence between adolescents and young people, frequent users of social networks, chats, and e-messages. Thus, this chapter aims to clarify the concept of cyberbullying and characterize this problem by reflecting on similarities and differences of traditional bullying and its typologies and presenting some prevalence data in different countries, namely during pandemic situation. The authors intend to characterize the participants and roles played in this problem, also reflecting on the consequences for them in the short and long term with an emphasis in the consequences on mental health. The main risk and protection factors of a biopsychosocial nature will be explored considering that this phenomenon is complex and dynamic. Subsequently, preventive strategies will be presented at school and family levels to foster more proactive than reactive responses to the fight against cyberbullying. Finally, some empirically validated intervention strategies stand out.
TopIntroduction
The increasing use of technologies has been changing young people's relationships, offering them the opportunity to communicate with both known and unknown people (Sari & Camadan, 2016), which adds a different dimension to peer relationships between adolescents and young people. This factor allows for faster and anonymous communication, which can lead to less positive issues (Sari & Camadan, 2016) and negative behaviours such as cyberbullying (Huang & Chou, 2010). Also, Zhou et al. (2013) refer that with the increasing use of various electronic resources, a new form of bullying has been increasing and social phenomena that were only seen offline, also began to take place online, as is the case with the transfer of traditional bullying to the Internet – cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is currently a global problem aggravated by the constraints generated by the pandemic COVID-19 pandemic. In this sense, leaders of international organizations (e.g., ONU, WHO, UNICEF - Board Chair, end Violence Against Children African Child Policy Forum), committed to the protection of children, they signed a document in which they share the concern about this type of violence, appealing for action and promising support to protect children from violence and reduce the impact of COVID-19 on children in all countries and communities.
This chapter intend to bring new information toward this phenomenon exploring definitions, prevalence, also during pandemic time, the different roles toward cyberbullying but also the warning signs of the presence of cyberbullying. Finally, the authors suggest future research and some recommendations toward intervention/ prevention strategies in both contexts (school and family).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Prevention: Preventing something wrong happen.
Auto Cyberbullying: Use of social networks promotes psychological harm to oneself.
Hybrid Bystander: When occurred a change in the role from traditional bullying to cyberbullying toward the bystander.
Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying is bullying through digital technologies. Repeated behavior intended to frighten, infuriate, or embarrass those who are victims.
Warning Signs: Indicators that something is wrong.
Prevalence: Refers to the number of cases of involvement in cyberbullying found in an investigation.
Digital Citizenship: Use of technology responsibly or being a good online citizen.