Repeated acts (such as contacting, tracking, or threatening someone) that annoy and distress the recipient and that are based on the victim’s membership in a social group. Harassment becomes criminal when the behavior causes the person targeted to become reasonably fearful for her or his safety. See also, sexual harassment, online.
Published in Chapter:
Cyberbullying and Internet Safety
Deirdre M. Kelly (University of British Columbia, Canada) and Chrissie Arnold (University of British Columbia, Canada)
Copyright: © 2016
|Pages: 31
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8310-5.ch021
Abstract
The chapter considers cyberbullying in relation to Internet safety, concentrating on recent, high quality empirical studies. The review discusses conventional debates over how to define cyberbullying, arguing to limit the term to repeated, electronically-mediated incidents involving intention to harm and a power imbalance between bully and victim. It also takes note of the critical perspective that cyberbullying—through its generic and individualistic framing—deflects attention from the racism, sexism, ableism, and heterosexism that can motivate or exacerbate the problem of such bullying. The review concludes that: (a) cyberbullying, rigorously defined, is a phenomenon that is less pervasive and dire than widely believed; and (b) cyber-aggression and online harassment are more prevalent, yet understudied. Fueled by various societal inequalities, these latter forms of online abuse require urgent public attention. The chapter's recommendations are informed by a view of young people as apprentice citizens, who learn democratic participation by practicing it.