2. 2
There is no single definition of
bullying and cyberbullying
agreed upon internationally
and at European level.
However, attempts to define
these phenomena have been
made by international
organizations, EU
institutions and academia.
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WHAT IS CYBER BULLYING?
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Bullying is generally understood
as an aggressive and
intentional act or behaviour
carried out by a group or an
individual repeatedly and over
time against a victim who
cannot easily defend him or
herself.
The term cyberbullying is used to
describe bullying taking place
on the internet mostly through
mobile phones and social
media. 3
WHAT IS CYBER BULLYING?
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WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?
1/3 children has been a
victim of cyber-bullying.
Nearly half of suicides
among 10 to 14-year-
olds are due to bullying.
1 in 7 teachers is a victim
of cyber-bullying.
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There are two kinds of Cyber Bullying...
Direct Attacks- messages
sent directly to the
victim.
Cyber Bullying by Proxy-
Using someone else to
cyber bully a victim, this
proxy may know they
are cyber bullying and
they may not.
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Why do children Cyber Bully?
Anger
Frustration
Revenge
Entertainment
To get laughs or reactions
Power hungry
Because all motives for bullying are different so
are the solutions and responses
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Elements characterizing cyberbullying
The use of electronic or
digital means
Intentional harm
Imbalance of power
Repetition
Sense of anonymity and
lack of accountability
Publicity
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3 Key bullying characteristics are:
Bullying is intentional acts. Bullies
understands that their actions hurt
the other and they are doing it
deliberately.
Repetitive behavior. Just one
aggressive action is not bullying.
Bullying called such behavior, which
takes place systematically for some
time.
Bullying with striking psychological
or physical strength advantage.
Thus, the offended child feels
weaker than the perpetrators and
can not defend himself from them.
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FORMS OF CYBERBULLYING
Behavior Definition
Exclusion the rejection of a person from an online group provoking his/her social marginalization
and exclusion
Online
harassment
the repetition of harassment behaviours on the net, including insults, mocking, slander,
menacing chain messages, denigrations, name calling, gossiping, abusive or hate-
related behaviours. Harassment differs from nuisance in light of its frequency. It can
also be featured as sexual harassment if it includes the spreading of sexual rumours, or
the commenting of the body, appearance, sex, gender of an individual.
Griefing the harassment of someone in a cyber-game or virtual word (e.g. ChatRoulette,
Formspring, etc.)
Flaming the online sending of violent or vulgar messages. It differentiates from harassment on
the basis that flaming is an online fight featured by anger and violence (e.g. use of
capital letter or images to make their point)
Trolling the persistent abusive comments on a website
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FORMS OF CYBERBULLYING
Behavior Definition
Cyberstalking involves continual threatening and sending of rude messages.
Cyber - persecution continuous and repetitive harassment, denigration, insulting, and threats.
Masquerade a situation where a bully creates a fake identity to harass someone else.
Impersonation the impersonation of someone else to send malicious messages, as well as the
breaking into someone’s account to send messages, or like posts that will cause
embarrassment or damage to the person’s reputation and affect his/her social
Life.
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EXTENT AND SCOPE OF THE PHENOMENOM
A worldwide survey conducted in 2011 in 24 countries found that 66%
of the 18,687 interviewed people including children and adults, saw,
read or heard something about cyberbullying behaviours.
In the USA, the Cyberbullying Research Center assessed that one out of
four teenagers has experienced cyberbullying and one out of six has
perpetrated cyberbullying.
The 2014 EU Net Children Go Mobile Report showed that 12% of the
3,500 children aged 9-16 years old were cyberbullied. The 2011 EU Kids
Online report found that 6% of the 25,142 children between 9 and 16
years of age had been bullied online across Europe, and 3 % had carried
out cyberbullying.
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MEANS USED
Cyberbullying can be carried out through
different means, such as mobile devices,
internet, messaging (e.g. instant
messaging, chat programs,
text/audio/video programs, multimedia
messages, gaming devices and social
networks).
Initial research in this area showed that
the most common channels to perpetrate
cyberbullying were phone calls and text
messages.
However, the rapid pace of ICT innovation
determined changes in patterns.
Nowadays, cyberbullying is increasingly
performed through social networks
(mostly Facebook, followed by Twitter,
Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube)
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VICTIMS
Trends reflect a relationship between
age and frequency of victimization with
a higher number of victims in the group
of 13–15-year-old children.
According to the Net Children Go Mobile
survey, which interviewed 3,500 children
of seven EU Member States, over the
period 2013–2014, children between 13
and 14 years of age were the most
affected by cyberbullying.
Victims of cyberbullying tend to be
younger than the perpetrators.
More than twice the number of teenage
girls being cyberbullied compared to
boys.
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PERPETRATORS
The few studies available at the international
level tend to indicate that older children are
more likely to perpetrate cyberbullying.
Older children, 14 years old and above,
emerged as the majority of perpetrators and
their actions were perceived as rougher.
Cyberbullying is generally equal for both
sexes. Although some studies suggest that
girls are perpetrators of cyberbullying as
much as boys, no conclusive evidence can be
drawn on this aspect.
Girls are more involved in bullying online
than offline.
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Cyber Bully Profile
Cyber Bullies:
High self image
Social competence
High relationship between
traditional and online bully
Lack of surveillance by
parents
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Cyberbullying -VS- Bullying
Bullying Cyberbullying
Face – to - face 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days/yr
Can find a safe space or escape No safe space – hard to escape
Limited to onlookers Shared by wide audience – can go viral in a
matter of seconds
Bully can be identified Bully can be anonymous
Can see facial and body reaction of target
and onlookers
Harder to empathize with the target
No geographical limitations
The target can easily become the bully
Bullying online and offline seem also to be linked. Cyberbullying perpetrators are often involved
as victims or perpetrators in traditional bullying.
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Consequences of Cyber Bullying
Anxiety
Sadness
Shame
Anger
Depression
Stress Related Disorders
Suicide
Low Self Esteem
Withdrawal from friends and activities
Changes in mood, behaviour and appetite
Emotional Distress during and after using
technology
Bullying others
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Why is Cyberbullying so hurtful?
1. Permanence: The insults,
comments or images can be
preserved by the person who
was bullied or by others so
that the victim may read or
view them over and over
again and the harm is re-
inflicted with each reading or
viewing.
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Why is Cyberbullying so hurtful?
2. Audience size: The
size of the audience
that is able to view or
access the damaging
material increases the
victim’s humiliation.
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Why is Cyberbullying so hurtful?
3. Familiarity: many young
people are friends with or
know their cyber bully
either threw school or
other personal
connections, increasing
the potential for
embarrassment and
humiliation.
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Why is Cyberbullying so hurtful?
4. Social Networking:
Social Networking sites
such as Facebook and
MySpace allow cyber
bullies to engage in
campaigns against a
particular person which
may involve many
others.
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Why is Cyberbullying so hurtful?
5. Speed: The speed at
which harmful
messages can reach
large audiences also
plays a major part in
making cyberbullying
so damaging to the
targets.
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Statistics
Around half of teens have been the
victims of cyber bullying.
Only 1 in 10 teens tells a parent if they
have been a cyber bully victim.
Fewer than 1 in 5 cyber bullying
incidents are reported to law
enforcement.
1 in 10 adolescents or teens have had
embarrassing or damaging pictures
taken of themselves without their
permission, often using cellphone
cameras.
About 1 in 5 teens have posted or sent
sexually suggestive or nude pictures of
themselves to others.
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How to help prevent cyberbullying?
Block all
communication with
cyberbullies
Do not forward any
messages, comments,
etc. that involve
cyberbulling
Always report any
cyberbulling taking
place to an adult
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Don’t Be a Victim!
Talk about bullying in general with friends,
teachers and family.
Discuss what personal information is
appropriate to tell others, and what is not.
Visit some popular teen sites with your
parents, teachers, or friends and discuss
what you see there and what could be a
danger.
Learn to develop realistic expectations for
both personal and on-line relationships.
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Tips How to Stop a Cyberbully
Be private - keep passwords,
pictures and secrets to yourself.
Take five - don’t reply in anger.
Stop, block and tell - don’t reply,
block the sender, tell someone.
Save the evidence - on your
computer or print out.
Google yourself.
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Steps to Take if you believe you have been a victim of
Cyberbullying
Determine if cyberbullying is actually
going on.
Save the evidence.
Identify the sender - contact your ISP
(Internet Service Provider) if necessary.
Contact the offender’s parents - who
may or may not be supportive.
Back up your remarks with written
evidence.
Contact your school.
Threats, extortion, sexual harassment
should be reported to the police.
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Why Don’t Victims Ask for Help?
Kids view the Internet is
a lifeline to their peer
group.
Kids don’t want adults
to know they have a
problem with
cyberbullying because
they fear that adults will
take their computer
away.
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How you can help!
Don’t engage in or support
mean material,gossip, or rumors
posted online, or talk about it.
Support the victim being
targeted online byposting
positive messages!
Print the evidence to share with
an authority.
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Responsibility
There are no legal provisions aimed at
targeting cyberbullying.
In the absence of a specific criminal
offence for cyberbullying, all countries
address cyberbullying within the legal
framework of other offences in a broad
range of areas such as: violence; anti-
discrimination and computer-related
crimes.
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Criminal code of the Republic of Lithuania
Art. 154. Libel
A person who spreads false information about another person that
could arouse contempt for this person or humiliate him or
undermine trust in him shall be punished by a fine or by
restriction of liberty or by arrest or by imprisonment for a term
of up to one year.
Art. 155. Insult
person who publicly humiliates a person in an abusive manner by an
action, word of mouth or in writing shall be punished by a fine
or by restriction of liberty or by arrest or by imprisonment for
a term of up to one year.
Art. 145. Threatening to Murder or Cause a Severe Health
Impairment to a Person or Terrorisation of a Person
A person who threatens to murder a person or cause a severe
health impairment to him, where there is a sufficient basis for
believing that the threat may be fulfilled shall be punished by
community service or by a fine or by restriction of liberty or by
arrest or by imprisonment for a term of up to two year.
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Remember!
We are not invisible online, and anything we
post can be traced back to us.
Monitor your online reputation!
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Thank you for your attention!
33
Mantas Struckas
Head of Public order Division
Alytus county police headquarters
2017.03.21
Editor's Notes
Cyberbullying corresponds, thus, to an equally aggressive and intentional act, carried out through the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs). Bullying off and online usually involves the following key participants: the perpetrator, the victim and bystanders. Bystanders are those who see what is happening between the bully and the victim but they are not directly involved in the bullying.
Cyberbullying has greatly increased in recent years bolstered by the growth of social media and taking new forms such as mockery, insults, threats, rumours, gossip, disagreeable comments, slander, etc.
The geographical and temporal scope of cyberbullying is almost unlimited. Due to the means used, cyberbullying can take place everywhere and at any time as it may occur inside or outside schools and homes.
The use of electronic or digital means through which the abuse is perpetrated;
Intentional harm, which represents the intention of the perpetrator to inflict harm on the victim putting in place unpleasant and distressing behaviours against him;
Imbalance of power, which is the advantage of the perpetrator over the victim,
where the latter cannot easily defend him/herself77. Although some scholars
consider this element hard to align with cyberbullying due to the fact that both the
victim and the perpetrator may have advanced ICTs skills78, the imbalance of power
is still considered to be present in cyberbullying since the bully holds a dominant
position compared to the victim at least at psychological level. Therefore, while
recognizing the complexity of measuring the imbalance of power online, some
scholars stress the need to assess the difficulty of the victim to defend him/herself
on a case-by-case basis.
Repetition which should be interpreted as the possibility to quickly share harmful
content with a broad audience in a virtual environment80 with one single action.
Moreover, harmful content can be reposted, shared, or liked81 causing significant
harm to the victim even without the repetition of the act over time82.
Sense of anonymity and lack of accountability which refer to the possibility for
the perpetrator to remain anonymous and the feeling of not being accountable for
his/her own actions. Anonymity may intensify the negative perception of the act by the victim who feels powerless as a result of not knowing where the attack comes
from. For some authors, anonymity may reduce the need for an imbalance of power
as a criterion for defining cyberbullying due to the fact that not knowing where the
attack comes from puts the cyberbully in a powerful position compared to that of
the victim84. Moreover, the perceived anonymity of the online environment
encourages adolescents to act in ways they would not in face-to-face interactions.
Therefore, anonymity may empower those who are unlikely to carry out traditional
bullying to perpetrate bullying online.
Publicity which refers to the ability of cyberbullying actions to be accessible to
multiple people exponentially increasing the breadth of the audience (i.e. the
cyberbullying action may register numerous views by bystanders).