For example, a study of adults published in the Journal of Social Psychology identified statistically significant increases in pro–cyberbullying attitudes as well as in cyberbullying offending behavior.
[19][20][21] A frequently used definition of cyberbullying is "an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a group or an individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself.
[38] Cyberbullying could be limited to posting rumors about a person on the internet with the intention of bringing about hatred in others' minds or convincing others to dislike or participate in online denigration of a target.
In addition, the combination of cameras and Internet access and the instant availability of these modern smartphone technologies yield specific types of cyberbullying not found in other platforms.
Danah Boyd writes, "teens regularly used that word [drama] to describe various forms of interpersonal conflict that ranged from insignificant joking around to serious jealousy–driven relational aggression.
[62] In an internet-streamed fighting game competition, one female gamer forfeited a match after the coach of her team, Aris Bakhtanians, stated, "The sexual harassment is part of the culture.
A notable case was the death of "Near", the developer of Higan, a console emulator, who took their own life after becoming the subject to ridicule from members of the online Kiwi Farms board following their announcement of being nonbinary.
[71] Dating app users who are victims of cyberbullying encounter a range of harmful behaviors, including catfishing, the uninvited sharing of personal images, and offensive remarks.
Uploaded in 2003, the star of the video, Ghyslain Raza (a 9th grader at the time) is shown messing around and waving around a golf ball retriever as if it is a real Jedi lightsaber.
"[96] However, the Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace abstract reports critical impacts in almost all of the respondents, taking the form of lower self–esteem, loneliness, disillusionment, and distrust of people.
Among factors that motivate stalkers are envy, pathological obsession (professional or sexual), unemployment or failure with own job or life, or the desire to intimidate and cause others to feel inferior.
Gender differences have mixed results, but one finding indicated that younger females (10 or 11) and older males (13+) tend to engage in cyber bullying behaviors.
Women lawmakers are three times more likely than their male counterparts to receive sexually abusive comments, including threats of rape, beatings, death, or abduction.
A 2018 study by Dublin City University (DCU)'s National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC) found that almost 10% of post-primary teachers were victims of cyberbullying, and 15% knew of a colleague who had experienced it in the previous 12 months.
[87] Various effects on bullied teachers included increased stress and anxiety, "negative impacts on their working environment, and a reluctance to report the issue and seek help from management".
[126] Hinduja and Patchin completed a study in the summer of 2005 of approximately 1,500 Internet–using adolescents and found that over one–third of youth reported being victimized online, and over 16% of respondents admitted to cyberbullying others.
[12] Additional research by Hinduja and Patchin in 2007[128] found that youth who report being victims of cyberbullying also experience stress or strain that is related to offline problem behaviors such as running away from home, cheating on a test, skipping school, or using alcohol or marijuana.
[137] In the Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2013, the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published results of its survey as part of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) in June 2014, indicating the percentage of school children being bullied through e–mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, websites, or texting ("electronically bullied") during the course of 2013.
By examining the decisions of three such lawsuits heard in lower courts, Alvin J. Primack and Kevin A. Johnson argued that current First Amendment doctrine, particularly the case of Morse v. Frederick (2007), may offer interpretive resources for justifying administrative reach to some online digital speech.
Other new offences, such as revenge porn, posts advertising people–smuggling, and messages encouraging people to commit suicide, would fall under the responsibilities of online platforms like Facebook and Twitter to tackle.
[152] In 2002, France passed the Social Modernization Law, which added consequences to the French Labor Code for cyberbullying such as holding employers accountable for their involvement in harassment.
[153] The legislation defines "moral harassment" as "repeated acts leading to a deterioration of the working conditions and that are likely to harm the dignity, the physical or psychological heath of the victim or his professional career.
Coping strategies may include social support groups composed of victims of cyberbullying,[156] which could allow students to share their stories, and remove the feeling of being alone.
[166] According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, "there have been several high‐profile cases involving teenagers taking their own lives in part because of being harassed and mistreated over the Internet, a phenomenon we have termed cyberbullicide – suicide indirectly or directly influenced by experiences with online aggression."
[171] If preventive actions are not taken against cyberbullying, younger children in addition to teenagers will feel more lonely and depressed along with having significant changes in their eating and sleeping patterns as well as loss of interest in their normal activities.
[169][171] Younger children and teenagers are 76.2% less likely to display suicidal behaviors and thoughts, but are still at risk depending on other factors such as mental health status, home care, and relationships with others.
[169] Young people seem particularly vulnerable to the effects of cyberbullying through anonymous social media, perhaps because adolescents are attracted to these platforms as a means of seeking validation from their peers.
It was founded in 2010 in response to the increasing number of cyberbullying related incidents of depression, eating disorders, social isolation, self-harm and suicides devastating lives around the world.
Sponsors of the conference included McAfee, AOL, Disney, Procter & Gamble, Girl Scouts of the USA, WiredTrust, Children's Safety Research and Innovation Centre, and KidZui.com.
Family and friends of the deceased teen responded by creating Facebook groups denouncing cyberbullying and trolling, with logos of bananas behind a red circle with a diagonal line through it.