Cyberbullying: An Overview of Cyberbullying

Introduction

Development of the internet has made people’s life easier to reach information and communicate with each other, learn from what is going on across the world. On the other hand, it is an area that still has some complicated problems like control and regulation. It is a large area and controlling what goes on can be challenging. It is known that teenagers and young adults use internet for sharing data, fun, doing research, socializing, talking, chatting with friends, and making new friends (Beran & Li, 2005). With the help of internet, people easily exhibit behaviors which they may not choose to show in face-to- face interaction or in a real relationship (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004). The International Organization for Standardization (2012) defined cyber space as a complex environment formed because of the interaction of people, software, and services on the internet through technological tools and networks. Cyberspace consists of an electronic world where individuals interact, connected by information technology networks, and the information on these networks (Hinduja & Patchin, 2014; Public Safety Canada, 2010). Besides the positive advantages of cyber areas, there are also there occurs some unforeseen consequences of internet. Sometimes, individuals became insensitive to the usual social rules due to the nature of technology and tend to behave in unusually cruel ways in cyber areas (Bauman, 2007). Negative cyber behaviors that sometimes require legal sanctions have led to the need for new legal regulations and results ranging from criminal sanctions have been experienced with the scope of cyber-crime (Lastowka & Hunter, 2004). One of these cruel behaviors is cyber bullying: bullying between children and teenagers has moved beyond playgrounds and schools to the virtual space. Some of the problematic behaviors among teenagers such as aggressive behaviors that occur on streets and in schools have become possible to be executed anytime and anywhere through cyber areas (Law et al., 2012). As a result, cyberbullying emerges as a new concept of bullying in the field of internet.

The concept of cyberbullying was first introduced in 2004 by Canadian education-science researcher Belsey. Belsey (2004) defined the concept of cyberbullying as the use of information and communication technologies, individually or as a group, by individuals to threaten another individual or group. Cyber bullying is defined as intentionally hurting others by using information and communication technologies like cell phones, internet, e-mail, instant messaging, chat room, or website (Topçu, 2008). Cyber bullying is an aggressive and intentional act toward victims who cannot easily protect and defend themselves via using electronic forms of contact repeatedly over time (Smith et al., 2005). Olweus (2012) showed that spreading the embarrassing picture or the video on a website or something once is common for both perpetrator and targeted group are the most common ways of cyber bullying.