Cyberbullying has been getting more and more attention from the media, decision makers, industry players, and society as a whole over the last decade. With the rise in the use of mobile technologies with permanent access to the internet, coupled with a sense of anonymity and lack of accountability, cyberbullying has been affecting a substantial number of people including children, teens and even teachers.
DeleteCyberbullying is an European awereness raising campaign on cyberbullying, This background paper published by the group has the aim of giving a general overview of the phenomena, providing the main official definitions of cyberbullying, statistics on the potential victims and perpetrators, and information on where this issue usually takes place. Moreover, the paper presents the vast arrays of measures that can be taken at each level to address the issue, such as national and international law, school rules and policies, teacher training, training of young people, children's and parent's awareness raising and empowerment campaigns.
The conclusion that we can draw from this document is that growing attention should focus on cyberbullying, since with its emergence, a victim is never safe and continues to suffer from threats, hurtful messages, embarrassing and humiliating pictures or videos and so forth. This is enough to drive a victim to the point of attempting or committing suicide. The existing tools at the disposal of bullies have made it much easier and even, some would argue, less risky for bullies to hurt their victims while making it harder for victims to resist and stop the bullying and for bystanders, parents and teachers to quickly identify victims and help them. It is up to every actor listed in the document (parents and school teachers, peers and bystanders, legal frameworks and law enforcement, governments and policy makers, NGOs and civil society organizations) to address this issue seriously as the consequences can be life threatening.