- Bullying of all kinds can seriously affect the mental health, academic work, and physical health of children who are targeted.1
- We must try to end all forms of bullying, particularly the new emerging problem of cyberbullying because:
- Cyberbullying can occur at any time of the day or night
- Cyberbullying messages and images can be distributed quickly to a very wide audience
- Children and youth can be anonymous when cyberbullying, which makes it difficult (and sometimes impossible) to trace them.2
- Research examining the harm caused by cyberbullying media in comparison to traditional bullying found that although most forms of cyberbullying were rated as having a similar impact, pictures and video clips were perceived to cause much greater harm than traditional bullying.2
References:
- Stop Bullying Now! U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. What We Know About Bullying.
- Neil Tippett, Fran Thompson, Peter K Smith. Research on Cyberbullying: Key findings and practical suggestions.