According to the Italian legal system, paragraph 2 of the art. 1 of law 29 May 2017, n. 71 "Provisions for the protection of minors for the prevention and fight against the phenomenon of cyberbullying" defines this case as: "any form of pressure, aggression, harassment, blackmail, insult, denigration, defamation, identity theft, alteration, illicit acquisition , manipulation, illicit processing of personal data to the detriment of minors, carried out electronically, as well as the dissemination of online content concerning even one or more members of the minor's family whose intentional and predominant purpose is to isolate a minor or a group of minors engaging in serious abuse, harmful attack, or ridicule."

As in bullying, the abuser tends to target those he perceives as "different" due to their physical appearance, clothing, skin color, sexual or religious orientation and so on. But a qualitative study identified the cyberbully's motivations as one or more of the following: revenge, boredom diversion, jealousy, initiation rite (all internal motivations); avoidance of the consequences that could instead derive from an act of bullying, lack of courage in direct confrontation (external motivations) and only to a minimal extent prejudice towards diversity of any kind.