European Commission, 2017

Cyberbullying is the intent to offend, threaten, block or harass others by using technical devices such as the internet and mobile phones. The perpetrator - also called "bully" - is seeking a victim who cannot defend himself against the attacks. Therefore, there is an imbalance between the offender and the victim, which is exploited by the perpetrator, while the victim is socially isolated. Cyberbullying takes place on the Internet (e.g. in social networks, video portals, etc.) and via smartphones (e.g. by instant messaging applications like WhatsApp). Often, the bully is anonymous, so the victim does not know from whom exactly the attacks are coming. Cyberbullying among children and adolescents, however, is often associated with the personal “offline” environment, such as the school, the residential district, the village or the ethnic community. Hence, the victims are therefore usually suspicious about who is behind the threats.

Moreover, cyberbullying is often accompanied by bullying in the offline world – in some cases bullying starts online and continues offline in school, or vice versa. Therefore, in most cases, bullying and cyberbullying cannot be seen as separate issues.

Some young people can feel under pressure to look and behave in a certain way when they are online.

Several years ago Danah Boyd spoke of the net effect where she described how being online changed the way that people behaved for a number of reasons. We have to remember that the socializing, the behaviour and development of adolescents haven’t really changed that much, but users of social media who are not thinking critically about what they are doing can get into trouble.