Cyberbullying
What is cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is the repetitive and intentional hurting of a person or group of people that happens online. It can happen via text, email and on social networks and gaming platforms.
5 things you need to know about cyberbullying
- It can happen 24/7 repeatedly on a range of apps, games and devices
- It can reach a larger number of people and increase the chance that others will join in the bullying
- Children can’t see the impact of their words so may post or share something without thinking
- It can be anonymous so it’s harder to see who’s behind it
- It’s growing and can consist of harassment, threats, exclusion, defamation, and manipulation
Cyberbullying terms and definitions
Online bullying can take many shapes but not all forms are easy to understand. Explore the different types of cyberbullying and bullying behaviours below.
- Baiting: to intentionally make a person angry by saying or doing things to annoy them
- Catfishing: stealing someone’s profile or setting up fake profiles to lure people into starting online relationships
- Cyberstalking: sending repeated and frequent messages that include real threats of physical harm
- Dissing: sending or posting information that’s intended to damage someone’s reputation
- Exclusion: deliberately excluding someone from online conversations, games and activities
- Flaming: sending angry and abusive online messages to intentionally provoke someone into starting an argument
- Fraping: logging into someone else’s account, impersonating them or posting inappropriate content in their name
- Griefing: abusing and angering people through online gaming
- Harassment: targeting an individual or group with persistent and offensive messages which could develop into cyberstalking
- Outing: publicly sharing personal, private or embarrassing information, photos or videos about someone online
- Roasting: ganging up on an individual online and sending offensive abuse until the victim is seen to ‘crack’. sometimes a child will request to be roasted as a form of self-harm” and link to the self-harm hub
- Trolling: deliberately posting provocative and insulting messages about sensitive subjects or inflicting racism or misogyny on an individual