Before the rise of modern technologies, peer violence occurred in playgrounds, parks, and school hallways, making it easier to spot and address. Today, much of this activity has shifted to the “virtual world,” which adds complexity to the issue. Children and youth can still experience various forms of violence, often involving other children.
Peer violence involves intentional physical attacks, psychological, emotional, or sexual harm inflicted repeatedly or persistently by one or more children. It is defined by six key factors: (1) Intent to cause harm or injury; (2) Repetition of violent behavior; (3) Disproportion in age, strength, or numbers between perpetrator(s) and victim; (4) Powerlessness and vulnerability of the victim; (5) Lack of support for the victim; (6) Consequences resulting from the violence.
Cyberbullying can be defined as any malicious and repeated use of information and communication technologies to harm someone, most often to humiliate, tease, threaten, or abuse a child in various ways.
Examples include sending anonymous hate messages, inciting group hatred, attacking someone’s privacy by revealing personal information, “hacking” into email accounts, creating blogs with mocking content about peers, stalking, insulting, accessing harmful material irresponsibly, spreading violent and insulting comments, exposing children to age-inappropriate material, and sexual grooming.
Cyberbullying involves behaviors that are:
- repeated,
- intentional,
- harmful, and
- occurring in power-imbalanced relationships.
When these four aspects are compared to the earlier definition of peer violence, it becomes evident that there are no significant differences.
Today’s children and youth are digital natives—they are growing up in a world intertwined with modern technology. Consequently, the virtual world is an integral part of their lives. The bullying that once took place in classrooms now happens online—within social media groups, gaming chats, and other digital spaces. Its consequences are felt both in virtual and real-life contexts.
Thus, we can say that cyberbullying is not a new type of violence. It is simply peer violence occurring in a virtual space.