HEALTH PLUS:Cyberbullying is complex but it is not insurmountable, writes Marie Murray
CHILDREN, PARENTS and teachers know about bullying. They are aware of the psychological damage it does to the self-esteem and identity of the child: the pain that may be inflicted by physical attack, the emotional hurt of verbal attack and the social pain of exclusion.
Most schools now have comprehensive anti-bullying policies. The adult world has increased its understanding and created more effective interventions to tackle the school or the street bully.
But what if the bully is not identifiable, or at least not in a verifiable way? What if the bullying is not confined to a specific time and space but is persistent, public and always available on the internet where it may remain indefinitely?
What if the bullying is cyberbullying: the new means of torturing the psyche of the victim while evading discovery, escaping responsibility and avoiding intervention or censure? Most significantly, what if the bullying is anonymous, instant, pervasive, if it can continue after school, into the night, early in the morning, at weekends, at all times intimidating, defaming and ridiculing the target?
Sadly, that reality is upon us. How we respond to this phenomenon is important for young people, for the mental milieu in which we rear them and in addressing this new dimension in child protection and children's rights.
Bullying is traditionally defined as repeated verbal, psychological or physical aggression conducted by an individual or group against another person who is not able to defend him or herself in that instance. It is an unacceptable assault on the integrity of the target of bullying and the psychological consequences can infiltrate every aspect of a young person's emotional life.
Cyberbullying refers to bullying which is deliberate, malicious, repetitive and technologically conducted. It is carried out using e-mail, the internet, mobile phones or any other technological communicative means. It is of necessity psychological, although it may be an extension of the traditional bullying assaults on a child in other contexts. Classically, it consists of messages that are malicious, intimidating, threatening, alarming or degrading.
Photographs may be posted, video clips may be displayed and the perpetrators may even assume the identity of someone the target knows in order to cause misunderstanding.
There are many clinical accounts of messages impersonating parents saying there has been an accident, even a family death being sent by mobile phone and one cannot imagine the alarm and distress that type of communication can achieve.
Cyberbullying takes as many forms as technology allows: intimidation, impersonation and the opportunity to repeat humiliation by showing video clips of physical assault on the net which prolongs and compounds the original attack.
Exclusion ensures that the young person is blocked from group sites and is another dimension to the loneliness and segregation someone who is being bullied feels.
False reporting consists of fabricated complaints being made to the victim's website server to have the person's account erased. Finally, adverts may be posted so that the victim is the recipient of stranger calls wanting to buy the service advertised.
Cyberbullying is complex but it is not insurmountable and, like all abuses, it requires recognition, documentation and preventative measures in addition to public awareness and a societal discourse that condemns it.
The guidelines for tackling traditional bullying also apply to cyberbullying: creating a safe context where young people may disclose what is happening to them and strong anti-bullying school policies that include behaviour outside school and that formally address the issue of bullying through technology.
Keeping bullying texts and messages means that evidence of the bullying crime is preserved and the perpetrators may be traceable. Parental involvement is crucial.
Education is the key and there are many resources for parents and young people to access information about how to tackle this problem, all of which are contained in the Get With It - A Guide to Cyberbullyingbooklet being launched today by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern.
This booklet contains most of what parents and young people need to know to address cyberbullying. Once launched, the booklet will be available from the Office of Internet Safety (OIS) through its freefone number 1800 24 25 95. It will also be circulated in the education system through the National Centre for Technology in Education.
• Clinical psychologist Marie Murray is director of the Student Counselling Services in UCD and co-author of The ABC of Bullying published by Mercier Press.