M
anaging our children’s
relationship with the computer,
internet, television and phones
has become a daily struggle
for most modern-day parents – and it’s a new
struggle which previous generations did not
have to contend with. The latest research
from UK’s Childwise shows that children
aged between five and 16 are now spending
an average of six-and-a-half hours per day in
front of a screen. Many parents worry about
the impact of this screen time on their child’s
development.
But aside from the sheer volume of time
our children are spending online, there are
other causes for concern with this increasing
digital takeover of our lives. What if your
child was being bullied by someone they were
communicating with via a chat room? What
if somebody had hacked your child’s email
account and written messages on their behalf?
What if your child had sent a private message
or photo to somebody and it had now been
spread throughout their school and perhaps
to hundreds of other unknown people online?
Worse still, what if your child did not even
know who had done it? These are all instances
where technology has been used to bully or
harass another person – otherwise known as
cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying can lead to many social and
emotional issues for its victims. Child sexual
exploitation is also linked to cyberbullying –
this is when an adult poses with a false identity
online and forms a relationship with a child.
Once the child has been groomed through a
friendship stage, the perpetrator embarks on a
relationship with the child, which then becomes
abusive.
Who is bullied?
According to a US-based website www.
nobullying.com, in 2014 seven out of ten (or 69
per cent) of young people aged between 13 and
22 had experienced cyberbullying. In 20 per
cent of cases the bullying had been extreme,
and in 37 per cent of cases the bullying was
frequent.
Although we know cyberbullying is not
a rare occurrence, reporting cases, dealing
with perpetrators and assessing the impact on
victims are all highly complex. There is no
statute law dealing with cases of cyberbullying
April 2016
55
