What Is The Definition of Bullying?
A lot of young people have a good idea of what bullying is because they see it every day! Bullying happens when someone hurts or scares another person on purpose and the person being bullied has a hard time defending himself or herself. Usually, bullying happens over and over.
- Punching, shoving, and other acts that hurt people physically
- Spreading bad rumors about people
- Keeping certain people out of a "group"
- Teasing people in a mean way
- Getting certain people to "gang up" on others
- Sending mean text, email, or instant messages
- Posting nasty pictures or messages about others in blogs or on Web sites
- Using someone else's user name to spread rumors or lies about someone
Cyberbullying can involve:
- Sending mean, vulgar, or threatening messages or images
- Posting sensitive, private information and/or lies about another person
- Pretending to be someone else in order to make that person look bad
- Intentionally excluding someone from an online group (Willard, 2005)
Children and youth can cyberbully each other through:
- Emails
- Instant messaging
- Text or digital imaging messages sent on cell phones
- Social networking sites
- Web pages
- Blogs
- Chat rooms or discussion groups
- Other cyber technologies
Bullying via instant messaging appears to be particularly prevalent (Dehue et al., 2008; Kowalski et al., 2008).
Stop Bullying Now. (2010). http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/adults/cyber-bullying.aspx