What is cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital technologies. Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms, and mobile phones. It is repeated behavior, aimed at scaring, angering or shaming those who are targeted. Examples include: It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal behavior.

• spreading lies about or posting embarrassing photos or videos of someone on social media
• sending hurtful, abusive, or threatening messages, images, or videos via messaging platforms
• impersonating someone, and sending mean messages to others on their behalf or through fake accounts.
• Face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying can often happen alongside each other. But cyberbullying leaves a digital footprint – a record that can prove useful and provide evidence to help stop the abuse.

The most common places where cyberbullying occurs are:

• Social Media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok
• Text messaging and messaging apps on mobile or tablet devices
• Instant messaging, direct messaging, and online chatting over the internet
• Online forums, chat rooms, and message boards, such as Reddit
• Email
• Online gaming communities

The difference between a joke and bullying?

All friends joke around with each other, but sometimes it’s hard to tell if someone is just having fun or trying to hurt you, especially online. Sometimes they’ll laugh it off with a “just kidding,” or “don’t take it so seriously.” But if you feel hurt or think others are laughing at you instead of with you, then the joke has gone too far. If it continues even after you’ve asked the person to stop and you are still feeling upset about it, then this could be bullying. And when the bullying takes place online, it can result in unwanted attention from a wide range of people including strangers. Wherever it may happen, if you are not happy about it, you should not have to stand for it. Call it what you will – if you feel bad and it doesn’t stop, then it’s worth getting help. Stopping cyberbullying is not just about calling out bullies, it’s also about recognizing that everyone deserves respect – online and in real life.

What are the effects of cyberbullying?

When bullying happens online it can feel as if you’re being attacked everywhere, even inside your own home. It can seem like there’s no escape. The effects can last a long time and affect a person in many ways:

• Mentally – feeling upset, embarrassed, stupid, even afraid or angry 
• Emotionally – feeling ashamed or losing interest in the things you love
• Physically – tired (loss of sleep), or experiencing symptoms like stomach aches and headaches 

The feeling of being laughed at or harassed by others can prevent people from speaking up or trying to deal with the problem. In extreme cases, cyberbullying can even lead to people taking their own lives. Cyberbullying can affect us in many ways. But these can be overcome and people can regain their confidence and health.

What is it and how can we stop it?

We brought together UNICEF specialists, international cyberbullying and child protection experts, and teamed up with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter to answer some of the most common questions about online bullying and give advice on ways to deal with it.  If you are worried about your safety or something that has happened to you online, you can seek help by calling your national helpline. If your country does not have a helpline, please urgently speak to an adult you trust or seek professional support from trained and experienced cares.

How do we stop cyberbullying without giving up access to the Internet?

Being online has so many benefits. However, like many things in life, it comes with risks that you need to protect against. If you experience cyberbullying, you may want to delete certain apps or stay offline for a while to give yourself time to recover. But getting off the Internet is not a long-term solution. You did nothing wrong, so why should you be disadvantaged? It may even send the bullies the wrong signal—encouraging their unacceptable behavior. 

We need to be thoughtful about what we share or say that may hurt others.

We all want cyberbullying to stop, which is one of the reasons reporting cyberbullying is so important. But creating the Internet we want goes beyond calling out bullying. We need to be thoughtful about what we share or say that may hurt others. We need to be kind to one another online and in real life. It's up to all of us!

How do I prevent my personal information from being used to manipulate or humiliate me on social media?

Think twice before posting or sharing anything on digital platforms – it may be online forever and could be used to harm you later. Don’t give out personal details such as your address, telephone number or the name of your school. Learn about the privacy settings of your favorite social media apps. Here are some actions you can take on many of them: 

• You can decide who can see your profile, send you direct messages or comment on your posts by adjusting your account privacy settings. 
• You can report hurtful comments, messages, photos and videos and request they be removed.
• Besides ‘unfriending’, you can completely block people to stop them from seeing your profile or contacting you.
• You can also choose to have comments by certain people to appear only to them without completely blocking them.
• You can delete posts on your profile or hide them from specific people. 

On most of your favorite social media, people aren't notified when you block, restrict or report them.

Is there a punishment for cyberbullying?

Most schools take bullying seriously and will take action against it. If you are being cyberbullied by other students, report it to your school. People who are victims of any form of violence, including bullying and cyberbullying, have a right to justice and to have the offender held accountable. Laws against bullying, particularly cyberbullying, are relatively new and still do not exist everywhere. This is why many countries rely on other relevant laws, such as ones against harassment, to punish cyberbullies.

In countries that have specific laws on cyberbullying, online behavior that deliberately causes serious emotional distress is seen as criminal activity. In some of these countries, victims of cyberbullying can seek protection, prohibit communication from a specified person and restrict the use of electronic devices used by that person for cyberbullying, temporarily or permanently. However, it is important to remember that punishment is not always the most effective way to change the behavior of bullies. It is often better to focus on repairing the harm and mending the relationship.

Special Concerns

With the prevalence of social media and digital forums, comments, photos, posts, and content shared by individuals can often be viewed by strangers as well as acquaintances. The content an individual shares online – both their personal content as well as any negative, mean, or hurtful content – creates a kind of permanent public record of their views, activities, and behavior. This public record can be thought of as an online reputation, which may be accessible to schools, employers, colleges, clubs, and others who may be researching an individual now or in the future. Cyber bullying can harm the online reputations of everyone involved – not just the person being bullied, but those doing the bullying or participating in it. Cyber bullying has unique concerns in that it can be:

Persistent – Digital devices offer an ability to immediately and continuously communicate 24 hours a day, so it can be difficult for children experiencing cyber bullying to find relief.

Permanent – Most information communicated electronically is permanent and public, if not reported and removed. A negative online reputation, including for those who bully, can impact college admissions, employment, and other areas of life.

Hard to Notice – Because teachers and parents may not overhear or see cyberbullying taking place, it is harder to recognize.

Protection from Bullying

The roles and responsibilities of this committee would include:

• Development and review of School Bullying Prevention Plan,
• Development and implementing bullying prevention programmes,
• Developing training programmes for staff, students, and parents,
• Creating awareness through various programmes.
• Being vigilant and observing signs of bullying and responding quickly and sensitively. Names and contact numbers of members of the committee should be clearly displayed everywhere in the school premises, etc.

Counselors

The guidelines also suggest schools employ trained counselors to deal with people affected by bullying, be it the victim, the perpetrator or any other student affected by it in any way. This guideline is issued to provide the emotional support that a child needs to cope with bullying and to provide professional help to help him/her overcome it. 

Along with general counselors, some suggest that mental health experts should also be employed in schools to deal with issues of depression, anxiety, and mental distress that a child goes through when affected by bullying in any way.

The guidelines of the CBSE recommend that there should be different counselors for Primary, Middle, and Secondary Schools as children of different ages face different challenges and are at different stages in their mental development.

A Primary School child may be more likely to be bullied physically but a Secondary school student may be prone to more complex forms of bullying like bullying on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation.

Counselors need to be specialized in order to recognize the different stages of mental development at different ages in children, and therefore there need to be multiple counselors in the school.

The guidelines also suggest increased involvement of counselors in residential schools, which have a much higher probability of children being bullied, mocked, or assaulted. In residential schools, it is imperative that wardens and members of the school administration remain vigilant to the changing dynamics of student interaction within the hostel environment, which is much different from a classroom scenario. Counselors need to have a collaborative attitude towards the children they deal with, not just the victims of bullying but also the perpetrators. The children need to feel like they can confide in the counselors, only then will they relay their own insecurities, reservations, and motivations behind their behavior. Often, due to social stigma and fear of physical or mental harm, children who are victims of bullying do not easily open up about their experiences and hide whatever they have gone through. In this scenario, children can easily shut themselves out from even their loved ones. To tackle this, they should be able to trust the counselors enough to share their experiences and try to reconcile and get over what they have been through.

Laws and Sanctions

All states have laws requiring schools to respond to bullying. As cyberbullying has become more prevalent with the use of technology, many states now include cyberbullying or mention cyberbullying offenses, under these laws. Schools may take action either as required by law or with local or school policies that allow them to discipline or take other action. Some states also have provisions to address bullying if it affects school performance. You can learn about the laws and policies in each state, including if they cover cyberbullying.

Technology companies don’t seem to care about online bullying and harassment. Technology companies are increasingly paying attention to the issue of online bullying. Many of them are introducing ways to address it and better protect their users with new tools, guidance and ways to report online abuse. But it is true that more is needed. Many young people experience cyberbullying every day. Some face extreme forms of online abuse. Some have taken their own lives as a result. Technology companies have a responsibility to protect their users, especially children and young people. It is up to all of us to hold them accountable when they’re not living up to these responsibilities.

Relevant Sections of Indian Penal Code:

College students who engage in bullying or ragging are over 18 years old and capable of committing criminal acts, therefore sections of the Indian Penal Code are applicable to them. 

Some of the sections they may be found guilty under are:

1  Ss. 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation)

Criminal intimidation occurs when a person threatens another individual to injury to body, reputation or property, and in turn coerces him/her to do an illegal act or something that he/she would not normally do. A common occurrence in cases of ragging is the threat to bodily harm or a spread of false rumours about someone if they do not obey and follow the instructions of the raggers.
Criminal intimidation is also used by offenders to coerce students to not report the incident that has happened

2  Ss. 323 – 326 (Causing hurt and grievous hurt and the punishments for the same), etc.In cases resulting in the death of the victim of bullying or ragging.

This is self explanatory. Almost every serious case of ragging involves causing hurt of some kind to another person voluntarily and in full knowledge of his/her actions. Many juniors across medical, engineering and other colleges have to face physical abuse and sometimes have to endure for long periods of time. The constant threat of physical harm also prevents them from reporting the abuse to relevant authorities and they are often socially isolated and unable to seek help from any external individual or organization.

Causing grievous hurt also in extreme scenarios can sometimes result in the death or permanent disability of the victim.

3  (S. 304) The sections of the IPC dealing with culpable homicide:
Culpable Homicide is one of the most serious crimes under which a ragging case can be booked. Unfortunately, it is not that uncommon. Seniors in colleges across the country, often in inebriated states, cause such serious harm to juniors while committing ragging, that it results in their death.
We saw examples of this in the cases of Pon Navarasu, Aman Kachroo and Ajmal PM, which are discussed below.

4  (S. 306) Abetment of suicide may apply.

This is also a common section under which ragging offenders are charged. Many students from around the country are driven to committing suicide because they are exposed to such serious forms of violent and abusive behavior by their seniors in college. The mental harm caused by the abuse and ragging builds up and compounds over time, due to the continuous and repeating nature of the offences and takes the victim to a point where he feels completely helpless and does not see a way out of his predicament. It is indeed a failure of ours as a society, that a child stuck in such a tragic situation, finds no help from the college authorities, the legal authorities or even his own parents.