Internet harassment

Usually, bullying is understood to mean group psychological terror in the form of indirect or direct bullying of an employee in a team, as a rule, with the aim of dismissing him.

In a broad sense, bullying is a systematic, repeated for a long time, treading, insulting, humiliating the dignity of another person, for example, at school, in the workplace, in prison, and over the Internet , and so on. Typical acts of harassment are the dissemination of knowingly false information (rumors and gossip) about a person, ridicule and provocation, direct insults and intimidation , social isolation ( boycott and demonstrative disregard), attacks that infringe on the honor and dignity of a person, causing material or physical harm.

The forms of psychological pressure inherent in traditional persecution are supplemented by the capabilities of the World Wide Web, so that it acquires the following functions:

• Around-the-clock privacy intervention. Harassment has no time or geographic restrictions. Attacks do not end after school or work day. The cyber bully (mobber) has round-the-clock direct access through technical means to the victim: a mobile phone or a profile on social networks and email. Thanks to permanent numbers and accounts, the victim is not protected from attacks and at home.
  • On the other hand, a not very persistent and capable bully can be blacklisted and his messages marked as spam.

• Unlimited audience, the speed of dissemination of information. Messages or images sent by electronic technical means are very difficult to control once they are online. For example, videos are easily copied from one Internet portal to another. Therefore, the size of the audience and the distribution field of cybermobbing is much wider than the “usual” bullying. That content that has long been forgotten, may again fall into the public eye, and it will be difficult for the victim to neutralize it.

• The anonymity of the pursuer. A cybercriminal does not show himself to his victim, he can act anonymously, which ensures him - albeit apparent - security and often extends the term of his negative "cyber activity". Ignorance of the victim, who is the one, the “other”, who oppresses her, can frighten her and deprive her of peace ^[6] .

Children who become victims of bullying on the Internet, as a rule, have previously been victims of it in real life. In most cases, the main blow of the pursuer falls on the appearance, on the “avatar” of a teenager or adult (for example, too thin or too fat and so on).

The majority of victims and their persecutors are between 11-16 years old - the puberty period , which is characterized by high sensitivity to any insults, rumors and social failures.

It does not matter whether teenagers are trained to deal with conflicts, be able to get out of a conflict situation, actively defend themselves, or have a wide circle of friends who can support them. In fact, we observe that the most socially adapted and fit students who avoid conflict can very easily become the goal of cybermobbing. Therapy for complex disorders can last about 3 months. The main goal of therapy is to help re-create a positive social environment in which children will feel full, free them from the chains of social isolation. Long-term exposure to a child of cyber terror leads to a strong violation of his self-esteem and self-esteem. ... The terrifying impact of such a new phenomenon as cybermobbing has brought to life various public and state initiatives to support the development of media competencies in children and launch preventive projects against cybermobbing. So in 2009, the Safer Internet Program was launched in the EU,) in which 26 EU countries participate.

- Joachim Walter (Joachim Walter) child psychiatrist Hamburg ^[7]

Often, victims cannot receive adequate assistance from parents or teachers, since the latter still do not have experience and knowledge about this issue.

An approximately equal number of boys and girls are involved in the persecution. A 2017 study showed that 38% of the people surveyed had ever been involved in bullying on the Internet themselves, and 40% of them perceived this action as a joke, a trick.

• Insult ( English Flaming ). As a rule, it happens in the open public space of the Internet, through offensive comments, vulgar appeals and comments.
• Harassment Targeted, systematic cyber attacks from strangers, users of social networks, people from the closest real social environment.
• Denigrating and spreading rumors . Intentionally exposing the victim in black light by publishing photo or video materials on Internet pages, forums, in news groups, via e-mail , for example, to break friendships or revenge an ex-girlfriend.
• Using a fictitious name ( English Impersonation ). Deliberately impersonating another person using a victim’s password, for example, to offend a teacher.
• Public disclosure of personal information ( Eng. Outing and Trickery ). Distribution of personal information, for example, intimate photos, financial situation, type of activity with the purpose of insulting or blackmailing, for example, an ex-partner.
• Social Exclusion . Refusal to communicate (both business and informal), exclusion from Instant-Messenger group or game community, and so on.
• Continued harassment and harassment ( English Cyberstalking ). Systematic (sexual) harassment of someone, accompanied by threats and harassment.
• An open threat of physical violence ( English Cyberthreats ). Direct or indirect threats of killing someone or causing bodily harm.

• Fear: in order not to become a victim of bullying, they often join an active, supposedly strong group of the team.
• Recognition: the need to "stand out", to be in sight, to gain influence and prestige in the group.
• Intercultural conflicts: national differences in culture, traditions, language, atypical appearance.
• Boredom: for example, out of boredom, negatively comment on someone else's photo.
• Demonstration of power: the need to show superiority.
• Inferiority complex: the ability to "evade" the complex or project it onto another. Most likely to become the cause of ridicule due to a sense of inferiority.
• Personal crisis: breaking love relationships, friendships, feelings of hatred and envy, failures, failures, mistakes.

Teachers are not always just able to timely detect cases of online bullying at school at the stage of their occurrence. As a rule, teachers learn about the case of bullying quite late, at the stage of escalation of the conflict. Proactive measures to recognize cyber terror in school can help mitigate conflict and hinder its spread.

Possible signs of online bullying at school:

• Anonymity of the “mailbox”. Students can use their mailbox to baize anonymously. Keep in mind the fact that these anonymous mailboxes can be used to bully other students.
• Deterioration of the psychological climate in the classroom. If the relationship between students in the classroom increasingly becomes unfriendly, the frequency of conflicts increases, then this contributes to the development of bullying.
• Break the friendship between students.
• School activities. During various school events: sightseeing trips, holidays, contests, sports, it becomes evident how close the classroom team is and the tangible “line of break” of interpersonal relationships within the class becomes.

• Deterioration of health indicators. This may include symptoms such as headache, abdominal pain, sleep problems, depressed mood ^[8] .
• Behavior change. A signal for alarm can be a student’s unexpected closure and closeness, a decrease in school performance, a detachment from the real world, a frequent stay in the fantasy world and in the world of online games.
• The loss of personal belongings of the student. The sudden disappearance of the student’s favorite things and money, which parents can easily notice.
• Underestimating the seriousness and diminishing importance of cyber terror. Harassment victims at the first stage of communication with adults often hide cases of cyber-bullying that other students practice with them or diminish their significance in the eyes of adults. If there is serious suspicion of the presence of cyber terror, it is necessary to conduct a second conversation with the student and strengthen monitoring.

As soon as someone becomes a victim of bullying, then immediately a feeling of complete helplessness comes to him. Verbal arguments or requests to leave alone have no chance in fighting an anonymous cybermobbing group. Low self-esteem of the victim exacerbates the situation of despair and helplessness. Left “alone” with the pursuer, it is difficult to expect help or support from the outside: if a negative video is on the network, then in a short period of time it will gain a large number of views. As a result, the victim may immediately become stigmatized socially .

Parents should inquire the child in detail about the precedent of the persecution and inform the school about it. Adults can also help children and adolescents in countering cyber terror: for example, they can inform the police and act as mediators in resolving the conflict.

Improving knowledge and understanding in the field of media competencies of parents, teachers and educators is the best prevention in the fight against persecution.

Quick and preventive actions against mobbing mitigate, and at best prevent, the escalation of the conflict.

Most victims do not dare to seek help and publicize their persecution, because they are afraid of being completely isolated from their social environment. However, on forums and social networks, any user can quickly respond to messages with trolling by submitting a complaint to the site administration, after which the moderators or administrators ban or block the accounts of the mobbers. At the same time, the curator of the affected topic (forums) or community administrations (social networks) are able to quickly issue a temporary ban within the topic / community.

Everywhere in the digital world, as in reality, the principle of universal responsibility is spreading: all people are responsible for what they watch, what they do, what they publish on the Internet.

East Asia

South Korea

In 2007, she drafted a bill aimed at combating baiting on the Internet. ^[9]

Europe

France

In May 2011, the French Minister of Education, in conjunction with Facebook support, decided: pursuers should be identified and, under certain circumstances, dismissed or expelled from school. Teachers are required to keep track of blog content. ^[ten]

Germany

In Germany, cybermobbing does not have its own objective side of the crime, but nonetheless its individual parties are punishable. Cybermobbing in Germany is considered a tort - a private or civil offense, which entails the highest punishment for adults under 10 years of age. Adolescents, as a rule, are subject to less punishment - up to 5 years of arrest or forced correctional labor. There is a law on the “protection of the rights of the young generation”, in which there are paragraphs governing the use of media.

USA

In the USA in 2009, the precedent of cyberbullying (cybermobbing in English), even with a fatal outcome, did not fall under the existing legislation. A U.S. federal judge dropped the charge against a fifty-year-old mother, as she was not registered under her own name. According to the judge, she could not figure out many points of the terms of the accession agreement, did not read it carefully and signed it.

Together with her thirteen-year-old daughter, she, under a false profile, carried out the treatment of her daughter in the social network MySpace, which led to the suicide of the latter. ^[eleven]

In Missouri, in 2008, a law was introduced against cyber-mobbing, which was caused by the suicide of a teenager, which had a wide public outcry. ^[12]

In New Jersey, one student suicides strict laws against mobbing at school and in higher education.
In the spring of 2011, an anti-mobbing summit was held at the White House in Washington. At the meeting, Facebook representatives explained that in the future they plan to create a mediation department for disputes.

Russia

In Russia, there is no legislative framework defining the persecutors and victims of bullying. But civic initiative and social services, realizing the problem of bullying in educational institutions, have already begun work on counseling and opened a telephone hotline at the Committee for Social Policy of the City of St. Petersburg of the Government of St. Petersburg of the Russian Federation - (812) 387-4211 - around the clock ^[13]

There is also a group in the social network Vkontakte.ru Anti-CyberMobbing (Anticybermobbing). In which you can get advice in real time.

In Moscow, there is a free telephone and online counseling service for children and adults on the problems of safe use of the Internet “Children Online” - 8-800-25-000-15 from 9 a.m. to 18 Moscow time on weekdays. Psychologists from the Psychology Department of Moscow State University named after MV Lomonosov and the Internet Development Fund provide professional psychological and informational support on the Help Line. ^[14]

• Cyber ​​Terror (2011)
• How I was friends on a social network (2011)
• Silence to the grave (2012)
• Cyber ​​Terror (2015)
• Remove from friends (2015)

• Cyber ​​Bullying: A Dangerous Virtual Bulling
• Cybermobbing: baiting on the web is gaining momentum
• Cybermobbing - what is it?
• Bowling and mobbing - psychoterror options
• Childnet International, a non-profit organization
• Safer Internet Program
• Das internet sicher nutzen
• Die EU-Initiative für mehr Sicherheit im Netz