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cyberbullying
DCHP-2 (Nov 2013)
Spelling variants:cyber-bullying
n.
the use of IT to bully someone, usually by sending or posting text or images with the intention of harming others.
Type: 5. Frequency — As a relatively new phenomenon, cyberbullying is becoming more frequent in media and politics as more victims emerge. The term occurs most frequently in Canada (see Chart 1). The case of Amanda Todd, a 15-year-old from Port Coquitlam, BC, who committed suicide in 2012 as a result of extreme and prolonged cyberbullying, changed public awareness in Canada (see the 2015 quotation). In 2013, Bill C-13 was proposed in Parliament to protect Canadians from online bullying (see the 2014 quotation) and passed into law in early 2015. Bill Belsey, a bullying expert from Cochrane, AB, has been credited with coining the term in 2000 (see the 2013 quotation); however, OED-3 lists a quotation from 1998.
See: cyberspace
Quotations
2000
There have been some suspensions in Edmonton schools for Internet infractions from cyber-bullying to inappropriate harassment to logging on to porn sites. But the problem is not rampant. So far, there have been no related criminal charges, although police have been called in on a couple of occasions.
2003
"Cyber-bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as e-mail, cellphone and pager text messages, instant messaging, the publishing of defamatory personal Web sites, defamatory online personal polling Web sites, etc., that are used to support conscious, wilful, deliberate, repeated and hostile behaviour by one or more people that is intended to harm others," Belsey said.
One of Belsey's concerns about cyber-bullying is that it defies the lesson every parent has taught their children: Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.
2004
Kids now bully through the Internet, e-mail, text messaging and instant messaging. Cyberbullying or wireless bullying is now faceless; kids who would never bully face to face hide behind technology and torment others. Some solutions include having the computer placed in a room other than the child's bedroom and always having the back of the computer against the wall so parents can see the screen.
2007
"I chat with young people online. What they are doing to each other is unbelievable," says MacEachern. "There is victimization, but there is also criminality. They steal each other's accounts and credits. They get into cyberbullying, such as posting a website against someone and giving credit to someone else."
2013
Despite the criticism, the term’s inventor, Bill Besley, insists on its relevance. “I know I’m not from Oxford; I know how academics drone about the phrase and how it maybe not be useful, but it’s important to use it,” says Mr. Belsey, who came up with the term by combining “cyberpunk” – coined by Vancouver novelist and futurist William Gibson – with “bullying” to convey the emergence of this faceless attack around 15 years ago.
2014
Bill C-13 is a responsible public policy initiative to assist law enforcement in combating cyberbullying, the distribution of non-consensual intimate images and the exploitation of digital technologies by those who commit crimes and who often do so today with impunity.
2015
Three years have passed since 15-year-old Amanda Todd of Port Coquitlam killed herself. The high school student was blackmailed into exposing her breasts online, and the Internet took over from there. A merciless technology she could not hide from dogged every day of her life.
So what has been done since then to rein in cyberbullying? According to a new report, written jointly by the province's privacy commissioner and the children's representative, not enough.
References
- OED-3
Images
