Cyberbullying Policy Brief - State of Victoria

Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
Cyberbullying Policy Brief
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
ISSUE COVER SHEET
Issue: Cyberbullying has negative impacts on the adolescents’ emotions, psychology, and
cognitive aspects thus leading to depression, poor academic performance and in some cases
suicide
Background: The adolescent population forms the most users of internet and consequently
the most affected with cyberbullying. The negative impacts of cyberbullying among
adolescents include social anxiety, lower self-esteem, and cognitive outcomes. This can be
attributed to the risk factors that predispose teenagers to cyberbullying such as addictive
technology behaviour and peer pressure.
Comment: The key issues of consideration in this brief are the negative impacts of
cyberbullying among the adolescents, how cyberbullying causes these effects, risk factors of
cyberbullying, and the recommendations for addressing negative impacts of cyberbullying.
Recommendations: This brief makes two major recommendations in effectively addressing
the impacts of cyberbullying on adolescents. These include educational campaigns and digital
citizenship initiatives.
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Readers: The Hon. Jill Hennessy MP, Minister for Health, Victorian Government
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
Purpose
The internet, mobile phones, and other advancements in technology have become part of
Australian life. The development of these technologies has been of immense help to the youth
(Rice, Milburn, & Monro, 2011). However, these technologies have also come with bullying
habits that take place online called cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has for long been identified
as in issue affecting the youth (Price, & Dalgleish, 2010). Nonetheless, the matter has had
immense negative effects on adolescents as the number of them that use social medial
increases (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010). Cyberbullying has been defined as the
recurrence of behaviour by a wrongdoer with the motive to inflict injury to a victim, in a
situation of power imbalance that favours the wrongdoer (Chalmers et al., 2016). Examples
of cyberbullying include sending mean or threatening messages or images, exposing ones
privacy among others. Studies have shown that cyberbullying among adolescent leads to
colossal distress including psychological and mental health harm, and even to suicide (Smith
et al., 2008: Aricak et al., 2008). This brief aims at outlining the prevalence of cyberbullying
among in Victoria, its impact on adolescents and recommendations for addressing
cyberbullying.
Background
Negative developmental outcomes that may be as a result of cyberbullying among
adolescents include: social, emotional and cognitive impacts
1.0 Emotional impacts
1.1 Social anxiety
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
Social anxiety is the mixture of fear, uneasiness and worry that individuals undergo when
they foresee their inability to make an optimistic impression on others, especially in meetings
within strangers in public places (Lee, Tam, & Chie, 2014). The study by Kowalski and
Limber (2013) showed that social anxiety, stress and low self-esteem are both as a result and
a precursor of cyberbullying habit. Consequently, adolescents that are victims of the above
mentioned symptoms can be deemed as “an easy target” for constant online execution
(Kowalski & Limber, 2013). Lee, Tam, & Chie (2014) found out that people suffering from
social anxiety are more likely to resort to the use of social media and online texting as a
means of communication
1.2 Physiological impacts
1.2.1 Lower self-esteem
The developmental stage of adolescence is a significant period when people develop their
personal identity. The study by Beaty and Alexeyev (2008) show that cyberbullying victims
are more inclined to experience lower self-esteem compared to non-victims.
1.3 Cognitive outcomes
DeHue, Bolman, & Völlink (2008) found out that some bullying leads to negative
experiences in academics. For example, the Connolly study found out that about 90% of
cyberbully victims had a drop in grades after the experience. Wallace (2011) also found out
that fear of bullying made some students to skip classes and performed poorly.
2.0 How Cyberbullying causes the above impacts
2.1 Social anxiety
Social anxiety is a disorder that takes place when an individual is fearful of humiliation or
being perceived by others in a negative way. It is for this reason that individuals of such class
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