Anonymity, pervasivity and difficulty of traceability make cyberbullying more threatful than traditional bullying.
Even if anonymity is true only in appearance, since digital footprints cannot be removed, all the above mentioned characteristics are the reasons why bullies persist on their bullying behaviours and don’t stop.
Basically they ignore both risks and consequences of their bullying behaviours and the fact that their conducts could be prosecutable.
By the way, the only certainty of cyberbullying is to have no certainty. On the contrary, traditional bullying happens predictably. Bullying has a specific bully; bullying is caused by a person or a group in the flesh.
Bullying exists in specific delimited spaces and it also happens in limited moments, as during lessons at schools or during sport training or in a public space every time the victim faces the bully.
Space as well as time is a certainty in bullying.
Bullying is an absolutely temporary event in the ordinary life, while its effects, expecially the psychological ones, are painfully permanent, as the bullying experience becomes crushing and devasting.
Due to its intrinsic predictability, every bullying event should be anticipated, foreseeable and preventable if only victims could stop silence.
Conversely, cyberbullying is totally permanent. It may happen at any time, in every single instant, whatever the moment of the online life.
Whatever the web access, as soon as the online connection works, cyberbullying enlivens its ghost.
Cyberbullying is never a temporary event of the online life: cyberbullying is an absolutely permanent event of the online life.
Being a victim of cyberbullying represents a continuous and lasting stigma in the online life.
Moreover, victimisation gets unstoppable as persistingn online bullying behaviors amplify the harassment itself through the web, thus resulting in a never ending online persecution.
And the stronger the bully, the weaker the victim, the heavier the victimisation.
Thus, the absence of any viable exit makes cyberbullying worse than bullying.
Whatever the means, either flaming or instant messaging, either impersonation or trickery, either exposure or cyberstalking, such permanent harassment provokes the same feelings and the same consequences over the victims, which are power imbalance, fear, isolation, and loss of esteem. Thus, silence prevails and wins.
Whatever the country, whatever the legislation, no matter the number of occurrences, it has become necessary to do something to stop such cycle of violence.
Several campaigns, protocols and agreements, shared among web platforms and social networks, have been disseminated through the web, resulting in a more raised awareness. They’ve also ruled behaviors and conducts both online and offline in order to possibly prevent and sanction bullies’ actions.
Nevertheless, there’s plenty of work still to come in order to help and assist victims in overcoming the lasting effects that the devastating tsunami of bullying is having on themselves from within.
Since bullying and cyberbullying let a stigma that cannot be ever completely removed.
To the loving memory of my father
