Cyberbullying Victims, Perpetrators, and Bystanders

Abstract

The documented effects of cyberbullying take a burden on all those involved, but also impact the wider social environment as well. Victims experience difficult emotions: feelings of humiliation and worthlessness, shame, fear, despair, and sadness. In the long run, they may suffer reduced self-esteem and interpersonal problems: difficulties in establishing contacts and a tendency to withdrawal and isolation. The consequences for perpetrators include the consolidation of aggressive patterns of behavior, the lowering of the sense of responsibility for their own actions, the tendency to antisocial behavior, and the easy slide into conflicts with the law. Witnesses of violence, who are not able to effectively oppose it, or who do not try, often keep their feelings of guilt, dissatisfaction, and self-recrimination for years. For some, it will internalize patterns of passivity, helplessness, and unresponsiveness in difficult situations. This being the case, deepening our knowledge about all of the participants involved in cyberbullying and their mutual relations is of crucial importance.