Cyberbullying refers to bullying which is carried out using the internet, mobile phone or other technological devices.
Cyberbullying generally takes a psychological rather than physical form but is often part of a wider pattern of ‘traditional’ bullying. It can take the form of exclusion, defamation, intimidation, impersonation or sending nasty or threatening messages, emails, photos or video clips; silent phone calls; putting up nasty posts or pictures on a message board, website or chat room; saying hurtful things in a chat room; pretending to be someone else in a chat room or message board or text message and saying hurtful things; or accessing someone’s accounts to make trouble for them
Examples of cyberbullying:
Cyber-bullying can take many forms. It can take the form of exclusion, defamation, intimidation, impersonation.
Below are some examples:
- Sending offensive or threatening messages, emails, photos or video clips
- Putting up nasty posts or pictures on a message boards, social network sites, website or chat rooms
- Saying hurtful things in a chat room
- Pretending to be someone else on a social media site
- Accessing someone’s accounts to make trouble for them
- Hacking into your online accounts
Click here to view USI’s Guide to Cyberbullying
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Most of us are on on the internet a lot these days, and it’s a pretty sociable place to be. You can chat to people on the other side of the world, find out major news on Twitter first, share music, blogs and videos of sneezing cats/fainting goats. We want to encourage everyone to Think Before You Type no matter what the situation. We all need to think before we type in terms of response, intervention and to prevent bullying behaviour.
Reporting to Service Providers: Video and Photo Sharing sites If a photo or video that you feel violates your privacy is posted on a website, you should contact the up-loader directly using the sites message function. Sometimes they aren’t aware that you feel uncomfortable with the posting of the content. If you can’t contact the up-loader or they refuse to remove the content in question, you should notify the website owners of your concerns. If the content is illegal or goes against their terms and conditions, they will remove it from the site within a reasonable amount of time. Report content on YouTube: http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/request.py?contact_type=abuse) Report content on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/report_abuse.gne Social Networking sites The first thing you should do if you are having issues with content on a social networking website is report the matter to the website owners. You can use the website reporting tools to do this, for example you can click report photo to an offensive photo on Facebook. Facebook Twitter https://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-abuse-or-%20policy-violations If you are experiencing difficulties with other Social Networking Sites not listed above, you should contact the site administrators directly for advice and assistance. Internet Chat Windows messenger Live/Hotmail You can report any illegal or inappropriate behaviour, such as harassment or threats, on MSN Messenger by notifying Microsoft using the form on this webpage: https://support.live.com/eform.aspx?productKey=wlmessengerabuse&ct=eformts Skype Yahoo Messenger http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/abuse/ If you are experiencing difficulties with other operators not listed above, you should contact your operator directly for advice and assistance. Internet Service Providers If you are experiencing bullying or harassment through a social networking service (SNS) and you are encountering difficulty in reporting this behaviour, your internet service provider may be able to assist you in providing information on how and where you can report such abuse. Please remember that bullying or harassment occurring on an SNS is a matter for that SNS abuse team. In the first instance it should be reported to them using their online complaint facility (usually a “report abuse” button that appears on the profile display or a link at the bottom of the page). Mobile Phones O2 Customer Care:
1909 (Bill paying customers) 1747 (prepay) 1850 601 747 (from a landline) Block It is a free service provided by O2 which allows young people to block unwanted texts, pictures or videos from specific mobile phone numbers. The programme is so easy to use. Just text BLOCK IT START to 50216 to register. (Not available in Northern Ireland) Vodafone Customer Care: 1907 (Bill paying customers), 1850 20 87 87 (Ready to Go) 3 Customer Service: From your 3 mobile 333, from other phones 083 333 3333 Meteor Customer Care:
1905 (Pay Later and Pay As You Go customers) For NI students 02 Customer Care 202 (Pay monthly) 0844 809 0202 (from a landline) 4445 (PAYG) 0844 809 0222 (from a landline) Vodafone Customer Care 191 (Pay monthly) 0870 070 0191 (from a landline) 191 (PAYG) 0870 077 6655 (from a landline) 3 Customer Care 333 (pay monthly) 0843 373 3333 (from a landline) 444 (PAYG) 0843 373 4444 T-Mobile http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/help-and-support/index?page=home&cat=NUISANCE_CALLS 150 (pay monthly and PAYG) 0845 412 5000 (from a landline) Virgin Mobile Customer Care 789 (Pay monthly and PAYG) 0845 650 4500 (from a landline) Orange Customer Care http://studio.orange.co.uk/safety/mobile/156/160.html 150 (Pay monthly) 0797 310 0150 (from a landline) 450 (PAYG) 0797 310 0450 (from a landline) If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you might find it helpful to talk to a counsellor. It’s also important to ask for, and accept, support from your family if you can. If you feel you need to talk to someone outside the situation, call Samaritans on 1850 60 90 90 (Ireland) 0845 790 9090 (NI&UK). What can you do? Get involved with our campaign! Have a look at our Student Guide to Cyberbullying and learn how you can help.