Bullies have existed since humans first dragged their knuckles off the ground and found they could form a fist. The schoolyard environment is far from immune.
Dr Marilyn Campbell is a psychologist and teacher specialising in anxiety disorders in young people. Working at the Queensland University of Technology, she is considered one of the country's leading experts on cyberbullying and is currently spearheading a national study into its ramifications.
Dr Campbell says that bullying is all about humiliation and rejection of a person, an "intent to hurt" in a relationship where there is an imbalance of power. This should not be confused with fighting between equals.
"We can only hypothesise at this point whether the effect of cyberbullying is worse than face-to-face bullying – but there is certainly a thought that consequences of cyberbullying could be more severe because of the 24/7 nature of the medium," Dr Campbell says.
"There's no real escape – even at home you can be threatened or invaded. Cyberbullies have a much wider audience, and of course there's the power of the written word or pictures – seeing or reading something about another person, the victim, means it sears into the brain much more than just hearing it."
Ironically, despite the instant effect of cyberbullying, Dr Campbell says there's evidence to suggest that it does not have the instant gratification of face-to-face bullying.
"Bullies have to wait to see the reaction of their work," she says. "This has shown there may be a stepping-up of the frequency of bullying – more taunts are sent, it's more pronounced, to make up for the wait. The critical issue is the extent of the damage done to the target."
Experts have categorised bullying into teasing, exclusion, physical bullying and harassment. Elements of all of the above translate into cyberbullying, often more powerfully. Often cyberbullying comes out of the blue and from totally unexpected sources. For example, a child might have had a schoolyard tiff with his/her group of friends.
In normal circumstances in a couple of days all is forgotten and everyone is friends again. But in cyberspace snide remarks are displayed for all to see. It's easy to "take back" comments in person, but not so easy if you've gone to MySpace and called someone terrible names and accused them wrongfully of bad behaviour.
A recent US study has shown girls are among the worst offenders in cyberbullying, stating: "very often it's the girls who use the Internet to bully other girls. It's called relational aggression. It's the way girls bully as opposed to the way boys bully. With girls, it's more insidious. They use relationships as weapons.
"For example, a group of girls could be sitting around the computer, instant messaging their target. (The target thinks she is only communicating with one person.) At first, they befriend her. They gossip a while about mutual friends and eventually the bullies ask leading questions, hoping to get their target to say something negative about one of the girls present. Once the target falls for it, the bullies use the gossip against her. This leads to social isolation."
Dr Campbell says she was surprised at the result of a recent study she undertook for a paper on cyberbullying. She was expecting most online bullies would be face-to-face bullies as well, but her fi ndings proved otherwise.
"We took a sample of 581 girls from two schools in NSW and Queensland and, of the five per cent who said they were cyberbullies, only 30 per cent also bullied face-to-face." This was also reflected in figures on girls who were bullied pointing to the fact that cyberbullying is creating a whole new social problem rather than simply extending existing behaviour.
Students who bully and those who are bullied are, says Dr Campbell, most likely to be girls found in middle school.
"It peaks at 13 years and goes through to 15 years. By senior school most kids have figured out that it's not the way to act and, apart from those who will go on to be bullies in the workforce and in life, the problem is largely gone."
Dr Campbell says long term solutions must come from early intervention in the home and schools. "Parents need to change bully behaviour as soon as they see it – they need to instil that you can get your own way without hurting other people. Often bullies have been the victim of bullying themselves."
While it is complex, with no quick fix, cyberbullying can cause serious emotional problems and needs to be addressed quickly and efficiently.
As a parent or carer it is important that your child feels comfortable reporting any incidents which they find upsetting or which they are unsure of handling.
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