"Cyberbullying is defined as sending or posting harmful or cruel text or images using the Internet or digital communication devices" (Willard, 2004; p.1).
REAL LIFE EXAMPLES
In Australia, a 9 year old female student received pornographic emails from her classmate.
A 15 year old in Canada became popular unintentionally after his classmates discovered a video of him recreating a Star Wars fight scene and posted it on the Internet. The incident humiliated him to the point of dropping out of school and seeking counseling.
In Japan, an overweight boy's classmates took a cell phone picture of him in the locker room and distributed it to many of his peers.
In the US, a boy had a fight with a girl. To seek revenge, he took her picture and edited it on top of a pornographic image.
In California, a website, schoolscandals.com, hosted racist and threatening gossips that affected many of the students in Calabasas High School. (Li, 2006).
STATISTICS
In a survey conducted in Britain in 2002, it was found that one in four children ages 11 to 19 had experienced cyberbullying.
In a study conducted in New Hampshire in 2000, it was found that 6% of young people had experienced online harassment.
In a Canadian survey, 25% of young Internet users reported receiving hateful messages about others.
Other research shows that 33% of undergraduate students have had online stalkers.
In an online survey of 500 female listserve subscribers, one-fifth reported experiencing various forms of online sexual harassment (Li, 2006).
