Research Journal 9: The Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study

The first thing I have to say about cyberbullying, and bullying in general, is that I object to the tendency to define bullying as necessarily a repeated act. I believe a single, isolated nasty or mean act, whether in person or via ICTs, can be just as harmful to a bullying victim as repeat offences; and that one-off events should not be written off, as the "Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study" does, as not being an instance of bullying.

Taking the case of the Sydney private school girls that I mentioned in a previous post, the publication of a MySpace page dedicated to slandering girls based on their alleged sexual activities, alcohol and drug-related behaviours may have been, for some of the victims, a one-off incident. However I would argue that for some of the victims of that particular incident, being slandered on the internet, even if it was only once, would be just as upsetting as sustained 'real world' attacks could be. Every time a school friend or stranger mentioned that page, those girls would be embarrassed, ashamed, upset. That the page was only created once does not mean that its impact on those girls was felt only once.

My own experience of cyberbullying, which I would prefer not to go into in depth, was a sustained group email about me, which was sent to me by one of the perpetrators. As a recipient in the "Send to all" list, I saw, and was very upset by, what was said about me. In total there would have been between seventy and a hundred emails sent amongst the group. The whole episode lasted about 24 hours and was never repeated. But its effect was nonetheless deeply upsetting and embarrassing. However by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations' definition of cyber bullying, I was not a victim.