Cyberbullying can take many forms, from receiving dozens of messages on PMS saying that they hate you and want to hurt you, to being cut off from a group, where they delete you and exchange negative messages about you. It’s hard to list all the ways one person can hurt another when we’re talking about relatively small groups, such as those in schools, where everyone knows everyone else and your reputation and dignity can be hurt by any of them, even anonymously. That is, an act of cyberbullying is to post a poll on a communication medium, e.g. Viber, asking “Who’s the sluttiest girl in school?” or “Who stinks the most in class?” and your name is included in the list below, even if it doesn’t “rank” first, but last. In general, cyberbullying is the spreading of derogatory rumors, comments, or information about a person, whether or not the posting is made directly to the person. For the different types of cyberbullying, see the following table.
| Name | Description |
| Block | The conscious choice to leave someone out of the group. |
| Harassment | A persistent form of bullying that consists of deliberately sending threatening and abusive messages. |
| Unmasking | Publishing humiliating/embarrassing messages, without consent, from private moments or speeches etc. |
| Electronic hunting | When threats are made electronically, but extend to the real world (threat of retaliation, destruction, etc.). i.e: “not even on the internet in peace”. |
| Pretend | Creating an account pretending to be another person, with the purpose of (self-)humiliating them |
| Cheating | Pretending to be a friend only to end in humiliation. (Double) |
| Trolling | Use of derogatory/ derogatory language in order to irritate, irritate and anger the child, and to make fun of the child’s reaction.
Emotionally weak children are usually selected. |
| Catfishing | Copying other people in order to hide their true identity. Often used on dating sites. |
Some characteristics are the same in physical and cyber bullying, while other characteristics make cyber bullying worse than physical bullying. In particular, psychological violence has been shown to activate the same pain circuits as physical violence. So in this respect they are similar. On the other hand, the online version of bullying is worse than physical bullying, because you are accessible – to your abusers, even when you are locked in your room. So it’s non-stop, 24/7 bullying, in which the mind becomes exhausted and succumbs. School can be missed for a few days, or the signs on the body will trigger the parents. But mental bullying doesn’t show unless the child discloses it. About the measures one can take, much of what was said in the lesson “Cyberbullying and Blackmail” applies. There is the possibility from many MSM that when we block someone, they cannot contact us or subsequent accounts they (the same person) create. Also, there is an automatic filter that silences/hides aggressive messages and those intended to intimidate. Not sure it can do a good enough job in Greek though. It will take some time before these techniques become effective, at which point the person who intends to bully others will be discouraged in practice. Especially for the case where there is also physical communication and contact, it is more difficult to report or block someone else, because there may be consequences when a face-to-face meeting takes place. For these cases, additional settings and tools have been created to protect someone. One such option is to restrict or mute an account. This restricts the ability of users to interact without alerting the person we are avoiding. For example, in the restrict option of an account, the comments made to us by that account are only visible to that account, and are not visible to any other user! Finally, you can choose who can tag or mention you, greatly reducing the likelihood that the other person will be able to defame you in their post if they don’t have such rights. This way, you can be in control of both who can mention you and who can comment or like your account.
