FROM BULLYING TO CYBERBULLYING IN THE CONTEXT OF ONLINE EDUCATION

Abstract

The specialty literature is remarked by the presentation of negative facts and phenomena, some of which are particularly serious, such as bullying and cyberbullying. Authors such as Olweus (1993), Smith and Sharp (1994), Rigby (2007), Belsey (2005), Shariff (2009), etc. draw the attention to two categories of people, the ones who abuse and the ones who are victims of the aggression. The online school also brings along the extension of the cyberbullying phenomenon. In previous years, traditional bullying started in school and continued in the online environment, but now all the interaction has been transferred to the cyber environment. We note phenomena such as: cyberbullying, cybermobbing or cyberstalking etc., and we could say that they seem to occur in the online environment in a kind of avalanche that exceeds our imagination whereas the phenomenon is explained primarily by the impossibility to trace the perpetrator. The article presents ways to prevent the phenomenon of bullying and cyberbullying, as well as legislative and institutional aspects, intervention measures aimed at reducing the phenomenon of bullying, directly or virtually, especially at the national level.