Youth and Cyberbullying

Youth and Cyberbullying: Another Look — by members of the Youth and Media (YaM) team — is our latest contribution to a rich corpus of research literature and an ongoing public dialogue on young people and online bullying. The new paper provides an overview of recent, primarily academic literature on youth (12-18-year-olds) and cyberbullying. The paper seeks to examine the changing landscape of bullying while acknowledging the convergence between the online and offline world. It explores the nuances around defining cyberbullying and the prevalence of online bullying in and beyond the U.S., and presents practical, impactful guidance on preventing and responding to cyberbullying.

Bullying and cyberbullying are well-known challenges that have been the focus of research and intervention for many years, including at the Berkman Klein Center. In 2010, John Palfrey (Chair) and other members and colleagues of the broader Berkman Klein community undertook the work of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force and published a Task Force report, including a literature review of youth online safety in the U.S., which documents what is known and what remains to be studied about the issue. In 2012, this foundational work was supplemented by Bullying in a Networked Era: A Literature Review, an aggregation and summary of academic literature on youth and online bullying and a series of papers part of The Kinder & Braver World Project: Research Series.

The YaM team hopes that Youth and Cyberbullying: Another Look may make scholarly work around this important topic more widely accessible for a variety of stakeholders — including parents and caregivers, educators, Internet companies, and policymakers — to help shape current and future efforts that aim to address cyberbullying and promote and bolster young people’s safety and well-being.

This paper is one of the YaM team’s “spotlights” — short briefing documents that showcase the ways youth engage with the digital landscape, and what opportunities and challenges emerge from it.