When referring to the term cyberbullying or cyberharassment, we must refer to the fact of harassing systematically and repeatedly over time, which materializes in the form of physical, psychological, social, sexual or verbal abuse through technological means, carried out carried out mainly between equals, in order to intentionally cause conscious and repeated harm to the victims, with the perpetrators sheltering themselves from a situation of group superiority.
In most cases, it entails the distribution of harmful or defamatory content through digital media. Cyberbuying has become an emerging problem that is constantly increasing both qualitatively and qualitatively, appearing at increasingly younger ages due to the fact that access to new technologies has been advanced for younger people.
They always tend to have certain behaviors such as intention, repetition, power imbalance, absence of violence and the use of ICTs. The perpetrators feel a certain immunity and stop perceiving the real damage caused to the victim.
The methods used can be direct, through threats or insults sent directly to the minor, victim of these events, the creation of false profiles, the dissemination of compromised videos or photographs, disclosure of data, exclusion from groups or through impersonation. of identity.
In its initial phase, bullying usually begins as a game, partly seeking the victim’s limit, with small seemingly harmless insults or attacks, observing the victim’s ability to defend herself or obtain the support of her peers.
After selecting the most isolated, most vulnerable victims, physical, mental, social or verbal attacks are increased, focusing the attacks on a specific target in order to increase their isolation from the group. The victim begins to somatize the aggression, begins to manifest the physical or psychological effects that it causes consciously or unconsciously. In part you normalize it or try to avoid it, mistakenly believing that the problem will disappear only if it is ignored.
When the victim becomes aware of their situation of defenseless isolation, they can react in multiple ways, sometimes they inform their guardians or seek to harm themselves, giving a wake-up call, alerting them to what they are suffering and on rare occasions they confronts his attackers. In very extreme situations it could even end with the suicide of the minor.
The most used typologies
Sexting: In this type of crime, the victim is always a minor, although the perpetrator can be a minor or an adult without distinction. It consists of sending images or videos with provocative, sexual or erotic content or forwarding any of this content received mainly through instant messaging applications.
Happy slapping: The perpetrators humiliate and beat the victim, recording the attacks for later dissemination through social networks, seeking to make them viral and thus increase the self-esteem of the aggressors by obtaining more followers on their profiles.
Fraping: This would involve impersonating the minor’s identity on social networks, making inappropriate publications or uploading inappropriate content.
Catfishing: A minor uses the content that another minor has uploaded to their social networks, to create false profiles, with which they can interact on the Internet, using not only images, but knowing them, their real affiliation data.
Surely all of these typologies are familiar to you, since you have seen them on networks or they sound familiar to you from TV news or that, in your closest environment, a friend of your child is or has experienced it, or in the worst case scenario, what is happening now to your own daughter/daughter. The importance of early intervention in these types of events becomes vital to avoid further harm to the minor, victim of bullying, since it is common to think that the problem can be solved over time. For this reason, firm solutions must be sought, but not exaggerated, treating it with the seriousness and importance it deserves. Let me share some tips to try to avoid these situations.
Maintain adequate communication with minors, as well as stay informed of their current forms of communication, instant messaging applications, most used social networks, active chats in online games, etc. Some control must be maintained over the use that the minor makes of these, as well as whether or not he or she interacts with other users. Parental control tools can be installed, generating a good relationship of trust with the minor, so that they are able to communicate their concerns and problems.
Promote the minor’s social skills; empathy, self-control, ability to resolve conflicts, etc., so that she can identify situations of harassment and learn to manage them and give them an appropriate response, focusing the learning of these skills on all actors; harassers, victims and witnesses. The latter have an essential role in preventing and fighting cyberbullying.
Generate security habits on the Internet, make the minor see that it is not an intimate or private forum, that before entering social networks they must take certain precautions; limit the information provided when creating your profile, share your content only with known contacts, do not share sensitive information, do not interact with unknown profiles, etc.
Learn to manage conflicts between minors before they can lead to a bullying situation, respond appropriately, but never take a passive attitude.
Maintain special attention, in order to know how to detect aggressive behavior in minors, sudden changes in their behavior that make it easier for us to identify possible problems.
The challenges and risks associated with the influence of artificial intelligence on cyberbullying:
Generation of Fake Content: AI can also be used to generate false content or deepfakes that could be used in cyberbullying activities. This can complicate automatic detection and increase the sophistication of attacks.
Bias in Algorithms: AI algorithms may contain inherent biases, meaning they could misinterpret certain types of content as threats, or overlook certain abusive behaviors. This could lead to unfair censorship or a lack of action when necessary.
Adaptation of Aggressors: Perpetrators of cyberbullying can adapt to the AI ??technologies used for detection and evade security measures, which requires constant updating and improvement of defense systems.
In summary, artificial intelligence can be a valuable tool in the fight against cyberbullying, but its implementation must be carefully managed to address potential challenges and risks. The combination of technical, educational and legislative approaches is essential to address this problem effectively.