Distinctive features, prevention and intervention strategies on cyberbullying in Italy

Abstract

During the last years, the continuous evolution of the social media has led to a shift of the communication and interpersonal relationships towards a virtual level. However, the familiarity of children and adolescents with the new communication tools can have harmful consequences due to an unaware use of technology, making these subjects more vulnerable for new forms of aggression. Cyberbullying is a new form of aggressive behaviour, in some respects more harmful than traditional bullying, because the victim has an objective difficulty defending himself/herself against an author who moves in a world characterized by immateriality and is often protected by network anonymity. This paper aims to provide a critical review of the literature on cyberbullying by analysing the available theoretical conceptualizations, identifying the distinctive features in comparison with traditional bullying and examining the scientific evidence about intervention and prevention strategies in the Italian context.