Victim, Aggressor and Bystanders: the Cyberbullying Triangle. Romanian Data from the EU Kids Online Project 2018
22 October 2018
3.00pm - 5pm
Deakin Downtown
Event details
The EU Kids Online data from 2010 painted a worrisome image for Romania, in many ways, regarding children’s online risks, but especially in relationship to bullying and cyberbullying. At that time, Romania occupied an unwanted second place (after Estonia) in the top 25 European countries, with 41% of children declaring that they had been victims of bullying (compared to 19%, the European average) and 13% victims of cyberbullying (compared to 6% on average) (Livingstone et al., 2011). In 2013, the Net Children Go Mobile project data again put Romanian children in second place, after Denmark (this time the project comprised seven European countries), with respect to online and offline bullying risk (41%).
In 2013, Romania overtook Denmark in having the largest percentage of children reporting harm after experiencing either forms of bullying, on or offline, with 33% of the entire population studied declaring themselves upset after such an episode (Mascheroni and Olafsson, 2014, Velicu et al., 2014).
In the summer of 2018, Romania participated in the second stage of the EU Kids Online data collection. Given the context described above, a special focus was on cyberbullying, not only with respect to victims and aggressors, but also in order to see positions held by cyber-bystanders. Studies have shown that a useful strategy to address the phenomenon is not only to empower the victims and to discourage the aggressors, but to also raise awareness about the culture of permissiveness in which bystanders are involved.
So, who witnesses cyberbullying episodes and what do they do about it? How empathetic are these cyber-bystanders towards the victims and how prepared do they feel to take a step forward in that situation? Could they have also been victims or aggressors in similar episodes?
These are some of the questions the presentation will address, based on the 2018 Romanian data collected using the EU Kids Online questionnaire. The sample is representative at the national level for children 9-17 years old in the public school system in Romania. The questionnaire was applied in school, online with auto-completion.
Livingstone, S. M., Haddon, L., Görzig, A., & Ólafsson, K. (2011). Risk and Safety on the Internet. London: London School of Economics.
Mascheroni, G., & Ólafsson, K. (2014). Net children go mobile: risks and opportunities (Second Edition). Milano: Educatt.
Velicu, A., Mascheroni, G. și Ólafsson, K. (2014). Riscuri și oportunități în folosirea internetului mobil de către copiii din România. Raportul proiectului Net Children Go Mobile. București: Ars Docendi.
Anca Velicu
Anca Velicu is a researcher at the Institute of Sociology (Romanian Academy).
Her main research interests include youth’s use of digital technology, parental mediation, online risks, media education and the opportunities to use new media for education. In recent years, her research has focused on young children and digital technology, and how digital literacy is acquired in the early years.
Current and recent projects include:
- 2017-19, Makerspaces in the early years: enhancing digital literacy and creativity (MakEY, dir. J. Marsh),
- 2015-17 Friends 2.0 "Friendship" quality in the age of online social networks. Using and abusing personal information among Romanian adolescents (dir. Monica Barbovschi),
- 2015 Young Children (0-8) and Digital Technologies (dir. Stephane Chaudron),
- 2014-17, The Digital Literacy and Multimodal Practices of Young Children (DigiLitEY, dir. J. Marsh),
- 2009-2014, EU Kids Online Project (dir. S. Livingstone & L. Haddon);
- 2012-2014,Net Children Go Mobile Project (dir. G. Mascheroni).
Key information
Date and time
22 October 2018
3.00pm - 5pm
Location
Deakin Downtown
Level 12, Tower 2 Collins Square
727 Collins Street, Docklands 3008