Sean Castle Looks At Issues Related to Online Bullying

Sean Castle is a senior education expert and here discusses the important issue of online bullying. When harassment and intimidation take place online, it’s called cyberbullying. This kind of bullying can be especially hard to deal with, since it can be difficult to control and visible to a large number of people. Sean Castle says “chances are your child spends a lot of time online, so it’s important to make sure you know what to do if online behaviour gets nasty”. Parents need to earn what cyberbullying is, how it impacts young people. Sean Castle advises parents and family members to get some tips on how you and your child can deal with it.

Particularly, Sean Castle says this can help you if want to know what cyberbullying and you may think your child could be experiencing or involved in cyberbullying in some way. The first issue to look at is understanding what cyberbullying actually is. Sean Castle says that families must understand how cyberbullying works so that can best protect their child. There is no clear reason why kids bully or cyberbully. However, Sean Castle makes the point that what we do know is that cyberbullying is the deliberate, persistent and malicious use of words or pictures in an online environment intended to cause harm to someone’s wellbeing and that the most common age for cyberbullying is the transition period between primary and high school when young people are around 11 or 12, but it happens throughout the teenage years so it’s important to be aware.

Sean Castle, in his role as a senior educator for more than 20 years, encourages parents to upskill themselves so that understand what online and cyberbullying looks like. He says it comes in many forms, especially among teens and the most common forms of it include receiving intentionally hurtful text messages, emails or direct messages on social media sites. It can also include people spreading rumours or lies about someone online. Sean Castle noted that in his experience that people sending images or videos intended to humiliate or embarrass someone or people sending threats to someone are often the most malicious and dangerous and parents and schools need to be conscious of what is occurring in the online world.

Sean Castle argues that online bullying can be more destructive and dangerous than other forms of bullying because of its very public and uncontrollable nature. There’s no limit to who can view or take part in cyberbullying and it can be very difficult to remove content shared online and its spread and reach is unlimited and often can never be erased. Importantly, Sean Castle points out that the bullies can be anonymous and not have to account for their destructive behaviour. It’s hard for people to escape the bullying, especially if they use technology in their everyday lives. Sean Castle suggested that young people can be more likely to bully someone online than they would in real-life, as they feel less accountable for their actions due to the nature of the online world.

How is it different to other forms of bullying?

Bullying is a kind of behaviour that is designed to cause intentional harm. Cyberbullying can be even more distressing because of its very public and uncontrollable nature. For example:

• there’s no limit to who can view or take part in cyberbullying

• it can be very difficult to remove content shared online

• bullies can be anonymous

• content can be accessed through search engines

It’s hard for people to escape the bullying, especially if they use technology in their everyday lives. It’s suggested that young people can be more likely to bully someone online than they would in real-life, as they feel less accountable for their actions due to the nature of the online world.