The availability of the Internet and the development of social networks have allowed many people to expand their communication boundaries. For adults, virtual dating has become an addition to the existing skills of real communication. Teenagers learn communication skills both in life and on the Internet. Remote communication can be anonymous, making it possible to experiment with your image: appearance, age, social status, and even gender. In the process of communication between people, conflicts arise: virtual communication is no exception. By posting photos and personal information on social media pages, a person can become the object of criminal actions. The relevance of the research topic is related to the fact that the number of people using social networks is growing. At the same time, they do not see the danger in remote communication and find themselves unprotected in the virtual world, being subjected to cyberbullying. This is a social problem and needs to be discussed and solutions found.
The main purpose of cyberbullying is to worsen the emotional sphere of the victim and destroy her social relationships. Cyberbullying includes a range of different forms of behavior, from playful-humorous to virtual psychological terror, which can be suicide. Often, the victims are insecure teenagers or teenagers belonging to a culture that differs from the culture of others (Rathi 388). Direct cyberbullying is direct attacks on a child through calls or messages. In case of indirect cyberbullying, other people are involved in the process. The stalker can hack the victim’s account and, masquerading as the owner, send messages from this account to the victim’s acquaintances, destroying his communicative field and creating doubt about his moral qualities.
In addition, online cyberbullying also includes the spread of slander. In this case, humiliating or false data about a person, photos, and videos are sent, particularly in a sexualized and damaging form to his reputation. The main reason for cyberbullying of teenagers is the desire for superiority. Some people need to achieve public recognition when they still lack the resources, strength, and patience to establish themselves independently. For this reason, they seek to assert themselves by humiliating others in the eyes of others. The desire to assert themselves or increase their authority in the company may negatively affect those who discover a weak ability to adapt. Another reason is a sense of their inferiority, which entails envy and revenge. An individual’s inferiority complex can arise due to various reasons: discrimination, mental trauma, mistakes, and failures (Marr and Marry 578). Cyberbullying contains all the necessary conditions to compensate for one’s inferiority – from creating an ideal virtual image of the “I” to self-affirmation through belittling the other.
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