In the past year there have been a number of stories in the news outlining the problems of cyberbullying. In some cases the end result was the victim taking their own life, which is one reason this topic should continue to remain relevant to school counsellors and psychologists. In a recent study by Wade and Beran (2011) it was noted that a substantial portion of Canadian students in grades 6, 7, 10, and 11 are involved in cyberbullying and that girls are more likely than boys to be the target of this type of harassment. Although there is currently no standard definition of cyberbullying it has been defined as “an individual or group wilfully using information and communication involving electronic technologies to facilitate deliberate and repeated harassment or threat to another individual or group by sending or posting cruel text and/or graphics using technological means” (Mason, 2008). Despite the lack of a standard definition of cyberbullying, there is consensus that the results of the bullying negatively impacts students’, physical, social, emotional, and cognitive functioning.
*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA