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     overview

This note considers cyber-bullying, harassment of people via the net or SMS that may have a psychological impact and is often associated with physical assaults.

It covers -

• schools - digital bullying of students and teachers
• workplace - bullying in the workplace in Australia
• cases - selected Australian litigation regarding school and workplace bullying
• elsewhere - litigation and anti-bullying developments in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and other countries

It supplements discussion elsewhere on this site regarding stalking, defamation, messaging and security.

     orientation

People have been nasty to each other as long as there has been recorded history. Bullying is not a new phenomenon. It is evident in accounts of schools in mediaeval Europe and China, workplace initiations in Renaissance Florence and 1920s Chicago, bastardization in Pharaonic Egypt and in Australia's Royal Military Academy during the 1960s and 1990s.

Digital technology allows bullies new opportunities to "mess with your head", through SMS texts, instant messaging, defamatory web pages and comments in online social fora.

It has been argued that some harassment is particularly potent because -

• it is pervasive (an issue for what has been dubbed the "always on generation") and
• pseudonymity - or merely the relaxation of inhibitions associated with much virtual contact - allows bullies to express themselves with a vehemence that might be tempered in face to face contact in the playground, office or factory.

The following pages explore cyberbullying in Australian schools (and of students or teachers outside the playground or classroom) and worplaces. They highlight day by day responses, which for some victims have involved abandonment of communication tools such as mobile phones, and questions about legal frameworks. They also highlight selected Australian litigation before considering overseas experience.

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