Browsing by Author "Karhunen, Nelli"

This literary review ́s intention is to find out if cyberbullying appears in elementary school and what tools schools have to prevent cyberbullying among students. Cyberbullying is mostly researched with older students in a lower secondary school or in high school. But increasingly younger children have access to electronic devices so it is important to have more information about cyberbullying in elementary school and how schools can prevent it. Former studies has shown that cyberbullying is very similar to traditional bullying in schools but it also has its own features that takes its shape in the network. This thesis is made as a descriptive literary survey. Data consist finish and foreigner studies and literature. The specific terms used in the material search are bullying, cyberbullying, bullying in school and elementary school. The results of this research show that cyberbullying is most common in middle school, but it appears also on elementary school. The special characteristic of cyberbullying is anonymity, wide spreading of messages and long memory of internet. In elementary school cyberbullying takes its place most in online games. Cyberbullying doesn’t usually stay in school, but it also continues after school ends. That is why school ability to prevent cyberbullying is limited. It is important that school and parent cooperates. Cyberbullying can in some cases fill definition of illegal action. Crimes committed in cyberbullying can for example be defamation of character, identity theft or perjury.