Dr. Angela Mazzone:

I thank the Deputy for his question on the criminalisation of bullying. I am in favour of an educational approach because of the reduced responsibility of children. I have also been looking at international laws were cyberbullying is criminalised. First, there are various cyberbullying behaviours. We can think about some behaviours like social exclusion which could be less harmful than other types of behaviour that could be more serious. Of course, I am not saying online social exclusion is not serious. I am not trying to say that because it is harmful as well. Social exclusion is one of the most painful experiences. We need, however, to be careful about the types of behaviour we want to criminalise. As I said, I am in favour of an educational approach. In some countries where cyberbullying is criminalised, educational measures can be literally imposed. I believe education should be a right and an opportunity. It should not be seen as an imposition. We need, therefore, to work on prevention measures.

As for cyberbullying that does not happen on the school grounds, I believe teachers and appointed members of the school staff have a duty of care. I am in favour of supporting them to tackle and not to ignore those incidents because when they are aware of these episodes and ignore them, it could give the false belief to children that this behaviour is tolerated. That is a dangerous message for children because it leads to the normalisation of bullying and cyberbullying. That is something we do not want, of course.