Professor Shelley Hymel:

We are still trying to understand the differences. Cyberbullying is the least frequent form of bullying; I should put that on the table.

It is also unique. The children most at risk in traditional face-to-face bullying are what we call bully victims. These are people who bully others but who also get victimised. In the cyber world, this happens a great deal. Those things are very highly correlated. It is not that there is a subgroup of kids who are victimised and another who are bullies; they are both engaging in bullying, often in a retaliatory manner. We are just beginning to understand this. What seems to be happening, at least based on a number of our recent studies, is that kids are getting desensitised. I do not really want to use that word but I cannot think of another. They do not see it is a problem but rather just as the way the world is. We have a really big problem with cyberbullying and, right now, it is really difficult to understand the ways in which it is unique and how it can be addressed. I certainly agree with Professor Cefai that we need to include this in our programmes and to attack it but we also need a lot more research to understand how those relationships are different and what impact they are having on the children.