Page 214 - RUICHSS 2023 Proceeding

University of Ruhuna ISSN: 2706-0063
Matara, Sri Lanka

management of emotions. The term "cyberbullying" is only used in cases

where the victims are children or teenagers, and in the case of adults terms
such as "cyber-harassment" or "cyberstalking" are used (Alismaiel, 2023);

nevertheless, people use "cyberbullying" in a general way (Kizza, 2023;

Dobre & Enăchescu, 2016: 103). The cases of cyberbullying prove the
constant lack of structuring a good social relationship showing how people

have not developed the ability to speak and interact; to express and respect
the emotions of others; to be empathetic; and to establish a balanced

development. " Emergence of unethical practices in social media in recent

years has been noticed due to insufficient regulation or lack of
control/sanctions for rule violations" (Cismaru, 2015: 183). According to

Barkus (2017), cyberbullying was brought into the mainstream after online
bullying led to multiple suicides among teenagers. One of the first cases

occurred in 2007, when Tina Meier, a 13-year-old teenager, committed
suicide after neighbours created a fake profile on the social network

‘Myspace’ under the name "Josh Evans" to harass her. Meier's case sparked

controversy in Missouri which is the point that triggered the passage of anti-
bullying laws, including anti-cyberbullying.

Willard (2004) made a classification of online bullying and divided it into
eight specific types of behaviour (cited in Patrizi & Biasi, 2017: 26-28). The

first specific type is "Flaming", which refers to the sending of vulgar and
aggressive online messages as well as malicious insults to a person through

online groups, emails, forums, and social networks and is designed to

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