Cyber bullying: Child and youth spirituality

Abstract

Digital culture is part of children’s and adolescents’ everyday lives. Digital culture has both positive and negative consequences. One such negative consequence is cyber violence that has been termed cyber bullying. Cyber bullying can cause serious emotional, behavioural and academic problems for both the victim and the bully. Although there is ongoing research on the effects of cyber bullying on children and youth in South Africa, no research has been carried out on how children’s and youth’s spirituality may be affected when they are cyber bullied. This article discusses the accumulative results from different South African institutes that have researched the cyber bullying effects on children and adolescents. These results point to the spiritual effects that children and youth may experience as a result of cyber bullying. This article proposes that spirituality may prevent cyber bullying and even help children and youth heal from the trauma caused by cyber bullying. This article contributes in starting a conversation that may result in more specific research being done on how the spiritual lives of children and adolescents may be affected through the trauma caused by cyber bullying.