Sex, Cyberbullying, and the Mobile Phone

Cyberbullying and sexting have made headlines and caused concern over their legality and potential risk to safety. In this article, the authors discuss cyberbullying and sexting behavior and examine the association with mobile phone use. Using research from leading researchers in the field, they provide information about the prevalence of cyberbullying and sexting, the mobile phone as an avenue for these behaviors, and solutions to prevent victimization. In conclusion, the authors recommend that awareness, guidelines, and monitoring are preventative rather than reactive. In order to develop this chapter, the authors used evidence from leading researchers in the fields of bullying and cyberbullying prevention. These researchers include Dorothy Espelage, PhD., Professor of Child Development in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Dr. Tonja Nansel, senior investigator at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Development. In addition, they have included the most current information from scholarly articles written by researchers who diligently examine the emerging issues around sexting and cyberbullying. This includes the work of Bastiaensens, S., Vandebosch, H., Poels, K., Van Cleemput, K., DeSmet, A. and Bourdeaudhij, I.D.