Cyberbullying: Where Are We Now? A Cross-National Understanding

Cyberbullying has emerged as a major issue across societies and for schools parents children and national governments (see Smith and Steffgen 2013). Despite some similarities with traditional or face-to-face (f2f) bullying (Mc Guckin Cummins and Lewis 2010) there is sufficient difference to warrant this contemporary and detailed examination of the issues related to cyberbullying--from a perspective that draws upon the most pertinent research and informed opinion from key researchers and thinkers from across the globe. The initial and pioneering knowledge about cyberbullying has now moved to a newer more mature position that has been able to delineate the nuances associated with the issue and importantly yield robust insights for those involved in or tasked to deal with cyberbullying.This Special Issue brings together a collection of papers that represents the most up-to-date perspectives and evidence from across the globe. Collectively these papers demonstrate how scholars and policy makers from disparate disciplinary or stakeholder starting points are progressing in their understanding of each others language and requirements--thus facilitating the important move towards a more coherent and understandable agenda that seeks to minimize the potential risks to children and young people understand the relationships between involvement in cyberbullying and associated biopsychosocial factors in order to implement integrated and evidence-informed intervention and prevention programmes.