Denigration

DENIGRATION consists of the online dissemination of slander, lies or rumors, gossip, often of an offensive and cruel nature, for the purpose of defaming or insulting someone or damaging their reputation and personal relationships.

Cyberbullies may, in fact, send or publish on the Internet altered images (photographs or video clips) of the target, for instance, by modifying the face or body of the target student in order to ridicule him or her, or by making him or her the protagonist of sexually explicit scenes, through the use of photomontages.

In these cases, the peers who receive the messages or view the photographs or video clips on the Internet are not necessarily the targets (as is predominantly the case with harassment and cyberstalking), but sometimes passive spectators of cyberbullying (when they just watch), more likely active ones (if they download the material, report it to other friends, comment on it and vote on it).

Therefore, unlike in cyberstalking, the cyberbully's offensive and intentional activity can take the form of a single action (e.g. publishing a retouched photo of a classmate), capable of generating, with the active, but not necessarily required, contribution of other Internet users ("involuntary recruitment", Pisano, 2008), unpredictable cascading effects.

Finally, denigration is the form of cyberbullying most commonly used by students against teachers: there are, in fact, numerous seriously offensive video clips on the Internet depicting episodes from classroom life. In some cases, the scenes depicted are obviously fake and, therefore, re-created ad hoc by the student, sometimes they are, unfortunately, true.

Here is a concrete example:

"Marco is in his first year of middle school and has landed in a class where he knows no one: making new friends is difficult. To break the ice, Annalisa takes care of it: after asking everyone for their mobile phone number, her classmate creates a class group on WhatsApp. The kids start interacting. There are those who write jokes, like Giacomo, those who send curious photos, like Sara, and those, like Gloria, who only reply with smiling emoticons and simple 'ahahs'. Others, however, view the conversations but do not participate. Annalisa does not worry: sooner or later it will be their turn.  The group on WhatsApp also seems to help in real life, because the children now find themselves talking about that shared photo or that song Sara linked. 

All is well, in short. Until the maths test arrives. The day before, everyone talks about it, and promises to 'help each other' and 'suggest'. The debate, in the group, continues even after the test is over. And for the first time, Dario intervenes.  Dario sits two seats away from Marco: he always keeps to himself and speaks little. His best friends are in other classes and he spends playtime with them. During the test, Dario ended up next to Marco and, throughout the test time, asked him for his results. But Marco was unable to help him because the teacher was keeping an eye on him.

Dario then debuts in the group with a very specific accusation: Marco refused to hand over the task to him. It is a false accusation and full of insults. Marco tries to justify himself, but Dario continues to insult him. Someone tries to stop the comrade, but he gets fed up almost immediately: after all, his attack is only on Marco and everyone prefers to talk about something else.

Only Annalisa writes a private message to her unjustly attacked friend: she tells him to let it go, that Dario is only telling lies and that no one believes him. To Marco, however, those harsh words hurt. He cannot help but give them weight. And so, what used to be a space to have fun, now becomes a battleground, and Marco loses the will to interact with his peers...'

Check the video bellow.