What Is Cyberbullying? Definition, Signs and Support

For all its potential for connection, the digital world has a darker side. Nearly a third of UK children have been on the receiving end of it, whether through a nasty message, a fake profile set up in their name, or exclusion from a group chat that everyone else seems to be part of. This guide answers the question at the centre of it all: what is cyberbullying, and how is it different from an ordinary online falling-out? It sets out the different forms it takes, where it tends to happen, what UK law says about it, and where to turn for support, whether you’re a parent, a teacher, or dealing with it yourself.

In short, cyberbullying is the repeated, intentional use of digital technology, such as social media, messaging apps, or online games, to harass, humiliate, or intimidate another person. Unlike a single unpleasant message, it involves a pattern of behaviour, and unlike traditional bullying, it can reach a victim at any hour, in any location, through the device in their pocket.

What Is Cyberbullying?

Before looking at where it happens or what to do about it, it helps to be precise about what is cyberbullying and what it isn’t. Not every unkind comment online counts, and knowing the difference matters for how seriously a situation needs to be taken.

Definition and Forms

Cyberbullying is when someone uses digital spaces, such as social media, text messages, or online games, to harass, intimidate, or embarrass another person, and does so repeatedly rather than as a one-off. It can take many shapes: mean-spirited messages, rumours spread on forums, embarrassing photos shared without consent, or entire fake accounts created to mock someone. Unlike traditional bullying that tends to stop once a child leaves the school gate, this kind can follow them home and continue around the clock.

The forms it takes are as varied as the technology itself. Some of the most common include:

• Direct harassment, such as repeatedly sending threatening or insulting messages despite being asked to stop.
• Public humiliation, including posting embarrassing photos, screenshots of private chats, or mocking comments, where others can see them.
• Impersonation, where someone sets up a fake profile in another person’s name to post content that damages their reputation.
• Exclusion, deliberately leaving someone out of a group chat, gaming server, or online friend group to isolate them socially.
• Outing, sharing someone’s private information, such as their sexuality or a personal struggle, without their permission.

Three things tend to separate genuine cyberbullying from a single unpleasant exchange: it’s intentional, it happens more than once, and there’s usually some kind of power imbalance, whether that’s technical know-how, social influence, or simply the safety of anonymity.

How Common Is It in the UK?

Cyberbullying is far from rare among young people in the UK. Ofcom’s Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes research found that around a third of children aged 8 to 17 have experienced bullying online, and that when children are bullied at all, it’s now more likely to happen on a screen than face to face. Separate data from the Office for National Statistics puts the figure at around one in five children aged 10 to 15 in England and Wales, with girls considerably more affected than boys.

Figures like these vary a fair bit between studies, partly because researchers don’t always define or measure “cyberbullying” the same way, which is worth bearing in mind whenever a single statistic is presented as the definitive picture. For the full national data set, see our dedicated cyberbullying statistics page, and for a closer look at why prevalence figures differ so much between sources, our piece on how reliable cyberbullying data really is is worth reading alongside it. None of this is a reason to panic. It’s a reason to know what the warning signs look like and what to do if they appear, which is what the rest of this guide covers.

Where Cyberbullying Happens

It’s tempting to think of cyberbullying as something that only happens on social media, but that misses a large part of the picture. Understanding the full range of places it can occur makes it far easier to know what to look out for and where to focus prevention efforts.

Social Media Platforms

Social media remains the setting most people think of first, and for good reason. Public comments, direct messages, and shared photos all create opportunities for harassment, exclusion, and impersonation, and the fact that content can be screenshotted and re-shared means a single post can resurface long after it was deleted. Bullying on social media tends to be highly visible to a young person’s wider peer group, which is often what makes it feel so exposing.

Gaming and Voice Chat

Online games and the platforms built around them, including Discord, Roblox, and console networks such as Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, have become one of the most significant and least discussed places where cyberbullying happens. Ofcom’s research has found that over half of parents whose children play online games are concerned about them being bullied during gameplay, and unlike a text message, harassment that happens over live voice chat leaves no automatic record, which makes it harder to document and report.

Server structures on platforms like Discord can also create small, tight-knit groups where exclusion or pile-ons occur entirely out of sight of parents and teachers. If a young person seems reluctant to game with certain people, or comes off a session visibly upset, it’s worth asking gently what happened, since voice-based bullying rarely leaves the kind of evidence a text thread does.

Is Cyberbullying a Crime in the UK?

Cyberbullying itself has no single, standalone legal definition in UK law, but that doesn’t mean it exists in a legal grey area. Depending on what’s actually been said or done, several pieces of legislation can apply.

The Online Safety Act 2023 is the main law governing what happens on social media and other user-to-user platforms, placing a duty of care on providers and giving Ofcom the power to fine non-compliant companies up to £18 million or 10% of global annual turnover. Since January 2024, it has also created criminal offences for individuals, including sending threatening or knowingly false communications. Where cyberbullying involves a sustained pattern of unwanted contact, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 can apply instead, since it covers both harassment and stalking.

None of these laws uses the word “cyberbullying” directly, which is part of why so many people affected by it aren’t sure whether what’s happened to them is actually against the law. If a message or pattern of contact feels threatening, repeated, or intended to cause distress, it’s worth reporting it to the police rather than assuming it doesn’t meet a legal threshold. Reporting routes differ slightly across England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

For a full breakdown of every relevant Act, the penalties involved, and how civil claims work, our complete guide to the legal consequences of cyberbullying covers this in depth, and our guide to reporting cyberbullying sets out the exact steps for contacting the police in each UK nation.

AI-Generated Harassment and Deepfakes

Cyberbullying has always evolved alongside the technology available to bullies, and the most recent shift has been the arrival of generative AI. UK law has moved quickly to catch up. Sharing or threatening to share an intimate image without consent, including an AI-generated deepfake, has been a criminal offence under the Online Safety Act 2023 since it amended the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

More recently, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 went a step further and made it a criminal offence simply to create, or ask someone else to create, a non-consensual explicit deepfake image of an adult, even if it’s never shared. This closed a gap that had previously meant that the creation of such content fell outside the criminal law as long as it remained private.

Beyond sexual deepfakes, AI tools are also being used to fabricate convincing but false messages, voice clips, or images designed to embarrass or intimidate someone, sometimes without ever involving explicit content at all. Because this kind of harassment can look highly realistic, it can be more distressing and harder for a victim to disprove than a rumour spread by text. If a young person is targeted this way, the same evidence-first approach applies: save what was shared, note where it appeared, and report both to the platform and, where the content is intimate or threatening, to the police.

Identifying and Responding to Cyberbullying

Knowing what cyberbullying looks like in law and in theory is one thing. Spotting it in a child, a pupil, or even in your own experience is often harder, since the signs can be subtle and easy to put down to something else entirely.

Signs and Indicators

Cyberbullying can have serious effects on the people involved, so recognising it early matters. Signs worth paying attention to include:

• Withdrawal from social activities or a noticeable change in mood.
• Increased time spent online, especially at odd hours, or conversely, a sudden reluctance to go online at all.
• Unexplained mood swings or visible distress after using a phone or device.
• A decline in academic performance or interest in school.
• Physical symptoms, such as headaches or stomachaches, that seem linked to stress.
• Reluctance to discuss online activity or interactions with friends.
• Signs of low self-esteem or low mood without an obvious cause.

How to Intervene Safely

If you suspect someone is being cyberbullied, there’s a clear sequence of steps that tends to work best. Document what’s happening, including screenshots and timestamps, as this can be important evidence if the situation needs to be escalated. Encourage the person to talk about what’s going on rather than pushing them, and make it clear that reporting it won’t make things worse. Report the behaviour to the relevant platform and, where it meets a legal threshold, to the police.

Review privacy settings and blocking features together, since these limit further contact without requiring the victim to leave the platform altogether. Where the emotional impact is significant, involving a GP, school counsellor, or mental health professional is worth doing sooner rather than later.

Reporting to Platforms

Most major platforms have a dedicated reporting process, usually accessed via a “Report” option on the post, message, or profile in question. A few starting points:

Platform	Where to start
Instagram, Facebook	Three dots on the post or profile, then Report
TikTok	Press and hold the video or comment, then Report
Snapchat	Press and hold the Snap or message, then use the flag icon
Discord, Roblox	Right-click the message, or use the in-app Report Abuse option

Save evidence before reporting wherever possible, since some platforms remove content quickly once it’s flagged. For the exact steps on every major platform, including gaming services, our full guide to reporting cyberbullying covers each one in detail.

Preventing Cyberbullying in the Classroom

Schools have a significant role to play, not just in responding when cyberbullying happens but in reducing how often it does in the first place. That means building digital citizenship into everyday teaching rather than treating it as a one-off assembly topic.

Educating Students about Digital Bullying

Interactive workshops that use real-life scenarios tend to land better than a lecture on the subject, since they give pupils something concrete to discuss rather than abstract warnings. Useful approaches include:

• Role-playing exercises that build empathy by asking pupils to consider a situation from more than one perspective.
• Peer-led discussions where pupils can share experiences or concerns in a safe, structured space.
• Guest speakers, including mental health professionals or people with lived experience of online bullying, who can make the topic feel less abstract.
• Short educational videos that illustrate the impact of digital bullying without being alarmist.

Resources and Activities for Teachers

Curriculum time spent on digital citizenship pays off well beyond the immediate topic of bullying. Practical steps include incorporating online safety into existing PSHE lessons, using case studies to prompt discussion rather than simply listing rules, and organising workshops with outside speakers where resources allow. The goal isn’t to frighten pupils away from technology but to help them use it with a clearer sense of consequence.

Working with Families to Prevent Cyberbullying

Schools can only do so much without support at home, so involving families should be a priority rather than an afterthought. Parents can be encouraged to have open, non-judgmental conversations with their children about what they’re doing online, to agree on clear household guidelines around social media and messaging apps, and to learn the basics of monitoring without straying into invasive surveillance that damages trust. A joined-up approach between schools, families, and local support services tends to catch problems earlier than any one group working alone.

Support Resources for Cyberbullying

Whatever the situation, nobody dealing with cyberbullying needs to handle it without support. A range of helplines, charities, and platforms exists specifically to help, whether the person affected is a child, a parent, or an adult experiencing online harassment.

Helplines and Crisis Support

Helplines and crisis services offer immediate, confidential support for anyone affected by cyberbullying, with many operating 24/7 by phone or text. Trained advisers can help someone work through what’s happened and what steps to take next, including how to document and report an incident. Some services also support parents and teachers directly, rather than only victims. If you need to talk to someone right now, our guide to getting cyberbullying help in the UK lists current helpline numbers and what each service is best suited for.

Organisations and Blogs for Education and Support

Several organisations focus specifically on cyberbullying education and support. The National Bullying Helpline offers advice for anyone affected, including parents and employees. The CyberSmile Foundation provides educational resources on online safety and cyberbullying awareness. The Diana Award runs an anti-bullying campaign with resources for schools, and Kidscape, a UK-based charity, offers practical workshops for families. For further reading on the UK support landscape, our guide to where to get help for cyberbullying sets out reporting routes and support services in more detail.

Cyberbullying is a serious issue, but it comes with clear, practical responses at every level, from a single conversation with a worried child to a formal report under UK law. Recognising the signs early, knowing where the legal lines sit, and understanding where to turn for support all make a genuine difference. If this guide has been useful, or if there’s something about your own experience it hasn’t covered, we’d welcome hearing from you.

FAQs

A few questions come up more often than most when people are trying to understand what is cyberbullying and how to deal with it. Here are straightforward answers to the ones we hear most.