Objectives

Cyber bullying, hate, and harassment online against school aged children (10-17 years) are now major concerns for parents in Ireland and across Europe. Despite the recent introduction of lower ages of digital consent in the EU, the scale of use of social media and apps on smartphones by children and adolescents has increased exponentially in recent years. Furthermore, the recent impact of the global pandemic has seen the number of children and adolescents spending more time online increase beyond anything that could have been anticipated. Any child can be a target of online bullying, hate, or harassment but we know from research that some children and young people are more likely to be engaged in it than others.

Females and those with poor friendships offline were more likely to be targeted online (DCU, 2019). There is currently no global solution to the problem of cyberbullying, hate, and harassment against children and adolescents, so the objective of this study is to explore the role that technology can play in supporting parental mediation of online spaces, particularly for females and others who experience themselves to be more vulnerable to cyberbullying online.