Managing Cyber-bullying in Online Educational Virtual Worlds

Diego Fernando Gutierrez Aponte and Deborah Richards

Abstract:
Online Educational Virtual Worlds offer promise that is currently not being realised because of potential threats to the child’s safety and wellbeing. This paper seeks to better understand the behavioural and psychological issues, particularly relating to cyber-bullying, faced by school children when they are online and what solutions currently exist. As an outcome of this understanding we make recommendations regarding how cyberbullying should be managed in educational virtual worlds taking a hybrid approach involving policy, technology and non-technology based solutions.