IJFS - Interdisciplinary Journal of Family Studies

The extremely complex nature of technology-enabled offences involving violence against children increasingly requires for Law Enforcement to develop analysis strategies, from a multidisciplinary perspective. Cyberbullying among peers can find in Internet a key factor, facilitating the dangerous power of such crime. The online dimension of this phenomenon increases victimization, in most cases due to lack of experience; considering bullying acts like a sort of game, as well as provocation and aggressiveness by perpetrators. These are typical features of adolescence, characterized by high levels of emotional instability and ongoing development of the individual’s cognitive competencies. Additionally, internet has provided child sex offenders with the opportunity to devise increasingly horrible methods and patterns to sexually exploit children, such as online grooming, a crime punishable under Law No. 172/2012. Furthermore, some specific forms of emotional vulnerability, such as eating disorders, self-harm, or even some “games” have found their path to the web, showing their challenging side, with amplification of individual vulnerabilities becoming group vulnerabilities, thus promoting a sense of belonging in relation to pathological aspects.