Abstract
Recently, South Africa has seen a surge in violence, cyberbullying by learners against peers, and online malicious acts against teachers. In response, the South African Department of Basic Education invited the social crime prevention police to intervene. This study reports on the developmental issues contributing to cyberbullying and the police response to this violence in rural schools. An extensive literature review was conducted, and a conceptual framework was developed to guide the study and development of a mobile application. This framework was tested using data collected from focus groups, 8 police officers, 9 teachers, 52 grade-10 learners, and 27 grade-12 learners. The data were analyzed using thematic and quantitative techniques. The findings reveal some developmental issues. For instance, teachers are often targeted by learners online because they fail to take prompt action when learners report cyberbullying incidents. This finding is consistent with the developmental theory which predicts that lack of support would create a permissive context for cyberbullying. In addition, the popularity of cyberbullying has a stronger influence on older, rather than younger, adolescents. Older adolescents are more concerned about gaining popularity than being socially accepted. Recommendations are made which can be useful to schools, learners, and the police force in their fight against cyberbullying.
Highlights
South African public schools have seen a rise in violence against teachers, including cyberbullying
Trust is seen as the element of emotional support, which lowers the likelihood for cyberbullying perpetration [13]
Following the pragmatism philosophy as an ontological stance to investigate a practical solution in this study allowed researchers to adopt a design science research approach to create an innovative solution to address cyberbullying in schools
Summary
South African public schools have seen a rise in violence against teachers, including cyberbullying. School violence often arises from unresolved physical and cyberbullying incidents [3,4,5]. In response to the school violence, the Department of Basic Education invited the South African Police to help restore safety in schools. Each school has a designated police officer to help address social crime-related incidents that arise in school premises. The involvement of the police in addressing school violence is undoubtedly essential, their role against cyberbullying remains unclear [6]. In South Africa and abroad, teachers have experienced bullying by their pupils, which is detrimental to a safe learning environment, including low morale and motivation, and negative emotions [1,8,9]. The use of mobile devices for Internet access is much more common in South African rural areas compared to other methods [10], which translates
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