A systematic literature review on technological solutions to fight bullying and cyberbullying in academic environments

Abstract

Nowadays, the world is more connected than ever; the use of internet, social networks and platforms allows for people of all ages to have constant communication. During the past year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, children and teenagers have had to spend most of their time using a technological device, for educational and recreational purposes. This constant connection has carried on several issues, one of them being cyberbullied. This is when a person intentionally and repeatedly harms another one, on a virtual environment. Even with its downside, technology has many advantages; it has allowed for children and teenagers to engage in educational communities and applications. Then, studies on bullying and the ways to fight it exist from many years prior, however, there are little literature about the technological solutions to help in the fight against cyberbullying and bullying. Therefore, the objective of this research is to perform a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) about technological solutions for education and to fight bullying and cyberbullying in children and teenagers. To perform a trustworthy, rigorous and repeatable SLR, the methodology proposed by Kitchenham was used. The presented SLR, uses studies from 2009 to 2021. To start, a group of primary studies was selected, which met the characteristics to answer the research question “What technological tools, methods and models are used to educate about bullying and cyberbullying?” The primary studies were obtained from the most used digital libraries, prominent journals, and most representative conferences in the area. In conclusion, this study provides a global vision of the state of the art in this area, which represents a helpful tool for researchers to detect weaknesses and gaps and open new horizons regarding the use and design of technology to fight bullying and cyberbullying.