Introduction

Bullying affects the lives of many children in school. Some are victims, some take part in bullying others, and many are, to a greater or lesser extent, onlookers or witnesses of bullying behaviours. Considered as a systematic abuse of power, bullying can be seen as an infringement of the rights of a child to a happy and productive life, inside and outside school (Greene 2006). Usually seen as something that happens in schools and amongst peers, the advent of cyberbullying by mobile phones and via the internet, primarily in this century, has seen bullying spread to the ‘global playground’ (Li, Cross and Smith 2012).