One of the world’s leading experts on cyberbullying hopes to hold a youth summit in Bermuda focusing on the crime and ways to prevent it.

Dr Parry Aftab is visiting the Island for the 32nd Meeting of the Interpol Specialists Group on Crimes Against Children (ISGCC) and gave a lecture to delegates yesterday.

She also held workshops at Mount Saint Agnes Academy on Wednesday and was “very impressed” with the young people she met.

“I want to give a youth summit in Bermuda and bring students, the other children who care about cyberbullying,” Dr Aftab told The Royal Gazette yesterday, on the sidelines of the conference. “We’d have young people run a lot of it.

“Learn about the laws and talk to industry — education and information. You can’t leave children out, they know what they are doing.”

She praised the youngsters at MSA for their ideas about tackling cyberbullying and said they highlighted ‘hate speech’ as an issue of concern for them.

“The children also told me you can’t trust friends, it’s a small place, nobody forgets and everyone talks.

“When ‘sexting’ it’s even more risky — no one will keep that secret.

“The children told me they understand what cyberbullying is — they can help to raise awareness, talk to parents and other children, write a guide from a teen perspective.”

Dr Aftab is a world-renowned pioneer in internet law and cybercrime and a member of Facebook’s cybersafety advisory board. She also founded and runs the world’s largest cybersafety and help group, WiredSafety.org.

“Cyberbullying is not always as clear cut” as traditional bullying, she said. “It’s not always for control.”

Dr Aftab told how she was talking to children in the US about cyberbullying and asked them to identify possible bullying behaviour of their own.

“A kid said, “I send death threats — but I’m not going to kill anyone’. I asked him why and he said ‘because I can’,” she said.

Dr Aftab has identified five types of cyberbullies.

“Vengeful angels are the Robin Hoods of cyberspace, protecting others,” she said, and that they do not see themselves as bullies but sticking up for those who are being victimised.

“The accidental or inadvertent cyberbully doesn’t mean to be a bully — that’s 30 percent of all cyberbullies.

“The mean girls always do it in groups but aren’t always girls. It’s reputational and social bullying.

“Power hungry cyberbullies are the children who traditionally beat you up in a schoolyard.”

The last category, “the revenge of the nerds”, may be seeking power or control because they are being bullied.

“Power hungry and revenge of the nerds are anonymous most of the time,” Dr Aftab said.

She detailed how there are two common types of cyberbullying, direct and indirect — using text messages or e-mail, for example, to victimise someone, or having others do it by proxy.

“Direct is ‘I hate you, you’re stupid’,” Dr Aftab said. “Indirect is talking to everybody else about that person, getting someone else to do it, setting it up so the victim takes the fall.”

Dr Aftab warned that “70 percent of cyberbullying occurs anonymously — children are very good at anonymity”.

Bermuda “can’t be unique from other jurisdictions” when it comes to cyberbullying, said Bermuda Police Service’s Detective Inspector Mark Clarke.

“One case is one too many,” he said. “We’ve had cases of, let’s call it ‘sexploitation’. “If you don’t do this, we’ll do this. Give me photos or have sex with me. It’s mostly photos.

“Children live in a sexualised world, we live in a sexualised world. Children are making adult decisions.

“If you see illegal content, say a sexualised image that’s been distributed and it’s a child by law, you go into the area of child abusive images and should report it to the police.”

Det Insp Clarke said parents were “the first line of defence” when it came to protecting children online.

“Parents must learn the technology and must have hard conversations with children. We all have some ownership.”

He advised guardians to learn as much about technology as possible, especially the parental controls available.

Det Insp Clarke also recommended reporting offensive and threatening content, such as cyberbullying, to service providers and websites such as Facebook.

Service providers can store the data in case it needs to be used in any future investigation — but unless you ask, it may not be kept. And often, an embarrassed victim will delete evidence to prevent it being seen.

“Before it gets to law enforcement, go through friends, parents, teachers,” Dr Aftab said. “Facebook does a lot to help. Five of us sit on their safety advisory committee. Facebook does look at the reports and when you report it you can see what action they are taking.

“The best way to stop cyberbullying is to teach students to recognise it and know what to do when they find it, and teach parents the right technology for their children.

“Know how to use it and how to block certain content, how to control it.”

Neither Dr Aftab nor any of the delegates attending the ISGCC are being paid to be at the event and are footing their own bills.

“These are the people making a difference,” Dr Aftab said.

Det Insp Clarke added that the purpose of the event was to “bring together the brightest minds” to tackle crimes against children.

The ISGCC conference is being held at Fairmont Southampton Resort and closes today.