JRC Position Paper on Cyberbullying: Call for Common Global Definition in AI Era
SDG 4: Quality Education | SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Institution: Ministry of Education | Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology
The European Commissionโs Joint Research Centre (JRC) has released a position paper titled โCyberbullying: Considerations Towards a Common Definition.โ The study underscores the absence of a harmonized definition of cyberbullying across EU member states, noting that only 13 out of 28 have specific legal definitions. The lack of standardization hinders monitoring, policymaking, and international cooperation.
The report highlights how new digital tools, including generative AI, are intensifying cyberbullying risks, adding to existing challenges faced by children and young people online. It calls for a common, precise definition to help policymakers, educators, and technology platforms design coherent responses and track prevalence effectively across jurisdictions.
For India, which faces rising cases of online harassment among adolescents and growing concerns around AI-enabled misuse, the findings are a timely reminder. A harmonized definition could strengthen the National Education Policyโs digital safety focus, aid the Ministry of Electronics & IT in designing regulatory safeguards, and improve legal clarity for enforcement.
Follow the full report here:
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC143340/JRC143340_01.pdf