Towards A Safety-Enabled Strategy To Aid Authorities In Diagnosing Mobile Bully-victims In Rural High Schools of South Africa

Cyberbullying is the reality for schoolchildren around the world due to the nature of social networking sites and the usage of mobile devices, which allow concealing users' identity, making it difficult to identify culprits. The identification of bully-victims is especially challenging because of their dual characteristics, including those of pure bullies and victims. Furthermore, children often do not report cyberbullying incidents for fear of retribution. This study proposes an effective strategy using the mobile bully-victims response system (M-BRS) in diagnosing bully-victims among high-school children. The Design Science Research Methodology is used to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate a safe cyberbullying diagnosis strategy as a targeted interventional tool. An extensive literature review was conducted to understand the technical aspects of the M-BRS and its implementation. This study's results include the M-BRS implementation strategy that combines nominations, bullying social status, and severity assessment to inform suitable interventions, as a contribution to the efficacy of safe cyberbullying diagnosis in high schools.