The spread of COVID-19 disease has greatly changed the daily lives of young people, who, for the first time in the history of independent Slovenia, had to attend classes at a distance, which brought many changes and challenges. In our master's thesis, we were interested in the proportion of students who experienced and/or noticed at least one form of cyberbullying during distance learning between March and June 2020. We anticipated that more girls than boys would report cybervictimization. We also examined the link between cyberbullying and the time spent online. Our data was compared with the results of similar studies before distance learning. Furthermore, we focused on the role of observers of cyberbullying and analyzed it in terms of the intervention model and moral disengagement. The study involved 1006 students aged between 16 and 19. Data was collected online. For the purpose of the research, we adapted and used the Cyberbullying Questionnaire, The Cyberbullying-specific Moral Disengagement questionnaire and the Bystander Cyberbullying Intervention questionnaire. Our results showed that a third of students experienced at least one form of cyberbullying during distance learning, and fewer reported having observed it in others. Based on past studies, we expected higher proportions. More cyberbullying has been experienced and noticed by girls, which is consistent with previous studies. The experience of cyberbullying has been shown to be related to the number of online applications used by adolescents, but not to the frequency of digital device use alone, thus building on the findings of some previous studies. For observers of cyberbullying, we found that moral disengagement is related to helping those who experience cyberbullying, which largely stems from the assessment of the severity of the observed event and the sense of responsibility for action. In our sample group, male students show higher levels of moral disengagement than female students. Gender differences and other findings of our research can be beneficial in the design of programs for the prevention of cyberbullying among adolescents.
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