I comportamenti devianti e criminali dei digital native: una riflessione comparata in materia di cyberbullismo e sexting

Over the past twenty years, the Internet has become an integral part of people’s lives, especially young people, the socalled digital natives. Children and adolescent have eagerly embraced its potential for communication, entertainment and information-seeking. Today, minors grow up in a technology-mediated environment and are especially attracted by the possibilities of the Web. For them, the distinction between online and offline has increasingly become meaningless, and they move effortlessly between the two. This opens tremendous prospects that were unimaginable only half a generation ago. While such availability would uniformly be seen as positive, there are increasing concerns about the risks that access to technology might bring for young people. This massive use of ICTs by children and adolescents represents a circumstance not devoid of legal relevance. As a matter of fact, the Internet revolution has brought about a change in the criminological scenario, especially in relation to young people. This work intends to investigate the new virtual phenomena characterizing the digital natives and known as cyberbullying and sexting, adopting an interdisciplinary research approach. Following an in-depth investigation into the sociological and criminological aspects that characterize the phenomena, the research provides an evaluation of the current legal framework at the international, European and national level in relation to the protection of minors in the digital world. Consequently, on the basis of a comparative analysis involving common law (Australia, Canada) and civil law (Spain, Italy) systems, the study aspires firstly to identity the legal issues and debates arose by cyberbullying and sexting, estimating the effectiveness of the criminal justice model in relation to these types of criminal and deviant behaviours. Secondly, it aims to reflect on the role of criminal law in relation to the new challenges posed by the cyberspace