Virtual violence between students of elementary school in different States of Brazil

The technology has made communication faster, nevertheless made possible the occurrence of virtual violence. This study investigated occurrences of cyberbullying in some Brazilian States. To this end, it was applied a School Violence Scale (Escala de Violência Escolar), which evaluates the occurrence and severity of school violence and bullying experienced and practiced by students. This scale was answered by 1534 students from six schools located in the States of São Paulo, Ceará, Paraná and Minas Gerais. It was noted that approximately 37% of the students were involved in cyberbullying situations or as a victim or as an author, among them 23% were victims, 3% authors and 11% were both victims and authors. Additionally, a significant association was observed between being a girl and suffering psychological threats (p = 0.041) and receiving offensive messages (p = 0.036). To be a boy was associated with becoming object of ridicule in videos (p = 0.051). It was found that the age group most involved in situations of virtual violence was students with 15 years or more. These results are relevant, because they point to the need for preventing the problem. It is important that future studies increase the amount and diversity of participants to get knowledge about the prevalence of the phenomenon in the regions of the country. Key-words: technology, violence, school, bullying, cyberbullying.