“Beauty Ideals” from a Christian, Educational and Media Perspective: Dangers, Challenges and Opportunities in the Croatian Educational System

Abstract

Today’s children are growing up and spending most of their free time with media, especially social networks, on which various lifestyles are imposed every day, including ideals of beauty that are often based on physical appearance and far from authentic images of the observed object. In this paper, it is shown how the topic of beauty is presented throughout the history of art, with a special focus on the presentation of beauty in theology. Additionally, the paper investigates how much the topic of beauty is treated within the Croatian formal education system, with a particular emphasis on the representation of beauty and to what extent children are prepared to critically evaluate the representation of beauty in different types of media, but also to reflect on the potential impact of such content on themselves. Research has shown that most such content is present in the subjects of Visual Culture, Visual Arts, Croatian Language and Informatics. The paper also presents such contents in the Catholic religious education curricula. In addition to imposed media ideals of beauty affecting childrens’ self-confidence, they are often the subject of peer violence, especially in the virtual world. Specifically, humiliation based on physical appearance is a common form of cyberbullying. To determine how physical appearance is used in such unacceptable behavior among children, all the posts that have arrived on UHO, the first online platform for the prevention of cyberbullying in Croatia, were analyzed. Research has shown that girls report such forms of abuse more often than boys, that cyberbullying based on appearance most often occurs inside closed groups or private messages rather than publicly on social networks, and that children rarely report to adults that they are the victims of such forms of violence.

1. Introduction: Beauty in History and Today

“Beauty has never been absolute and immutable but has taken on different aspects depending on the historical period and the country: and this does not hold only for physical Beauty (of men, of women, of the landscape) but also for the Beauty of God, or the saints, or ideas”, emphasizes Umberto Eco (2004, p. 14). The fact is that each historical period had its ideal of beauty, and it was also a replica of the beauty stereotypes of a specific culture and society (Riccioni 2018, pp. 77–86). Beauty itself “has its archive: the history of beauty is documented through works of art. ‘Over the centuries it was artists, poets, and novelists who told us about the things that they considered beautiful, and they were the ones who left us examples’” (Eco 2004, pp. 10–11). That is why it can be said that this concept of “beautiful” was the beauty of their times and the ideal of beauty in the era in which they lived and worked.

However, as we approach the modern age, more and more documents do not have artistic intentions but were created “for entertainment, commercial advertising, or the satisfaction of erotic drives” (Eco 2004, p. 12). According to Eco, it is about images and depictions from “commercial cinema, television, and advertising” (Eco 2004, p. 12), but also photographs that are indispensable content of modern media, especially internet pages and portals, as well as social media and social networks, which today are very often used by children and young people (Smahel et al. 2020) and where ideals of beauty are imposed on them. It should not be forgotten that the ideal of beauty is a current ideology (Eco 1973, as cited in Hameršak 2003, p. 68), that is, an ideology with a “shelf life” because the concept of beauty has changed throughout history (Riccioni 2018, p. 77; Eco 2004, p. 14).

In the first part of the paper, we provide an overview of the changing concept of the ideal of beauty, emphasizing theological understandings of this ideal and the representation of beauty in the media. In order to study the dangers that a misconception of beauty can lead to, we analyzed the posts on the UHO platform, the first online platform in Croatia that is intended for children who are victims of cyberbullying with the aim of providing professional help. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the Croatian education system with an emphasis on the presence of topics and outcomes related to aesthetic and media education in the curricula of all subjects in Croatian schools.

1.1. Historic Reflection on Beauty and Theology

Throughout history, theology has always given a special place to its consideration of beauty, points out Rino Fisichella (2009, p. 601) and adds that “official” theology sometimes “omits the pulchrum from its research” (Fisichella 2009, p. 601). However, some authors did not remain insensitive to this topic, which has its roots in the Holy Scriptures. Thus, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew term “tob” is translated both as beauty and as “goodness”, which means that the biblical text places the concept of beauty in the context of value.

Furthermore, in the Old Testament Book of Genesis, it is written: “And God saw that it was good”, which according to Fisichella can be “exactly translated as: ‘and God saw that it was beautiful’. Together with beauty, God announces his love and faithfulness to his word” (Fisichella 2009, p. 601), whereby beauty does not remain closed in itself. Further, in this context, the word “kabod” acquires a special value. “Kabod is the glory of Yahweh’s radiance in the splendor of his beauty. Beauty that is not directly exposed to viewing always remains covered and hidden, because that is the only way it can keep us in a contemplative dynamic that knows how to feel beauty and recognize beauty and always go further” (Fisichella 2009, p. 601).

According to theological thinking, the psalmist’s words can be applied to Jesus of Nazareth: “You are beautiful, the most beautiful of the sons of men” (Ps 45:). Eco’s artistic depiction of Jesus and Mary throughout history includes the “eleven comparative tables designed to visualize immediately how the diverse ideas of Beauty were revisited and developed (and perhaps varied) in different epochs” (Eco 2004, p. 14). He further explains that:

“in the late Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas said (retrieving ideas that were in widespread circulation even before his time) that beauty requires three things: proportion, integrity and claritas, in other words clarity and luminosity. One of the origins of the aesthetic of clarity certainly derives from the fact that, in numerous cultures, God is identified with light” and “through Neoplatonism these images found their way into the Christian tradition”.

(Eco 2004, p. 102)

One other theologian, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio writes: “takes up a metaphysics of light in Aristotelian terms. In his view, light is the substantial form of bodies. In this sense light is the principle of all Beauty”. (Eco 2004, p. 129).

Finally, writing on “Sacred and Profane Beauty”, Umberto Eco states that:

“the medieval philosophers, theologians and mystics who dealt with Beauty had few reasons to deal with female beauty given that they were all men of the church, and medieval moralism caused them to mistrust the pleasures of the flesh. Nonetheless, they could not fail to acknowledge Biblical texts and they were obliged to interpret the allegorical sense of the Song of Songs, which—if taken literally—is the Spouse’s celebration of the visible charms of his Beloved”.

(Eco 2004, p. 154)

Stating what Petrarch, Cusa, Erasmus, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, Pascal, Hamann, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Hopkins and Peguy thought about beauty from a Christian perspective, Fisichella claims that Hans Urs von Balthasar was “the only author who in contemporary theology boldly and strongly reopened that perspective” because “through beauty it is possible to establish a new bridge between theology and literature as a form of thinking that knows how to mediate the value of faith within symbolic speech and culture” (Fisichella 2009, p. 602).

In recent times, the most comprehensive presentation of the way beauty has been presented in Western cultures throughout history is provided by Umberto Eco in his work “On Beauty”, in which he begins with the interpretation of this concept from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance up to the early and late 19th and 20th centuries. In that period, he writes on the concept of beauty in the media, stating that “all we can do is content ourselves with noting that the first half of the twentieth century, up to and including the 1960s at most (after which it would be more difficult), witnessed a dramatic struggle between the Beauty of provocation and the Beauty of consumption” (Eco 2004, p. 414).

This “dramatic struggle”, to use Eco’s words, continues today and has largely “moved” to internet portals, social media and social networks, where unattainable ideals of beauty are offered and imposed on children and young people, which lead to dissatisfaction and frustration with their appearance, as well as insults and violent behavior towards those who do not correspond to this “imagined” but non-existent and unattainable ideal (UHO 2023; Bozzola et al. 2022; Buljan Flander et al. 2021; Ciboci et al. 2020; Stipan 2018). Even its imposition on social networks can be considered cyberbullying (Pope Francis 2019). Namely, as the ancient Greek philosophers once had their visions of beauty and led their debates about aesthetic ideals—the myths of beauty at the time—we could say the same about the modern era, which brought some completely new aspects of views and (mis)understanding of the concept and ideal of beauty. It will be discussed later in the theoretical, and especially in the research part of the work, with particular reference to the relationship between beauty in different contexts, the relationship with oneself and others, and even the violent relationship with those who, as we said, do not follow today’s ideal of beauty (Riccioni 2018, p. 77). These ideals of beauty are imposed by the Internet and social networks (Strujić 2015), and children are exposed to rude and violent comments and remarks by participants in discussions on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and elsewhere (Bozzola et al. 2022).

Two different ways of understanding beauty were presented to us by the Greek philosopher Plato, and they continued to develop centuries after him: the first is beauty as harmony and proportion of parts (body, but also objects), and the second is beauty as shine (light).

“Medieval thinkers also discuss beauty in their works. In his Etymologies, Isidore of Seville explains how some things in the human body are useful—the purpose of some things in the human body is utility, while that of others is decus (decoration), that is to say ornamentation, beauty and pleasure to the eye” .

(Eco 2004, p. 111)

At that time, according to Eco, a pink complexion was one of the first characteristics of a beautiful body (Eco 2004, p. 113). The medieval ideal of the beauty of the female body, which can be read from the words of Isidore of Seville, “consists of a beautiful face, feet, hands, delicate gums, small breasts, and wide child-bearing hips of women. Today’s standards and criteria of beauty, compared to those of the Middle Ages, are different, so the ideal of female beauty is considered a body that has certain proportions or ‘measurements’: 90 cm chest width, 60 cm waist width, 90 cm hip width” (Labaš and Maljković 2013, p. 303), so photos are regularly retouched and photoshopped on social networks. It should be added that, in the Renaissance period, more attention was paid to the upper part of the body. It was so until the 19th century, while only in the 20th century was more attention paid to the lower parts of the body. At the same time, highly slender people, especially women, were considered beautiful.

All these problems and the distortion of the concept of beauty throughout history and in contemporary media are also warned in church documents, especially from the Second Vatican Council and the “Inter mirifica” decree from 1962, while the Popes every year in their messages for World Media Day, since 1967, warn that the media can promote a certain lifestyle among young people, and they often use children and young people as frivolous consumers of erotic and violent media content (Pope Paul VI 1970), which influences imagination, thinking and the formation of attitudes, even about beauty (Pope John Paul II 1981).

Pope Paul VI, in his Message for 1978, calls for a joint effort to ensure that “the media message is not subordinated to different centers of power and poisoned by violence, eroticism, vulgarity and egoism, but that media content is a contribution to culture and a healthy spirit” (Strujić 2015, p. 161), which moral theologian Jerko Valković (2019) also calls for. Further, all the messages of the Pope permanently emphasize the importance of education for responsible and balanced use of the media, as well as the correct selection of suitable content, where families and schools play an important role, “and no catechetical program can neglect education for the responsible use of the media” (Strujić 2015, p. 247).

“The risk of misinformation being spread on social media has become evident to everyone. We have known for some time that news and even images can be easily manipulated, for any number of reasons, at times simply for sheer narcissism. Being critical in this regard is not about demonizing the Internet, but is rather an incentive to greater discernment and responsibility for contents both sent and received”,

wrote Pope Francis in his Message for the 2021 World Communications Day (Pope Francis 2021).

“We need to recognize how social networks, on the one hand, help us to better connect, rediscover, and assist one another, but on the other, lend themselves to the manipulation of personal data, aimed at obtaining political or economic advantages, without due respect for the person and his or her rights. Statistics show that, among young people, one in four is involved in episodes of cyberbullying”,

stated Pope Francis in his Message for 2019 (Pope Francis 2019).

Additionally, in his Message for the 48th World Communications Day (2014), “Communication at the Service of an Authentic Culture of Encounter”, he emphasizes: “It is not enough to be a passerby on the digital highway, simply ‘connected’; connections need to grow into true encounters. We cannot live apart, closed in on ourselves. (…) Media strategies do not ensure beauty, goodness and truth in communication” (Pope Francis 2014), which is also visible in the results of our research presented later in this paper.

1.2. The Construct of Beauty and the Beautiful in the Media and on Social Networks

As mentioned, the first half of the 20th century “witnessed a dramatic struggle between the Beauty of provocation and the Beauty of consumption” (Eco 2004, p. 414). Those who visit the avant-garde art exhibition (the Beauty of provocation)

“are dressed and made up in accordance with the canons of fashion. They wear jeans or designer clothes, wear their hair or make-up according to the model of Beauty offered by glossy magazines, the cinema or television, in other words by the mass media. These people follow the ideals of Beauty as suggested by the world of commercial consumption”.

(Eco 2004, p. 418)

And therein lies the “dramatic struggle” because the creators of the former ideal of beauty were painters, poets and artists, while the creators of today’s ideal of beauty are the mass media, behind which stands the entire machinery of the cosmetic and aesthetic industry. ”Individuality is sought, and copies are given. Naturalness is sought, and retouched illusions are offered. Instead of reality, we are looking at a simulation and are not aware that it is not reality. Such an understanding continues in modern media (mainly through advertising) and greatly influences young people on social networks”, warns Valković, quoting Jean Baudrillard and pointing out that the media does not convey the “truth of reality”, but “the media do away with the reality that has dissolved in favor of a model that is materialized by the media itself” (Baudrillard 2005 as cited in Valković 2019, p. 138). By showing “ideal” curves, a firm and muscular body, wrinkle-free skin, and a toned face with regular features, advertisements can cause negative self-perception and feelings of inferiority in people, especially children and young people (Bozzola et al. 2022; Buljan Flander et al. 2021). All of this can lead to mental disorders, dissatisfaction with one’s appearance, anxiety and depression, and eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia in girls, bigorexia in boys), because the ideals of beauty imposed in the media are unattainable for most children and youth. The situation is the same in Croatia (Buljan Flander et al. 2021; Stipan 2018), which is the focus of interest in the research part of this paper.

The myth of beauty, which Naomi Wolf (2008) writes about, says that everyone should be perfect (especially women), and perfection is a dangerous lie that affects self-image and harms self-confidence (Šego 2010). At the same time, the ideals of beauty today are promoted by models in digitally processed photos, and the use of retouching tools, as various authors warn (Ozimek et al. 2023), is aggressive. The female body in photos and advertisements is so altered that any attempt to resemble some of “your idols” is doomed to failure.

In her educational films and performances, Jean Kilbourne (2010) warns that wrong advertising of the unattainable “ideal” of female beauty often leads to suicidal ideation (Polyclinic for the Protection of Children and Youth of the City of Zagreb 2019). At the same time, we must not forget the fact that research shows that “adolescents, especially those of high school age, are the group with the highest percentage of risky behavior on the Internet (Ciboci et al. 2020), but also the group most susceptible to the negative consequences of sexting (Kosenko et al. 2017)” (Buljan Flander et al. 2021, p. 9), which often can turn into sexual extortion (sextortion), which is another form of cyberbullying. “These data speak of extortion of sexual content, i.e., blackmail and threats that a person will publish or forward sexually explicit photos of the victim if the victim does not participate or does not continue to participate in sexual communication (Wolak et al. 2018). The unwanted exchange of such materials, either with a known or unknown person, can have numerous negative consequences for adolescents (Klettke et al. 2014), e.g., significant emotional difficulties, a sense of increased peer pressure (Van Ouytsel et al. 2015), suicide attempt or suicide (Dake et al. 2012)” (Buljan Flander et al. 2021, p. 22), as well as addictions (Kušanić et al. 2019; Labaš 2019).

1.3. The Ideal of Beauty on Social Networks—Children and Young People

In the reports about the project carried out by the Dove company, “2023 Dove Self-Esteem Project Research” (2023), it is pointed out that “while social media can be a powerful source of creativity and self-expression, it is also harming the mental health of more than half of Canadian kids”, and this is not the case only in Canada but also in Croatia (Makvić Salaj and Jagodić Kuterovac 2023), and in other countries of the world. This research brings, among others, the following results:

“80% of young people believe that people their age are addicted to social media; 50% of young people say social media makes them and their peers feel anxious; 65% of young people (ages 10–17) have been exposed to content encouraging weight loss/body transformation on social media; 70% of young people in Canada say social media can make young people want to change their appearance; 44% of young people (ages 14–17) have been exposed to content encouraging restricted eating or disordered eating behaviors; over half of youth mental health specialists say exposure to harmful beauty content on social media can lead to physical consequences like disordered eating or self-harm”.

(Newswire.ca 2023)

A 2021 survey by the same company showed that:

“80 percent of girls up to the age of 13 use applications for editing selfies; two-thirds of teenage girls between ten and 17 years old changed or hid at least one thing they didn’t like about their appearance, that is, their body and 59 percent are insecure about their appearance, so they regularly edit photos before sharing them; around 37 percent are convinced that they don’t look good enough without photo editing; the girls in the survey also stated that they would feel much more confident if the photos on the Internet more accurately showed the real appearance, and 66 percent would, therefore, worry less about whether they were beautiful enough; it is also significant that 63 percent of them would like it if the world was focused on what they are like as people, and not how they look”.

(Lider 2021)

In addition, it should be said that the concept of beauty today is determined by artificial intelligence and algorithms (Lider 2021). If someone wants to destroy their self-confidence in less than five minutes, he or she can do it very easily now because there are applications that will calculate how beautiful or ugly someone is. At the same time, we should remember that the beauty industry is the most popular industry of small companies on TikTok (Lider 2021).

As we just stated, today’s children, members of generations Alpha and Z, are growing up and spending most of their free time with the media, mostly with the internet, social network sites and television depending on age. For instance, children of preschool age spend more than three hours a day on media, six to seven hours for children of primary school age and up to nine hours for high school students (Ofcom 2023; Makvić Salaj and Jagodić Kuterovac 2023; Qustodio 2022; Rideout et al. 2022; Bozzola et al. 2022). They spend most of their time on different social networks, such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat (Qustodio 2022; Rideout et al. 2022), on which various lifestyles are imposed every day, including ideals of beauty that are often far from the accurate and authentic images of the observed object, which can lead to comparison with others and the creation of social envy (Trifiro 2018), but also justifying drastic steps, such as plastic surgery, to reach the imposed media ideals.

As shown in a previous part of our paper, the false image and wrong understanding of beauty in the media (Eco 2004) must be changed through media education, which aims to improve media literacy of children and youth. The same is emphasized by the messages of several popes for World Media Day, some of which are especially dedicated to children and young people, of which those from 1979 by John Paul II and Benedict XVI from 2007 can be singled out. They warn that “the influence of the media on the formation of children, their attitudes and choice of values is not incidental or marginal, but permanent and cannot be bypassed or reduced” (Strujić 2015, p. 201). John Paul II in his Message from 1985 points out that the media can negatively influence children and young people, since they have not yet developed a critical attitude towards media content and are not mature and responsible enough to know how to choose useful and credible media content themselves. However, more recent research shows that children can choose and use digital media responsibly when helped by their parents (Livingstone et al. 2018).

New digital technologies have brought many changes, and the “new culture of social networks”, writes Benedict XVI in the 2013 Message, poses “demanding challenges to those who want to speak about truth and values”. In the Message from 2011, he raises the issue of authentic representation and dependence on a certain unrealistic, false representation, and calls on young people to “make good use of their presence in the digital world” and to avoid the danger of alienation from the real world by escaping into a parallel virtual world.

2. Research Method

With the aim of determining the extent to which today’s children, with an emphasis on children of school age, i.e., children from 7 to 18 years old, are exposed to cyberbullying caused by imposed ideals of beauty, and to determine the extent to which the education system prepares children for coexistence with the media and teaches them how to deal with imposed ideals of beauty, two research studies were carried out. Emphasis will be placed exclusively on children in Croatia and on the Croatian education system, as was already pointed out earlier in the paper.

Ridicule and humiliation based on physical appearance are common forms of cyberbullying. To determine how physical appearance is used in such unacceptable behavior among children and young people, all the posts that have arrived on the Utočište hrabrih online (Shelter of the Brave Online; acronym UHO) platform, which arose to help children facing cyberbullying in Croatia and neighboring countries, will be analyzed. UHO is a digital platform that has been active since 2019 and which was jointly launched in Croatia by Wiener Insurance, the Association for Communication and Media Culture and Brave Phone. The platform’s primary goal is to support children who face the problem of cyberbullying, which is one of the most common forms of violence among minors (Ciboci et al. 2020). Previous research in Croatia shows that children rarely seek help if someone is abusing them online (Ciboci et al. 2020). They rarely report cases of abuse by their peers, even when they know about them, primarily for fear of becoming victims of violence. To provide professional support, communication scientists and psychologists were actively involved in the project from the beginning, as well as Croatian influencers who, by citing their own experiences of cyberbullying, encouraged children to open up and seek help if they encounter such a form of violence.

During the four months of the active campaign (from 15 September to 15 December 2019, and from 20 May to 20 June 2020), the platform received 899 messages. Most of the messages were sent by girls. Namely, girls sent 75.3% of queries in the first analyzed period, and in the second, 87.4%. Although the platform was primarily intended for minors, in the analyzed periods, adults also sent queries, albeit in rare cases. Thus, in the first period, almost every tenth inquiry (9.4%) came from an adult, and in the second period, even less—only 6.4% of inquiries were sent by adults. In both phases, most inquiries were sent by children aged 12 to 14, with the most common forms of violence cited as the consequences of sexting for girls and insults and disparagement for boys (Djecamedija.org 2020). The key research questions of this part of the work are: How are individuals most often abused when it comes to ideals of beauty? What kind of content is involved? Who more often reports such forms of violence—girls or boys? Who are more often the perpetrator of violence concerning gender? The following key hypotheses emerged from the stated research questions and based on previous research, primarily conducted using the survey method (Smahel et al. 2020):

H1: 

Girls are more often both victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying based on physical appearance.

H2: 

Cyberbullying based on physical appearance is often carried out publicly on social networks by publishing offensive and humiliating photos.

In the third part of this paper, we analyze the content of all subject curricula published on the website of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education n.d.b), from elementary to the high school level, as well as curricula of cross-curricular topics in order to find content that reflects on critical education for beauty in the media context. Namely, by looking at the curricula of teaching subjects in primary and secondary education in the Republic of Croatia, themes and outcomes can be observed that connect aesthetic and media education through different classes and in different ways. The main goal of the research in the third part of this paper was to investigate how much the topic of beauty is treated within the Croatian formal education system. Special emphasis was placed on the media representation of beauty which resulted in the following research questions: How well prepared are children for critical evaluation of media representation of beauty in different types of media? Does the Croatian education system reflect on cyberbullying as a result of making fun of a person’s physical appearance? Based on the mentioned research question, the following hypothesis was established:

H3: 

Subject curricula within the Croatian education system do not reflect on topics that put cyberbullying based on imposed ideals of beauty (physical appearance) in the foreground.

In total, 41 documents of subject curricula and cross-curricular topics published on the website of the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education were analyzed using the qualitative method of content analysis. Using the keywords beautiful*, aesthetic*, visual*, photo*, and video*, we tried to find outcomes and topics in the curricula that can be observed in the context of links between critical aesthetics and media education. Most terms were recorded in the curricula of the subjects Visual Culture, Visual Arts, Croatian Language and Informatics. The subjects mentioned above and learning outcomes will be covered further in this paper. In addition to the mentioned subjects, the paper will also present the learning outcomes recorded in the Catholic religious education in Croatia.

Although children acquire media competence not only through the formal education system but also within the family and through various forms of informal training, in this paper the emphasis is placed on the formal education system. It analyzed to what extent it prepares children for navigating the digital world, especially with regard to exposure to electronic violence as well as methods of protection. In order to illustrate what children in Croatia face when it comes to cyberbullying that occurs due to imposed ideals of beauty, the messages of children, victims of electronic violence, were analyzed. The analysis provided insight into real examples of violence that occur among children, which was crucial for further analysis of how well the formal education system prepares children to deal with such forms of violence.

Both studies were conducted using the method of quantitative and qualitative content analysis. It is a research technique that shows the content of communication in an objective, systematic and quantitative manner (Berelson 1952, p. 18) and, as Klaus Krippendorff (1989, p. 403) pointed out, is one of the most crucial research methods in the social sciences. To conduct the best possible research, it is recommended to “connect quantitative and qualitative approaches that can enable precise and objective measurement of the observable features of the studied material, but also the discovery of hidden relationships in the studied phenomenon and the description of individual examples” (Lamza Posavec 2011, p. 106). To systematically employ this method, we initially developed a coding scheme based on predefined categories relevant to our research objectives. Subsequently, each piece of data was systematically coded according to this scheme. The coded data were then organized into themes, and a quantitative analysis was conducted to identify patterns and frequencies. Additionally, a qualitative analysis was employed to provide context and deeper insights into the identified themes. This systematic approach allowed us to comprehensively analyze our data and derive meaningful conclusions.

2.1. Results of the First Research—Appearance-Based Insults as a Form of Cyberbullying among Children1

Out of 899 messages received during the four months of the active campaign on the UHO platform, 91 of them, or 10.1%, were related to humiliating and insulting an individual in the virtual world based on physical appearance. At the same time, in 58 cases, violence took place exclusively over the Internet. In 32 cases, the victim was abused offline and online (over the Internet) at the same time. In one case, based on the message, it was difficult to determine what form of violence it was, i.e., whether it was exclusively online or offline violence. The received messages were analyzed through the prism of several key variables—type of threat, age, gender issues, method of abuse and the persons to whom children confide in cases when they become victims of violence.

In the most significant number of cases, 41 of them, such forms of violence took place via private messages, that is, within closed correspondence groups, thereby disproving the second hypothesis. At the same time, only one case was recorded in which a correspondence group was created only to ridicule and humiliate an individual based on their physical appearance. In 28 messages, people reported violence that happened publicly on social networks, which made the size of the audience significantly larger. In 22 cases, it was impossible to determine from the content of the message how cyberbullying was carried out publicly or within closed groups or private messages. Although the application’s name and the network through which the violence was committed were most often not mentioned, in the 36 cases in which it was, the most significant number of them referred to the social network Instagram (29 cases).

Sociodemographic data show that girls mainly reported such forms of violence. Namely, out of the total analyzed messages, a female person wrote 76, and a male person sent 15 messages. If we look at the age structure, cyberbullying based on appearance was reported most by children aged 12 to 16. The detailed distribution by age is provided in

Table 1. The age of the abused person.

The Age of the Abused Person	f
10 years old	2
11 years old	8
12 years old	15
13 years old	20
14 years old	15
15 years old	12
16 years old	13
17 years old	2
18 years old	1
19 years old and older	3

.

As for the gender of the perpetrator of violence, in most cases, it was unknown because the children did not mention it in their queries, and they often stated that they received insults from anonymous or fake profiles (

Table 2. The gender of the perpetrator of violence.

The Gender of the Perpetrator of Violence	f
Female	11
Male	10
Both female and male	17
It is difficult to determine	53

). Thus, the first hypothesis was only partially confirmed.

In most cases, violence was committed by a larger number of persons, three or more of them—in 40 cases. In as many as 32 cases, the number of perpetrators of violence was not specified. In only 16 cases, the reported violence came from only one person.

The most common forms of humiliation based on appearance occured through text messages (in 67 cases). These are messages that children most often receive through various social networks, as responses to their own published messages or stories or as a pure provocation of other people who use such messages with the aim of bullying and harassment. Thus, children receive insults that they are “as ugly as a cow’s butt”, “fat”, “ugly”, “that I am fat, that what it feels like to bathe in a deep fryer, how much fat I eat a day, that I am a cow before slaughter and the like”, “good morning big mac, how many hamburgers did you eat for breakfast”. How far such forms of violence can go is shown by the example of a 13-year-old girl who received messages on her profile on a social network such as: “how much do you weigh, are you going to the prom? given that you look like a pig, are you fat people as hot as we thin ones in the summer, (…), do you want me to sign you up for the show The Biggest Loser2 because I can see that you don’t know yourself”. Such comments certainly have a strong effect on childrens’ self-confidence, which was also shown by the further thoughts of this girl who said that, because of the mentioned insults, “I cry every night. I even cut myself because I thought it would help, but it didn’t. It still bothers me, and sometimes I want to throw myself off the building or cut a vein too deeply”.

In 12 child abuse cases, photos and text content were used. For example, a 13-year-old boy stated that “everyone wants to put a picture of me and write under it that I am a boy from the village and other ugly comments. They also made a video where they put my face on a farmer cleaning cows”. In contrast, a girl of the same age stated: “Today at school, a girl from my class put me on her story and wrote that I am disgusting and that who would want to kiss something so ugly and disgusting? Half the school saw the photo and looked at me strangely. One boy said that he would kill himself if he looked like that”. A 12-year-old girl mentioned her experience in which she pointed out that “(…) it was already evening, and they just started taking pictures of me, they put them on the Internet and wrote in the description that this is what a monster looks like”. Other forms are listed in

Table 3. Method of abuse.

Method of Abuse	F
Photography	6
Video	2
Textual content	67
Photography and video	0
Photography, video, and textual content	12
Photo and textual content	2
Video and textual content	1
Memes	1

.

The fact that six people, due to the consequences of being exposed to cyberbullying based on their appearance, have considered suicide, and three girls, aged 11, 14, and 15, have already tried to commit suicide is worrying. That is evidenced by the following messages:

“(…) After some time, I started going to a psychologist at school, but that didn’t help either. My school knows what I went through from the first treatment until now. I fell into depression. I didn’t tell my parents, and I’m hurting myself. (…)”

“(…) Those messages went beyond physical violence, and I can’t take it anymore, and all of that led me to cut myself... and I can’t take it anymore. (…)”

“(…) At one point, I got to the point where I simply couldn’t take it anymore and tried to commit suicide (from cutting myself to taking sleeping pills). Unfortunately, after I blocked the account where I could write anonymous messages, the people who bullied me were from my school. I started getting pieces of paper in the school locker to kill myself to make the world better. At that time, I didn’t have many friends and I turned to the teachers. They immediately reported everything, as well as my parents to the police. To this day, that situation has not been resolved, but it still destroys my self-confidence and I put myself in those situations to harm myself…”

The biggest problem is that children who are victims of these forms of violence rarely ask for help from their parents or teachers. Namely, the research showed that only nine people asked for help from parents, and six asked for help from teachers. Moreover, this is something that needs to be worked on more in the future, primarily through preventive programs, because the fact that these forms of violence in children encourage the most negative thoughts, as shown by the previously mentioned examples, says enough that we should not ignore such cases and research results. Rather, we should educate children as much as possible about these forms of violence, as well as about their consequences and methods of protection. In this, the formal education system should play the most crucial role, which will be discussed in the continuation of this paper.

2.2. Results of the Second Research—Croatian Educational System and Education for Beauty in the Media Context

“Developing and nurturing an interest in beauty is the role of aesthetic education” (Vukasović 2001, as cited in Pejaković 2016, p. 65). It is, as defined by the online edition of the Croatian Encyclopedia (2021), one of the “fundamental educational areas (in addition to physical, intellectual, moral and work education) through which consistency and completeness in the development of human personality is achieved through systematic pedagogical activity”. It is an education that “encompasses the development of the ability to perceive, experience, appreciate and realize aesthetics”, and it “enriches the experience of the world and makes a person’s life more complete” (Croatian Encyclopedia 2021). Since aesthetic education is carried out through educational activities in classes3, as well as in extracurricular activities, it is accurate, as pointed out by Sara Pejaković (2016, p. 70), that school is an institution that “offers a multitude of potentially aesthetically educational subjects”. The author mentioned above notes that it is important to emphasize that contemporary pedagogy, when developing and building an aesthetic sense, does not focus exclusively on training “a young person to understand and accept the aesthetic values of human creativity of certain types of art”, but this scope should be “directed towards developing a sense for broader aesthetic values that are characteristic features of objects and phenomena in nature and everyday life” (Pejaković 2016, p. 71). In this context, she also mentions how it is essential to be open to technological innovations “that pervade the life and growth of children and young people and to use their mass appearance positively to promote the aesthetic or beautiful” (Pejaković 2016, pp. 71–72).

Aesthetic and media education undoubtedly have many links and, considering the intense immersion of new generations in digital media technologies, they should be dealt with in a structured and systematic manner. In addition, it is essential to point out, as interpreted by Ružica Razum (2007, p. 876), that the school should “promote education that contributes to the creation of a critical and constructive attitude towards contemporary society” and “is called upon to develop the ability to judge, think, observe and act independently, especially the ability to assess the various offers of the modern world critically”. The educational system plays a vital role in media education to encourage a critical reflection on media content in children (Buckingham 2019) as well as appropriate behavior in the digital world.

2.2.1. Aesthetic Education in Visual Culture and Visual Arts

The most concrete discourse about education for beauty in the context of visual media appears in the curricula of the subjects of Visual Culture in primary and Visual Arts in secondary schools (gymnasiums). Links between media and aesthetic education can undoubtedly be found in the curriculum of these subjects. Namely, at the very introduction, it is emphasized that the purpose of the course is to:

“shape the personal and social identity of the student; refine and enrich the image of oneself and the world in which they live; develop the ability to think creatively and act; adopt art and visual literacy (understanding of artistic strategies and concepts, understanding of the complex visual environment and its critical judgment, evaluation, and active design) and practical application of techniques, tools and media”.

(Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 5)

At the same time, in the detailed description of the subject, it is emphasized, among other things, that “students acquire competences for reading the layered meanings of images from their own environment created by mass media and new technologies that simultaneously stimulate visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic perception” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 100). The structure of the subject is divided into three domains (key concepts) named Creativity and productivity, Experience and critical attitude and Art in context. “The development of analytical and critical thinking as a necessary prerequisite for raising future competent observers who are able to express reasoned views on artistic creativity, and the visual environment is at the center of the content of the domain Experience and critical attitude” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 7). In the part of the document that describes the mentioned domain in detail, it is emphasized that “students acquire the necessary competences to establish criteria for a selective attitude towards the large amount of visual information they receive through new media technology and become aware of the role of popular culture in shaping their own identity” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 8).

When it comes to the acquisition of technical competencies in the use of media, within the curriculum of the subject Visual Culture, in the 3rd and 4th grade of elementary school, the intended outcome is that students should be able to use the technical and expressive possibilities of new media technologies in their work using a digital camera (smartphone) (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 27), while in the 5th grade, they use the essential functions of a photo processing program (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 43), and in the 6th grade, computer programs for creating presentations and the animated form using the stop motion technique (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 51). In the 7th grade, the recording of short video materials was added to this (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 59). Everything is further reinforced in the 8th grade of elementary school, where additional consideration is given to the elements of photography and moving images (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 67).

In the context of the topic that this paper deals with, it is worth noting that, in the 6th grade of elementary school, one of the optional topics4 is the one called Together We Are Different, in which “the student explores belonging to the group, peers, family, community and cultural environment and the importance of accepting diversity, mutual respect, and tolerance” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 48). In the 8th grade of elementary school, among the assigned topics are art, technology, and society, within which “the student explores the connection between fine and visual arts and technology and their role in contemporary society; uses new media technologies for self-expression” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 64). Within the topic Identity and Popular Culture, “students question the influence of popular culture on the formation of their attitudes and ways of expressing their own identity and form a critical attitude towards the visual environment (visual communications, design, and applied art, photography; new media and communication technology, etc.)” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 64).

The important link between aesthetic and media education is also evident within the domain of Art in Context, within which, in the 8th grade of elementary school, one of the outcomes is the one according to which “students analyze the influence of visual communications and spatial design of the environment on their own life through artistic and visual expression and make a proposal for its possible (re)shaping” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 70). Through artistic and visual expression, students, among other things, “question how the contents of popular visual culture are interpreted in different media of visual communication and influence the student’s identity and vice versa”, but also “explore the role of fashion in shaping personal identity” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 70).

Also, as part of the subject Visual Arts in high school in the 1st year of learning and teaching, the thematic concept Art and Humans is explored, in which the relationship between human and artistic creation is explored through two themes: The Human Body in Art and View of the World. The topics are treated with several different problem approaches, so in the first topic, different ways of showing and using the human body in art are problematized through subtopics: “the body as an object (subject of presentation), the body in traces (decomposition and simplification of physicality) and the body as a subject (carrier of artistic activity)” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 72). The expected outcome assumes that students will be able to discuss different artistic approaches to the human body and visual reality and to argue their critical position within the framework of mandatory discussion topics about how specific works of art reflect the ideals of beauty and the changeability and conditioning of ideals and stereotypes, as well as the gap between visual reality and its interpretation created through the use of new media. It is interesting to note that, in the optional discussion topics, students discuss the ways of depicting or using the human body in the art of different periods, styles and trends but also questions the (self-) portrait as a form of the artist’s expression of awareness of himself or herself and the world around them (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 75), which can be very well connected with today’s so-called selfie culture. The curriculum states that

“within the offered mandatory and optional discussion topics, the student can discuss the ideals and canon of beauty, stereotypes, their changeability, and conditioning by the socio-historical context; the influence of popular culture and mass media on today’s understanding of beauty and the body; the consequences of the emergence of new media (photo, film, video) on recording reality as an alternative to material design; changes in the approach to shaping the human body by comparing works of art of different styles, periods and directions; different ways of shaping the portrait as a reflection of the socio-historical context; the portrait as an expression of the model’s character traits and/or the artist’s view of the model; self-portrait as an expression of the artist’s awareness of himself or herself and the world around them”.

(Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 75)

In the domain of Experience and Critical Attitude, in the 4th grade of secondary school, one expected outcome is that “students discuss the different relationships between art and power and art as a creative process and argue their critical attitude” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 188). Among the content for the achievement of educational outcomes, it is also stated that, among other things, as part of that topic, students discuss “the influence of popular culture, mass media, and visual communications on everyday life” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019a, p. 188).

2.2.2. Culture and Media in the Teaching of the Subject Croatian Language

A crucial area of media education in the Croatian educational system is teaching the Croatian language, which—in addition to learning about the first language and literature—also includes the subject area of Culture and Media. It is based on the understanding of the text in different social, cultural and intercultural contexts, and it “encourages the development of knowledge about oneself and others, appreciation of different beliefs and values, and enables action in the social community” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019b, p. 11). At the same time, it is emphasized that the subject area includes a critical attitude towards media messages, understanding the influence of the media and their messages on society and the individual; creation of media messages and their responsible transmission; understanding of culture from the point of view of everyday life, from the social point of view, culture in relation to popular culture and culture in relation to literature and other arts, and the influence of culture on shaping one’s own cultural identity; encouraging awareness of the uniqueness and value of different opinions, attitudes and ideas, societies and cultures for the sake of successful communication and understanding of others (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019b, p. 11).

Thus, for example, within the mentioned subject area, students already learn from the first grade how to find pieces of information in a text and to extract the important ones, but also to distinguish between media content appropriate for their age, which is additionally strengthened in the 2nd grade. In the 3rd grade of elementary school, students should be able to distinguish between printed publications and in the 4th grade, electronic media appropriate to their age and interests (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019b, pp. 32–38). In the 5th grade, among other things, student should differentiate between printed media texts and single out texts/content that promote positive values and describe the meaning of popular culture texts in everyday life (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019b, p. 44). In the 6th grade, students should compare different presentations of the same media content and their impact on developing opinions and attitudes (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019b, p. 50). When, in the context of this outcome, its elaboration is examined closer, it is observed that the student should be able to describe “how different procedures, techniques, and visual and sound signs shape the meaning of the media message and create the desired effect on the audience” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019b, p. 50). In the 7th grade, among other things, the student should be able to explain the positive and negative influence of various media texts on the development of attitudes and values, as well as the meaning of popular culture texts concerning the social and economic context (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019b, p. 167). In the 8th grade, however, the student should be able to judge the influence of media texts for commercialization (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019b, p. 64).

In the high school teaching of the Croatian Language subject, the education for assessing the influence of media texts on the recipient’s daily life continues (1st grade). In the 2nd grade, this influence should relate to the formation of the recipient’s lifestyle, in the 3rd grade, to the formation of the attitudes and values of the recipient, and in the 4th grade, to the experience of reality and the formation of the recipient’s identity (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019b, pp. 74, 82, 90–91, 98–99). All these indicated outcomes can be connected with education for beauty and a critical attitude toward the representation of beauty in contemporary media.

2.2.3. Informatics and Critical Education for Digital Media

In the Informatics subject (which is taught as an optional subject in some elementary and high school classes, and as a compulsory subject in others), after the first year of learning in the domain of Information and digital technology, students should be able to recognize digital technology and communicate with people they know with the help of a teacher in a safe digital environment (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2018, p. 44). In doing so, they should, among other things, apply the basic skills of exchanging messages using technology; rules of behavior from the real world in the virtual world; recognize the characteristics of good and bad messages; respect the interlocutor who is not physically present, as well as compare communication and behavior in everyday life with communication and behavior on the Internet. In this context, concrete examples are used to show bad and good behavior, talk about insults, ridicule, false representation, and use and share other people’s data and photos without permission (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2018, p. 44).

After the 2nd year of learning in the domain of e-Society, students should be able to behave responsibly when using content and services on the Internet to protect personal data and digital reputation (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2018, p. 62). After the 3rd year of learning, students should, among other things, be able to apply healthy habits but also to react appropriately to any danger/discomfort in the digital environment and to protect their and other people’s data (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2018, p. 72). After the 4th year, the student should, among other things, be able to research the limitations of using computer technology and apply instructions for preserving health and safety when working with computers (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2018, p. 81). After the 5th year of learning in the domain of e-Society, the student should, among other things, be able to analyze ethical issues arising from the use of computer technology (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2018, p. 92), and after the 6th year, explain the role and importance of digital traces, create their positive digital footprint, recognize types of cyberbullying, analyze them and choose preventive actions for different cases of cyberbullying (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2018, p. 102). After the 7th year of learning in the Digital Literacy and Communication domain, the student should, among other things, be able to prepare, create and publish their web pages following good practices in the field of intellectual property and critically judge the good and bad features of individual online content. In the domain of e-Society, the student should, among other things, be able to protect his or her electronic identity and apply rules to increase the security of user accounts, demonstrate and describe with arguments examples of the good sides of sharing information on the Internet and its rapid spread, and apply the rules of responsible behavior (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2018, pp. 114–15). After the 8th year of learning, students should, among other things, be able to actively participate in preventing cyberbullying and hate speech (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2018, p. 129).

Although in elementary school teaching of Informatics, there are many more topics related to critical education for the use of digital media, after the 1st year of learning in high school in the domain of e-Society, the outcome is observed according to which the student, among other things, in a collaborative online environment on a joint project, should be able to analyze ethical issues arising from the use of computer technology.

2.2.4. Learning about Beauty in the Teaching of Catholic Religious Education in Croatia

Considering the topic of our paper, it is worth investigating how learning about beauty is treated in the curriculum of Catholic religious education, which is attended by the largest number of students in Croatian schools. “In a formal, legal and organizational sense, Catholic religious education at school is a regular and compulsory subject for students whose parents or guardians freely choose it” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 6). Other activities are organized for students who do not attend it in primary schools, or they can choose to attend the Ethics course in secondary schools. It is taught two hours a week as part of regular classes under the same conditions as other subjects at school and is taught during all educational cycles. It is a subject whose contents and goals, as pointed out in the introduction to its curriculum, “contribute to the building and respect of human dignity, its spiritual-religious, ethical and moral awareness, an objective critical approach to life in the face of the phenomena and challenges of the modern world and society” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 6). Although there are no directly mentioned links between aesthetic and media education in the curriculum, concepts of beauty are clearly found in parts of the document that refer to the discovery of the beauty and uniqueness of humankind and the entire created world.

Namely, when examining the outcomes that mention the concept of beauty as a theme, it is observed that, already in the first grade of elementary school, there is an outcome according to which “students express basic experiences about themselves and the world, and show their joy and admiration for God and all creation” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 18). In addition, in the elaboration of the outcome, it is stated that “students notice beauty and harmony in nature and the people around them” and “recognize themselves and others as God’s beloved children by noticing how everyone has their own name, their place and their peculiarities” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 18).

In the fourth grade of elementary school, the outcome appears according to which “students recognize the preciousness of life and the harmony of nature as a gift of God’s love and explains their responsibility for themselves, for others and for the created world (environment)” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 50). The elaboration of this outcome states, among other things, that students recognize God’s traces in the beauty of nature, order and harmony. For example, “students discover and describe the traces of God’s works in nature and the signs of God’s revelation, and notice the similarities between God and human, through which they are shown and realized as a miraculous being and the image of God” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 53). In the context of this outcome, “students distinguish and cite examples of connection, harmony and order in nature that speak of God’s wisdom, omnipotence, greatness, goodness and beauty” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 53). When achieving this educational outcome, it is recommended that “students read biblical texts noticing the uniqueness of people in relation to other beings, state the beauties of creation and their role in the world” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 53).

The concept of beauty in the curriculum of Catholic religious education also appears in the part where links between it and other subjects and cross-curricular topics are established, where it is stated, for example, that the connection between Catholic religious education and the subject Nature and Society is realized in many topics: beauty and harmony of nature and human, expressing experiences about oneself, others and the world, responsibility for oneself, for others and for the created world (environment) (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 157).

On the other hand, in the curriculum of the subject Catholic Religious Education, the concepts of media and media content and their influence often appear. Specifically, in the context of our paper, we observe that in the seventh grade of elementary school, the outcome appears according to which “students in the light of faith discover their own dignity, value and role and explain the role of faith in resolving tensions and conflicts between people” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 85). When specifying the content for the achievement of educational outcomes, the following topics are mentioned:

“uniqueness and dignity of every human being, idols and role models in personality building, positive and negative influences in personality building (addictions, idols, negative influence of the media…), positive influences faith has on building one’s own personality (accepting oneself and others, building self-confidence), love for God and for one’s neighbor as a measure of overcoming conflict”.

(Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 85)

Here, it is easy to notice room for topics that reflect on aesthetic and media education (the question of accepting oneself and others and the influence that the media has in this sense, up to the level of prevention of electronic violence based on false or media-imposed perception of beauty). In particular, this can be strongly observed in the first grade of high school, in the outcome according to which students should be able to explain the importance of basic life questions and find answers to them, recognize humans as religious beings and explain and evaluate their relationship to God, especially in scriptures, science, morality and cults of major world religions (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 108). At the same time, the following is stated as one of the recommendations for achieving the educational outcome: “The student investigates how modern media and social networks provide answers to basic life questions and discuss this through debates” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 109). Also, in the same class, there is an outcome according to which “the student explains and evaluates Jesus’ relationship to human, comparing it with contemporary and prevailing understandings and evaluations of human in society and culture”. At the same time, “students value the understanding of humans in society and especially in the media (image of human, values…)” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 114).

In the second grade of high school, one of the outcomes is the following: “Students analyze the characteristics of friendship and love based on biblical examples and their own experience” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 121). Among other things, “students investigate how love and sexuality are portrayed in the media and compare the message they provide us with the Christian understanding of love” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 121). In the same class, the critical assessment of values is highlighted, within the framework of the outcome according to which “students explain evangelical values and compare them with values in contemporary society and in the media” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 126). This topic is further elaborated in the following two outcomes, which deal in more detail with the values of freedom, responsibility and service (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 127), as well as truth, service, freedom and responsibility (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 128). In both cases, students should critically judge the stated values on the basis of media content.

In the third grade of high school, the outcome is observed according to which the students should be able to explain the Christian understanding of human as the image of God. In doing so, among other things, “students analyze the depictions of men and women in contemporary society (media, society)” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 132). In the same class, the outcome according to which “students analyze and assess youthful morality and the presence of religious and ethical-moral contents in the media, culture and science” (Croatian Ministry of Science and Education 2019c, p. 134) is found.

All of the above provide spaces in which the topics of aesthetic and media education can be well connected in the context of religious education.

3. Discussion and Conclusions

The representation of beauty has changed throughout history (Eco 2004), but it has never had as much influence on children and their self-esteem as it does today. This is primarily due to social networks where hundreds of thousands of photos and video materials are published every day, which do not show the real picture of reality and people in them but are photoshopped and passed through numerous filters, which gives us a completely distorted picture of reality or self (Lajnef 2023).

In this paper, we have shown how, through the analysis of messages received through a digital platform whose primary goal is to help children who are victims of violence, it is possible to analyze the forms of electronic violence that children encounter daily and which they usually do not talk about (Ciboci et al. 2020). The fact that every tenth reported case of violence related to humiliation and insults based on a person’s physical appearance speaks enough about how ubiquitous the imposition of ideals of beauty is among children and young people, as well as how much pressure is put on them primarily by social networks where they are publicly shamed, which they often pointed out as the biggest problem. Such cases seriously damage their self-confidence, so some young people start thinking about suicide as we saw by analyzing the messages from the UHO platform. The fact that out of 91 messages, women wrote 75 shows that girls are more vulnerable to this form of violence, partially confirming the first hypothesis.

Given that only a very small number of children ask for help from adults, parents and teachers (Ciboci et al. 2020), it is imperative to provide support to children within the formal education system to prevent these forms of violence, but also to develop awareness among children of what they do as perpetrators of violence to others with such a way of abuse and how victims who are publicly shamed on social networks feel, but also to empower victims and encourage them to report violence. The research part of this paper has shown that despite current efforts of the formal education system in Croatia to educate an appreciation of beauty providing aesthetics education, people today, especially early adolescents, do not demonstrate enough ability in their use of media to make critical and moral decisions. When it comes to new media and awareness of false depictions of beauty on social networks, more needs to be done in effectively preparing children to deal with false, so-called “ideal” depictions of beauty that can lead to peer-to-peer cyberbullying based on the wrong perception of perfect physical appearance.

Namely, in the third part of this paper, in which research was conducted on subject curricula and cross-curricular topics within the educational system of the Republic of Croatia, it was observed that the topics of critical thinking on media content, especially in the context of the focus of this paper, which is the question of the relationship to the representation of beauty and of the beauty in the media, they appear most specifically in the subjects of Visual Culture, Visual Arts, Croatian Language and Informatics. Thus, the third hypothesis can only be partially confirmed. Although there is no direct thematization of cyberbullying based on physical appearance, as the research has shown, these topics (both the ideal of beauty and critical thinking on media content and cyberbullying) appear very concretely within the curriculum of the analyzed subjects, and even in some subjects which included cross-curricular topics, which are not presented in detail in the research. However, one key question should be asked that was not analyzed in this paper and which can be an incentive for some new research in this area: how much time do teachers allocate to topics highlighted in the analyzed curricula? Also, in addition to the time devoted to these topics, it would be interesting to investigate how they are treated in terms of content and how much and how, for example, topics of aesthetic education relate to content in contemporary media. Ultimately, it would be worthwhile to investigate the impact and effectiveness of the current approaches to aesthetic and media education.

The scientific contribution of this paper, in the theoretical as well as in both of its research parts, is, in fact, introducing this important topic (the link between critical aesthetics and media education) and encouraging reflection on its more systematic approach, both on a theoretical and even more on a research and practical level. Namely, dealing with these topics thoughtfully and systematically at all levels of upbringing and education could contribute to fewer cases of abuse based on physical appearance in the future.

This paper did not deal with the question of how much and how these topics are discussed in the context of family media education. Church documents pay special attention to this type of education, and the Church is one of the first institutions that has, since the 1960s, advocated for media education (Strujić 2015, pp. 224–27). At the same time, we must not forget the important role but also the responsibility of the media themselves in the media education of users, which is the duty of all media, especially Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) as a public media service, and the provision of quality and credible information. “The media, Pope Paul VI points out, ‘entered the very heart of family life’, changing people’s habits and influencing the religious and moral sphere of life. It requires a certain courage and responsibility to exclude from media content everything that harms and disrupts the stability and internal harmony of the family, such as erotica or violence”. (Strujić 2015, p. 224). Further, “it is important to point out positive media content for children, especially from literature, art and music. In focusing on beautiful, true and good content, parents should receive the support of media workers” (Strujić 2015, p. 225), with the awareness that “education for the responsible use of the media begins in the family and continues in schools. The importance of school education for the media is also mentioned in the Council Decree Inter Mirifica in number 16, which is followed by the Message from 1978, which encourages employees and participants in the school education process to teach students the mature use of media through manuals, through religious education and other pedagogical activities” (Strujić 2015, p. 227).

The imperative task of mitigating cyberbullying, particularly concerning physical appearance, necessitates concerted efforts. Facilitating the cultivation of diverse notions of beauty among the youth, coupled with the fostering of respectful attitudes towards others, emerges as a viable strategy in effectively tackling this issue.