Cyberbullying (cyberharassment or online bullying/harassment) is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Since the 2000s, it has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers and adolescents, due to young people's increased use of social media. Related issues include online/internet harassment and trolling. In 2015, according to cyberbullying statistics from the i-Safe Foundation, over half of adolescents and teens had been bullied online, and about the same number had engaged in cyberbullying. Both the bully and the victim are negatively affected, and the intensity, duration, and frequency of bullying are three aspects that increase the negative effects on both of them.
Tactics Harmful bullying behavior can include posting rumors, threats, sexual remarks, a victim's personal information, or hate speech. Bullying or harassment can be identified by repeated behavior and an intent to harm. Tactics can also include creating or posting on fake profiles to create anonymity to spread harmful messages.
Overview Cyberbullying is in many cases an extension of already existing traditional bullying. Students who are bullied via the Internet have, in most cases, also been bullied in other more traditional ways before (e.g., physically or verbally). There are few students who are bullied exclusively over the Internet; these cyber victims are often physically stronger students, which causes bullies to prefer online confrontations over face-to-face contact at school. Awareness in the United States has risen in the 2010s, due in part to high-profile cases. Several US states and other countries have passed laws to combat cyberbullying. Some are designed to specifically target teen cyberbullying, while others extend from the scope of physical harassment. In cases of adult cyberharassment, these reports are usually filed beginning with local police. The laws differ by area or state. Research has demonstrated a number of serious consequences of cyberbullying victimisation. Specific statistics on the negative effects of cyberbullying differ by country and other demographics. Some researchers point out there could be some way to use modern computer techniques to determine and stopping cyberbullying. Other research has suggested an uptick in cyberbullying during the COVID-19 pandemic when many youth and adults were quarantined at home and, as a consequence, online more often than before the pandemic. For example, a study of adults published in the Journal of Social Psychology identified statistically significant increases in pro-cyberbullying attitudes as well as in cyberbullying offending behavior. However, another study involving over 6,500 Canadian youth in grades 4–12 did not find higher rates of cyberbullying involvement. The authors speculated that this might be a result of closer monitoring and involvement of online activities by parents while their children were at home. Internet trolling is a common form of bullying that takes place in an online community (such as online gaming or social media) in order to elicit a reaction or disruption, or simply just for someone's own personal amusement. Cyberstalking is another form of bullying or harassment that uses electronic communications to stalk a victim; this may pose a credible threat to the victim. Not all negative interaction online or on social media can be attributed to cyberbullying. Research suggests that there are also interactions online that result in peer pressure, which can have a negative, positive, or neutral impact on those involved.
Definitions A frequently used definition of cyberbullying is "an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a group or an individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself." It is to be distinguished from normal conflicts between people of comparable power or status that often also occur online. There are many variations of the definition, such as the National Crime Prevention Council's more specific definition: "the process of using the Internet, cell phones or other devices to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person." Cyberbullying is often similar to traditional bullying, with some notable distinctions. Victims of cyberbullying may not know the identity of their bully, or why the bully is targeting them, based on the online nature of the interaction. The harassment can have wide-reaching effects on the victim, as the content used to harass the victim can be spread and shared easily among many people and often remains accessible long after the initial incident. The terms "cyberharassment" and "cyberbullying" are sometimes used synonymously, though some people use the latter to refer specifically to harassment among minors or in a school setting.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is a form of online harassment in which the perpetrator uses electronic communications to stalk a victim. This is considered more dangerous than other forms of cyberbullying because it generally involves a credible threat to the victim's safety. Cyberstalkers may send repeated messages intended to threaten or harass, and they may encourage others to do the same, either explicitly or by impersonating their victim and asking others to contact them. This can be a combination of most of the other methods in order to stalk someone using electronic means. This can include finding the victims location, harassing them with spam, or using sextortion. An example of this situation occurring is when Paris Deshaunte Evitt, a 30-year old from Tulsa cyberstalked one of his former partners. A news article on it states, "Between October 2018 and continuing until October 2020, Evitt used email, Facebook, and text messages to control and threaten the victim. However, his abuse of the victim had started years before. Between 2012 and 2019, Evitt was convicted on 5 different occasions for physically abusing the victim including strangulation, assault, and interfering with reporting. Evitt was also on state supervision at the time of the current offenses.""(The unidentified victim) explained that Evitt had destroyed her sense of security and became emotional when she discussed Evitt's statement that he would rather see her dead than happy. She also stated, 'the longer he is away from my children and I, the more time we have to try and heal and move on with our lives, if that is even possible.'"
Trolling
Internet trolls intentionally try to provoke or offend others in order to elicit a reaction. Trolls and cyberbullies do not always have the same goals: while some trolls engage in cyberbullying, others may be engaged in comparatively harmless mischief. A troll may be disruptive either for their own amusement or because they are genuinely a combative person. Trolling can include insults, false news, or, terrorist threats.
Hate raids On Twitch and other livestreaming services, hate raids are situations where a stream is "raided" by many viewers who flood the chat with harassment and other hateful messages. This prevents the streamer from executing their stream. These viewers are typically automated bots, making it difficult to moderate and block.
Spam Spamming is the act of creating multiple accounts and sending messages to a target en masse. A common situation where spam can occur is after a breakup. If one partner is obsessive, they may send their ex messages on multiple platforms. This often happens despite being blocked by the recipient. The article What Can Police Do About Harassing Texts? states, "Keep in mind that harassment of any kind is illegal and includes in person, over the phone, via text messages, through social media, or any other method. Some laws are in place about cyberbullying that are designed to protect the public from this happening."
Impersonation Impersonation is the act of pretending be another person. If the offender pretends to be the victim, they may say or do things to hurt the victim's reputation. This can include hacking into a Twitter account and spreading disinformation. One famous example is when Sony Music's Twitter account was hacked and posted the following statement: "Britney Spears is dead by accident! we will tell you more soon. #RIPBRITNEY." Spears was, in fact, alive and well.
Doxxing Doxxing is the act of disclosing a victim's personal data, such as their home address, phone number, and full name. Doxxing can happen when fans in fandoms with large fanbases often go too far when protecting their idols and enter the realm of cyberbullying. Extreme fans of the K-pop music genre sometimes dox fans of rival music groups. This specifically was shown in an incident where fans of the group Blackpink doxxed the owner of a Twice fan account, sending him to a hospital. This is allegedly because a Twice member disrespected a Blackpink member.
Sexual harassment Online sexual harassment is considered a form of cyberbullying. Sextortion, a form of sexual harassment, is the act of coercing a person into sharing intimate images before threatening to release them unless money is paid. It is a specific type of blackmail. The line between sexual harassment and cyberbullying is blurred. Some people will blackmail their classmates for nudes, threatening to release embarrassing information. They also use revenge porn and release nudes to get payback. This was the case when a 16-year-old student of W.F. West High School in Chehalis exploited more than 100 victims, many of which were his classmates. He owned over 900 photos and videos of victims. Online sexual harassment can be so extreme that it forces women to move house, move jobs or even flee their countries as in, for example, Ethiopian feminists facing digital gender-based violence.
Methods used Research has identified basic guidelines to help recognize and deal with what is regarded as abuse of electronic communications.
Cyberbullying involves repeated behavior with intent to harm. Cyberbullying is perpetrated through harassment, cyberstalking, denigration (sending or posting cruel rumors and falsehoods to damage reputation and friendships), impersonation, and exclusion (intentionally and cruelly excluding someone from an online group) Cyberbullying can be as simple as continuing to send emails or text messages harassing someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender. It may also include public actions such as repeated threats, sexual remarks, pejorative labels (i.e. hate speech) or defamatory false accusations, ganging up on a victim by making the person the subject of ridicule in online forums, hacking into or vandalizing sites about a person, and posting false statements as fact aimed a discrediting or humiliating a targeted person. Cyberbullying could be limited to posting rumors about a person on the internet with the intention of bringing about hatred in others' minds or convincing others to dislike or participate in online denigration of a target. It may go to the extent of personally identifying victims of crime and publishing materials defaming or humiliating them. Cyberbullies may disclose victims' personal data (e.g. real name, home address, or workplace/schools) on websites or forums—called doxing, or may use impersonation, creating fake accounts, comments or sites posing as their target for the purpose of publishing material in their name that defames, discredits or ridicules them. This can leave the cyberbully anonymous, which can make it difficult for them to be caught or punished for their behavior, although not all cyberbullies maintain their anonymity. Users of semi-anonymous chat websites are at high risk for cyberbullying, as it is also easy in this outlet for a cyberbully to remain anonymous. Text or instant messages and emails between friends can also constitute cyberbullying if what is said is hurtful.
The recent rise of smartphones and mobile apps have yielded a more accessible form of cyberbullying. It is expected that cyberbullying via these platforms will occur more often than through more stationary internet platforms because of constant access to the internet. In addition, the combination of cameras and Internet access and the instant availability of these modern smartphone technologies yield specific types of cyberbullying not found in other platforms. It is likely that those cyberbullied via mobile devices will experience a wider range of cyberbullying methods than those who are exclusively bullied elsewhere. Some teens argue that some events categorized as cyberbullying are simply drama. Danah Boyd writes, "teens regularly used that word [drama] to describe various forms of interpersonal conflict that ranged from insignificant joking around to serious jealousy-driven relational aggression. Whereas adults might have labeled many of these practices as bullying, teens saw them as drama."
In social media Cyberbullying can take place on social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. "By 2008, 93% of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 were online. In fact, youth spend more time with media than any single other activity besides sleeping." The last decade has witnessed a surge of cyberbullying, which is categorized as bullying that occurs through the use of electronic communication technologies, such as e-mail, instant messaging, social media, online gaming, or through digital messages or images sent to a cellular phone. Cyberbullying has been shown to be more distressing and have more serious implications than conventional bullying, and it is gaining considerable social and public policy attention and requires more attention from researchers and stakeholders. Despite rapidly growing body of research on cyberbullying over the past few decades, little research has considered and distinguished the roles of cyberbullying and risk/protective factors associated with it. There are many risks attached to social media sites, and cyberbullying is one of the larger risks. One million children were harassed, threatened or subjected to other forms of cyberbullying on Facebook during the past year, while 90 percent of social-media–using teens who have witnessed online cruelty say they have ignored mean behavior on social media, and 35 percent have done so frequently. Ninety-five percent of social-media–using teens who have witnessed cruel behavior on social networking sites say they have seen others ignoring the mean behavior, and 55 percent have witnessed this frequently. Terms like "Facebook depression" have been coined specifically in regard to the result of extended social media use, with cyberbullying playing a large part in this.
Cyberbullying has become more prevalent in recent years due to the technology to which children have widespread access. The most common apps that teenagers use to cyberbully are Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. Cyberbullying has become harder to stop because parents and teachers are unaware of when and where it is happening. A 2006 study found that 45% of teens and 30% of adolescents were cyberbullied while at school. This was linked to the reason students had access to their online devices such as cell phones or computers. Teens will say awful things to one another online and what they do not realize is that once it is said and published online it will not go away. Home used to be a safe place for teens, but now a child is still within reach of becoming a victim of cyberbullying – whether it is through YouTube, Ask.fm, or a text message. Wherever you face, it is easy to come across Cyberbullying making it almost impossible to escape. According to a 2013 Pew Research study, eight out of ten teens who use social media now share more information about themselves than they have in the past. This includes their location, images, and contact information. In order to protect children, it is important that personal information such as age, birthday, school/church, phone number, etc. be kept confidential. Cyberbullying can also take place through the use of websites belonging to certain groups to effectively request the targeting of another individual or group. An example of this is the bullying of climate scientists and activists.
In gaming
Of those who reported having experienced online harassment in a Pew Research poll, 16% said the most recent incident had occurred in an online game. A study from National Sun Yat-sen University observed that children who enjoyed violent video games were significantly more likely to both experience and perpetrate cyberbullying. Another study that discusses the direct correlation between exposure to violent video games and cyber bullying also took into account personal factors such as "duration of playing online games, alcohol consumption in the last 3 months, parents drunk in the last 3 months, anger, hostility, ADHD, and a sense of belonging" as potential contributing factors of cyberbullying. Gaming was a more common venue for men in which to experience harassment, whereas women's harassment tended to occur more via social media. Most respondents considered gaming culture to be equally welcoming to both genders, though 44% thought it favored men. Sexual harassment in gaming generally involves slurs directed towards women, sex role stereotyping, and overaggressive language. Keza MacDonald writes in The Guardian that sexism exists in gaming culture, but is not mainstream within it. U.S. President Barack Obama made reference to the harassment of women gamers during his remarks in honor of Women's History Month. Competitive gaming scenes have been less welcoming of women than has broader gaming culture. In an internet-streamed fighting game competition, one female gamer forfeited a match after the coach of her team, Aris Bakhtanians, stated, "The sexual harassment is part of the culture. If you remove that from the fighting game community, it's not the fighting game community." The comments were widely condemned by gamers, with comments in support of sexual harassment "drowned out by a vocal majority of people expressing outrage, disappointment and sympathy." The incident built momentum for action to counter sexual harassment in gaming. Some game developers have been subjected to harassment and death threats by players upset by changes to a game or by a developer's online policies. Harassment also occurs in reaction to critics such as Jack Thompson or Anita Sarkeesian, whom some fans see as threats to the medium. Various people have been harassed in connection with the Gamergate controversy. Harassment related to gaming is not of a notably different severity or tenor compared to online harassment motivated by other subcultures or advocacy issues. Other developers have been harassed simply due to misogyny or anti-LGBTQ+ stances. A notable case was the death of "Near", the developer of Higan, a console emulator, who took their own life after becoming the subject to ridicule from members of the online Kiwi Farms board following their announcement of being nonbinary. Sabotage among rival crowdfunding campaigns is a recurring problem for projects related to gaming. Some instances of swatting in games such as Call of Duty and League of Legends have resulted in law enforcement SWAT units called on individuals' homes as a prank. On December 28, 2017, Wichita, Kansas, police officers killed Andrew Finch at his Kansas home in a reported swatting prank.
In search engines Information cascades happen when users start passing along information they assume to be true, but cannot know to be true, based on information on what other users are doing. This can be accelerated by search engines' ranking technologies and their tendency to return results relevant to a user's previous interests. This type of information spreading is hard to stop. Information cascades over social media and the Internet may also be harmless, and may contain truthful information. Bullies use Google bombs (a term applicable to any search engine) to increase the prominence of favored posts sorted by the most popular searches, done by linking to those posts from as many other web pages as possible. Examples include the campaign for the neologism "santorum" organized by the LGBT lobby. Google bombs can manipulate the Internet's search engines regardless of how authentic the pages are, but there is a way to counteract this type of manipulation as well.
In dating apps Dating app users who are victims of cyberbullying encounter a range of harmful behaviors, including catfishing, the uninvited sharing of personal images, and offensive remarks. These activities not only violate personal boundaries but also have a detrimental impact on the victims' mental health. Research by the Pew Research Center highlights how common this issue is, finding that almost 60% of female users between the ages of 18 and 34 have received unsolicited sexual messages or photographs on dating apps. Moreover, it was found that 36% of American users of dating apps have been the victim of online abuse. Dating app users are more likely to experience hate speech and cyberbullying because of this rate, which is almost twice as high as the whole American population. In addition to sexual harassment, other forms of cyberbullying and hate speech are among the most frequent forms of harassment that users of these sites report experiencing. The fundamental safety and trust that underlie online dating sites' functionality are compromised by these upsetting encounters. Victims may experience significant effects, including elevated stress and anxiety levels and, in certain cases, chronic psychological trauma.
Online shaming
Famous cyberbullying cases
There are many famous cases of cyberbullying online (e.g. Daisy Coleman). Although most people may not realize it, some of these internet "memes" actually show cyberbullying in action.
Star Wars Kid Uploaded in 2003, the star of the video, Ghyslain Raza (a 9th grader at the time) is shown messing around and waving around a golf ball retriever as if it is a real Jedi lightsaber. He was helping his friend parody the movie Star Wars. The video was uploaded to YouTube several months later by Raza's classmates without his knowledge or permission. The video blew up and became one of the first viral internet memes. The video accumulated 900 million views. Despite trying to protect his privacy, Raza was mocked both online and in real life. He was body shamed, doxxed, and told to commit suicide, among other things. Students at school leaped onto tables to mock him, and his video was parodied on multiple shows including South Park. Raza had to move schools multiple times, and became homeschooled. He was harassed for years over a video he did not upload. Today, he is working on a documentary talking about his internet fame and the harassment that came along with it. He wants to focus on internet privacy and consent.
Law enforcement
A majority of states have laws that explicitly include electronic forms of communication within stalking or harassment laws. Most law enforcement agencies have cyber-crime units, and Internet stalking is often treated with more seriousness than reports of physical stalking. Help and resources can be searched by state or area.
Schools The safety of online privacy issues in schools is increasingly becoming a focus of state legislative action. There was an increase in cyberbullying enacted legislation between 2006 and 2010. Initiatives and curriculum requirements also exist in the UK (the Ofsted eSafety guidance) and Australia (Overarching Learning Outcome 13). In 2012, a group of teenagers in a design class New Haven, Connecticut, developed an application to help fight bullying, "Back Off Bully" (BOB). This is an anonymous resource for computer, smart phone or iPad, designed so when someone witnesses or is the victim of bullying, they can immediately report the incident. The app asks questions about time, location and how the bullying is happening, as well as provides positive action and empowerment regarding the incident. The reported information goes to a database, where it may be studied by administrators. Common threads are spotted so others can intervene and break the bully's pattern. "Back Off Bully" is being considered as standard operating procedure at schools across Connecticut, while recent studies carried out among 66 high school teachers have concluded that prevention programs have proved ineffective to date. Teachers can also be cyberbullied by pupils, as well as by parents and other school staff.
Protection There are laws that only address online harassment of children or focus on child predators, as well as laws that protect adult cyberstalking victims, or victims of any age. Currently, there are 45 cyberstalking (and related) laws on the books. While some sites specialize in laws that protect victims age 18 and under, Working to Halt Online Abuse is a help resource containing a list of current and pending cyberstalking-related United States federal and state laws. It also lists those states that do not yet have laws, and related laws from other countries. The Global Cyber Law Database (GCLD) aims to become the most comprehensive and authoritative source of cyber laws for all countries. Several states, including Florida, California, and Missouri have passed laws against cyberbullying. California prohibits the use of an electronic device to cause someone to fear for their life. In Florida, the "Jeffrey Johnson Stand Up for All Students Act" prohibits any type of bullying including cyberbullying. In Missouri, anyone who violently threatens someone over social media can be convicted with a Class A misdemeanor, but if the victim is seventeen years or younger, they can be convicted with a Class D felony.
Demographics Two studies from 2014 found that 80% of body-shaming tweets are sent by women, who also account for 50% of misogynistic tweets.
Age Children report negative online behaviors occurring from the second grade. According to research, boys initiate negative online activity earlier than girls. However, by middle school, girls are more likely to engage in cyberbullying than boys. Whether the bully is male or female, the purpose of childhood bullying is to intentionally embarrass, harass, intimidate, or make threats online. Studies on the psycho-social effects of cyberspace have begun to monitor the effects cyberbullying may have on the victims. Consequences of cyberbullying are multi-faceted, and affect both online and offline behavior. Research on adolescents reported that changes in the victims' behavior as a result of cyberbullying could potentially be positive. Victims "created a cognitive pattern of bullies, which consequently helped them to recognize aggressive people." However, the Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace abstract reports critical impacts in almost all of the respondents, taking the form of lower self-esteem, loneliness, disillusionment, and distrust of people. The more extreme effects included self-harm. Children have killed each other and committed suicide after cyberbullying incidents. Some cases of digital self-harm have been reported in which an individual engages in cyberbullying against themselves, or purposefully and knowingly exposes themselves to cyberbullying.
Adults Cyberstalking may be an extension of physical stalking and may have criminal consequences. A target's understanding of why cyberstalking is happening is helpful to remedy and take protective action. Among factors that motivate stalkers are envy, pathological obsession (professional or sexual), unemployment or failure with own job or life, or the desire to intimidate and cause others to feel inferior. The stalker may be delusional and believe they "know" the target. The stalker wants to instill fear in a person to justify their status, or may believe they can get away with these actions due to online anonymity. The US federal cyberstalking law is designed to prosecute people for using electronic means to repeatedly harass or threaten someone online. There are resources dedicated to helping adult victims deal with cyberbullies legally and effectively. One of the steps recommended is to record everything and contact police. In Mexico, Olimpia Coral Melo, promoted the creation of a law against digital harassment that took her name, the Olimpia Law.
Gender Research conducted to try to determine differences in cyberbullying patterns comparing male to female and ages of each are relatively inconclusive. There are some factors that lean towards males being more involved in cyberbullying behaviors due to males tending to have more aggressive behaviors than females. This is not proven, but speculated based on literature reviews of research indicating that significant data is self-reported. Comparatively, the review of articles indicates that age differences have some indicators of cyberbullying; increasing age indicates increasing bullying behaviors. Gender differences have mixed results, but one finding indicated that younger females (10 or 11) and older males (13+) tend to engage in cyber bullying behaviors. Cyberbullies mostly have at least one common trait. Cyberbullies generally get angry and discouraged easily and usually have strong personalities. They connect with others belligerently and do not care for the feelings of their victims. Both males and females engage in cyberbullying. Females are involved in cyberbullying just as much as males, and females are sometimes even found more involved in cyberbullying than males are. The reason behind this is because of the way they respond; men will usually respond with physical retaliation, while women will use "indirect forms such as gossiping." As cyberbullying is a more indirect form, women are more likely to be involved. Also, women tend to have less face-to-face confrontations than men, and since cyberbullying occurs online, this allows women to have a greater chance to be attacked. According to a 2017 Pew Research study on online harassment, 14% of Americans have been harassed because of their political views. Such harassment affects men and women differently; men are approximately twice as likely as women to have experienced online harassment because of their political views. However, women politicians are disproportionately more likely to be sexually harassed online. Women lawmakers are three times more likely than their male counterparts to receive sexually abusive comments, including threats of rape, beatings, death, or abduction.
Research
Australia The nationwide Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Survey (Cross et al., 2009) assessed cyberbullying experiences among 7,418 students. The results indicated that rates of cyberbullying increased with age, with 4.9% of students in Year 4 reporting cyberbullying compared to 7.9% in year nine. Cross et al., (2009) reported that rates of bullying and harassing others were lower, but also increased with age. Only 1.2% of Year 4 students reported cyberbullying others compared to 5.6% of Year 9 students.
China In mainland China, cyberbullying has yet to receive adequate scholarly attention. A study investigating the risk factors of cyberbullying sampled 1,438 high school students from central China. Data showed that 34.84% had participated in bullying and 56.88% had been bullied online. A study on cyberbullying in Hong Kong chose 48 out of 7,654 students from elementary school to high school who were classified as potential aggressors related to cyberbullying. 31 out of 48 students declared they barely participated in cyber-attacks. It is common among high school students (28 out of 36 students) to participate in social media platforms; 58% admitted to changing a nickname for others, 56.3% to humiliation, 54.2% to making fun of someone, and 54.2% to spreading rumors. The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups interviewed 1,820 teenagers, 17.5% of whom indicated having experienced cyberbullying. This included insults, abuse, and the publishing of personal private pictures on social media without permission.
European Union In a study published in 2011, across 25 EU member states studied, an average 6% of children (9–16 years old) had been bullied and only 3% of them confessed to having been a bully. However, in an earlier publication by Hasenbrink et al. (2009), reporting on the results from a meta analysis from European Union countries, the authors estimated (via median results) that approximately 18% of European young people had been "bullied/harassed/stalked" via the internet and mobile phones. Cyberharassment rates for young people across the EU member states ranged from 10% to 52%.
Finland Sourander et al. (2010) conducted a population-based cross-sectional study that took place in Finland. The authors of this study took the self-reports of 2,215 Finish adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 about cyberbullying and cybervictimization during the previous six months. It was found that, amongst the total sample, 4.8% were victims only, 7.4% were cyberbullies only, and 5.4% were cyberbully-victims. The authors of this study were able to conclude that cyberbullying, as well as cybervictimization, is associated not only with psychiatric issues, but with psychosomatic issues as well. Many adolescents in the study reported headaches or difficulty sleeping. The authors believe that their results indicate a greater need for new ideas on how to prevent cyberbullying and what to do when it occurs. It is clearly a worldwide problem that needs to be taken seriously.
Ireland The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) pilot survey was carried out in eight post-primary schools across Ireland, including 318 students aged 15–18. 59% were boys and 41% were girls. Participation in this survey was voluntary for students, and consent had to be obtained from parents, students and the school itself. This survey was anonymous and confidential, and it took 40 minutes to complete. It asked questions on traditional forms of bullying, as well as cyberbullying, risk behaviors and self-reported health and life satisfaction. 66% of the students said that they had never been bullied, 14% had been victims of traditional forms of bullying, 10% had been victims of cyberbullying, and the remaining 10% had been victims of both traditional forms of bullying and cyberbullying. Boys mostly said they were victims of traditional forms of bullying, and girls mostly were victims of both traditional forms of bullying and cyberbullying. 20% of the students in this survey said that they had been cyberbullied, showing that cyberbullying is on the rise. Arrow DIT claims that 23% of 9–16 year olds in Ireland have been bullied online or offline, compared to 19% in Europe. Although online bullying in Ireland stands at 4% according to Arrow DIT, this is lower than the European average, which stands at 6%, and half that of the UK where 8% reported being cyberbullied. Traditional forms of bullying in Ireland occur more often than in Europe. A 2018 study by Dublin City University (DCU)'s National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC) found that almost 10% of post-primary teachers were victims of cyberbullying, and 15% knew of a colleague who had experienced it in the previous 12 months. 59% of the bullying was by pupils, mainly on social media, with the rest perpetrated by parents and other school staff. Various effects on bullied teachers included increased stress and anxiety, "negative impacts on their working environment, and a reluctance to report the issue and seek help from management".
Japan According to recent research, in Japan, 17 percent (compared with a 25-country average of 37 percent) of youth between the ages of 8 and 17 have been victims of online bullying. The number shows that online bullying is a serious concern in Japan. Teenagers who spend more than 10 hours a week on the Internet are more likely to become the targets of online bullying, though only 28 percent of the survey participants understood what cyberbullying is. However, they do know the severity of the issue; 63 percent of the surveyed students worried about being targeted as victims of cyberbullying. Since teenagers find themselves congregating socially on the internet via social media, they become easy targets for cyberbullying. Cyberbullying may occur via email, text, chat rooms, and social media websites. Some cyberbullies set up websites or blogs to post the target's images, publicize their personal information, gossip about the target, express why they hate the target, request people to agree with the bully's view, and send links to the target to make sure they are watching the activity. Much cyberbullying is an act of relational aggression, which involves alienating the victim from peers through gossip or ostracism. This kind of attack can be easily launched via texting or other online activities. One 19-year-old Japanese student was targeted by classmates who posted his photo online, insulted him constantly, and asked him to die. Because of the constant harassment, he did attempt suicide twice. Even when he quit school, the attacks did not stop. Cyberbullying can cause serious psychological impact to the victims. They often feel anxious, nervous, tired, and depressed. Other examples of negative psychological trauma include losing confidence as a result of being socially isolated from their schoolmates or friends. Psychological problems can also show up in the form of headaches, skin problems, abdominal pain, sleep problems, bed-wetting, and crying. It may also lead victims to commit suicide to end the bullying.
United States
2000 A 2000 survey by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire found that 6% of the young people who completed the survey had experienced some form of harassment, including threats and negative rumors, and 2% had suffered distressing harassment.
2004 The 2004 I-Safe.org survey of 1,500 students between grades 4 and 8 found:
42% of children had been bullied online. One in four had experienced it more than once. 35% had been threatened online. Nearly one in five had experienced it more than once. 21% had received mean or threatening e-mails or other messages. 58% admitted that someone had said hurtful things to them online. More than four out of ten said this had happened more than once. 58% had not told their parents or an adult about something hurtful that had happened to them online.
2005 The Youth Internet Safety Survey–2, conducted by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in 2005, found that 9% of the young people in the survey had experienced some form of harassment. The survey was a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,500 youth 10–17 years old. One-third reported feeling distressed by the incident, with distress being more likely for younger respondents and those who were the victims of aggressive harassment (including being telephoned, sent gifts, or visited at home by the harasser). Compared to youth not harassed online, victims are more likely to have social problems. On the other hand, youth who harass others are more likely to have problems with rule breaking and aggression. Hinduja and Patchin completed a study in the summer of 2005 of approximately 1,500 Internet-using adolescents and found that over one-third of youth reported being victimized online, and over 16% of respondents admitted to cyberbullying others. While most of the instances of cyberbullying involved relatively minor behavior (41% were disrespected, 19% were called names), over 12% were physically threatened and about 5% were scared for their safety. Notably, fewer than 15% of victims told an adult about the incident. Additional research by Hinduja and Patchin