Thursday, June 28, 2007

Cyberbullying affects 32% of online teens

I have posted at least a few times about Internet safety, specifically on my fear that the threat of cyberpredators has been overblown thanks to NBC Dateline and the news media in general.

However, I have always suspected that the greater threat to student safety on the Internet has been cyberbullying, and now, thanks to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, there are statistics to show that is true.

32% of all teens surveyed reported experiencing at least one of the following things online:

  • Someone forwarding a private message to others or posting it online where others could see it
  • Someone spreading a rumor about them online
  • Someone sending them a threatening message
  • Someone posting an embarrassing picture of them online without their permission

Girls are more likely than boys to be targets, and older teens (15-17) are more likely to be bullied than younger teens (12-14). Another interesting statistic shows that social network users experience cyberbullying more than non-social network users (39% vs. 23%).

Yet 67% of the teens surveyed thought that bullying still happens more often OFFLINE than online. 29% thought that bullying occurred more online than offline, and 3% thought bullying happened both places equally.

A total of 935 teens age 12-17 were surveyed in October and November of 2006 and there is a margin of error of 4%.

Read or download the complete report at: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP%20Cyberbullying%20Memo.pdf

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