5 Million Kids Have Been Cyberbullied in the Last Six Months: Is the Pandemic to Blame?
Kids’ mental health is top of mind for parents and educators as schools across the U.S. contemplate plans for this fall. Kids already spend more time on the Internet due to the pandemic, and virtual classrooms could further compound this. Has cyberbullying increased in recent months, or decreased due to social distancing and fewer in-person interactions?
Security.org’s new report, “Cyberbullying Prevalence and Factors In 2020,” finds that an estimated 5 million children ages 10-18 have been bullied this way in the last six months, according to a survey of parents. You can view the full article complete with statistics.
Did you know?
Twenty-one percent of parents with kids between the ages of 10 and 18 reported that their household had experienced this type of bullying. These numbers are fairly consistent with previous research around the topic. A study from the National Center for Education Statistics found that in 2017, 20 percent of kids ages 12 to 18 had been cyberbullied during the school year.
Read more on this topic at https://www.security.org/
In addition, the study found that:
- Of the kids that have been cyberbullied, 56 percent of their parents said that it has occurred in the past six months.
- This is starting at an early age, as parents report 14 percent of kids age 10-12 have been victims.
- Children who are bullied are more likely to have social media accounts. Sixty-nine percent of cyberbullying victims use Snapchat compared to 55 percent of kids that have not been cyberbullied.
- Parents who monitored their children’s Internet usage were more likely to report cyberbullying than parents who did not. We believe this means that cyberbullying is underreported, as children do not always divulge incidents to their parents.
