FACTS ABOUT CYBER BULLYING

FACTS ABOUT CYBER BULLYING

FROM THE PEW INTERNET AND AMERICAN LIFE PROJECT

This report draws on two main research project methodologies – a telephone survey of teens and parents, and a series of focus group discussions with teens. The Parents & Teens 2006 Survey sponsored by the Pew Internet and American Life Project obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative call-back sample of 935 teens age 12 to 17 years-old and their parents living in continental United States telephone households. The telephone sample was pulled from previous Pew Internet Project surveys fielded in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Households with a child age 18 or younger were called back and screened to find 12- to 17-year-olds.
A total of 7 focus groups were conducted with youth in June 2006. Three of the groups were conducted in an East Coast city and three were conducted in a Midwestern city. One focus group was conducted online, with high school students (and a mix of boys and girls). The other six groups were single gender, and interviewed 7^th and 8^th graders, 9^th and 10^th graders and 11^th and 12^th graders, one each of boys and girls for each grade group.

FINDINGS

1/3 of teens who use the internet say they have received threatening messages, have had private emails or text messages forwarded without their consent, have had embarrassing pictures forwarded without their permission, and have been the subject of false rumors.

Of all online forms of bullying or harassment, the most common is having private messages forwarded without consent.

Girls are more likely to experience online bullying than boys (38% to 26%).

Older girls (41%) between 15 and 17 say they have been harassed and bullied online.

Older girls are more likely to receive online threats (13%).

Teens that use social networking sites are more likely to have experienced someone forwarding embarrassing pictures (9%) than teens that do not use social networking sites (2%).

Teens who are regular users of social networking sites are more likely to have experienced some form of cyber bullying than teens who do not engage in social networking (39% to 23%).

Teens who have created content for the internet (blogs, uploading photos, sharing artwork, etc.) are more likely to report cyber bullying and aggressive forms of harassment.

2/3 of teens (67%) reported that bullying and harassment happens more offline than online.