Prevalence of Cyberbullying

The first comprehensive review of youth engaging in cyberbullying was released in 2004, based on US data obtained in 2000 by the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center (Ybarra & Mitchell 2004a). It revealed that 7 per cent of young people in the US had been bullied online in the previous year, and 15 per cent had been an online aggressor at least once in the previous year. A 2002 study conducted in Britain by NCH, a British children’s charity, showed that 25 per cent of young people in the UK had been bullied or threatened online or via their cell phone (NCH 2005).

These numbers suggest that cyberbullying is not yet as prevalent as traditional bullying. Estimates of in-person bullying involvement as a bully, victim, or both among American youth are about 30 per cent (Ybarra & Mitchell 2004b, 1309). In a Canadian study examining the prevalence of bullying among school children in Canada, 38 per cent of children reported that they had been bullied "once or twice" or more often during the current school term, and 30 per cent of children reported bullying others at the same rate (Pepler et al. 1997, 3).

Although cyberbullying may not be as prevalent as in-person bullying, it can have a similar impact on those victimized. Cyberbully victims may experience many of the same effects as children who are bullied in person, such as a drop in grades, low self-esteem, a change in interests, or depression. In the US study released in 2004, over 30 per cent of cyberbully victims reported being very or extremely upset by the bullying, and 19 per cent were very or extremely afraid (Finkelhor, Mitchell & Wolak 2000, 23). Ybarra & Mitchell conclude that cyberbullying "is a significant health and psychological issue for young people online" (Ybarra & Mitchell 2004a, 320).

>> Next, how cyberbullying is different from traditional bullying.