Prevalence of online bullying: how frequent is this phenomenon?

Cyberbullying is a tremendously topical problem. Due to this, more and more studies are being carried out in this regard.

Thanks to this, more and more information is available, which allows us to act more effectively in the face of this problem. In the following paragraphs we can discover some of the most shocking figures regarding this type of behavior and what is known about the prevalence of online bullying based on different factors.

• Related article: "Cyberbullying: analyzing the characteristics of virtual harassment"

What is cyberbullying?

Before delving into the statistics behind the issue of the prevalence of online bullying, it is important to understand the implications of this concept. Digital harassment, online harassment, virtual harassment, cyberbullying, or cyberbullying, refers to those behaviors for which an aggressor uses digital media to attack the victim.

These means can be all those related to the use of technologies such as telephones, computers, social networks, emails, text messages, etc. These means, on many occasions, grant the person who carries out the aggression an anonymity that they would not otherwise have. Equally,

They are used to attack quickly and achieve a great range, regardless of the physical distance to separate him from the victim.

Later we will delve into the prevalence of online bullying, but first it is necessary to continue to know the characteristics of this phenomenon. Cyberbullying can take many forms. It can occur by falsely accusing the victim of a certain behavior. Also, making publications with false information about her, even repeatedly.

Others choose to collect real data from their future victim in order to defame in a more credible and effective way. They can get to the point of monitoring the digital activity of the person, using different programs and tools for this. Virtual harassment can occur by contacting people around the victim.

Another way in which this behavior can be carried out is by revealing the real identity of a user of a platform in which he interacts with an anonymous profile, exposing his personal data to all other users. Even the aggressor can present himself as a victim, stating that it is the person really attacked who is harassing him.

Although there are more ways to perform this behavior, these are the ones that are done most frequently.

Facts about the prevalence of online bullying

After outlining what this behavior consists of, it's time to review the data on the prevalence of online bullying. The most recent studies that have been carried out in the United States indicate that more than 4 out of 10 citizens have been the victim of this type of harassment at some point in their life. This study looked at six different forms of aggression.

These forms were physical threats, stalking, continuous harassment, sexual harassment, offensive appeals and humiliation. According to the measurements made in the years 2014, 2017 and 2020, they all experience growth. Although it is true that between 2017 and 2020, the total number of people attacked has stabilized, the number of victims of serious harassment has grown.

What the data on the prevalence of online bullying reflects according to this study is that, if we focus on the most severe forms of cyberbullying, we would be talking about 15% affected in 2014, 18% in 2017 and 25% in the last review carried out, which dates from year 2020. As can be seen, the ascending line is clear and worrying. Regarding the total of digital aggressions, in 2014 there was 35% and both in 2017 and 2020, 41%.

One of the motivations that can be seen in half of the cyberbullying cases contemplated in the study is that of politics. And it is that 50% of those attacked, that is, 20% of all US citizens who participated in the investigation, said they had suffered virtual harassment in retaliation for your political leanings.

In addition to politics, the study on the prevalence of online bullying indicates that there are other factors that can trigger this behavior. Some of them would be the gender of the person attacked or their racial origin, which would imply offenses of a sexist or racist nature, in each case.

The use of social networks for cyberbullying

Likewise, the data on the prevalence of online harassment show that, of all the digital tools they use aggressors to attack their victims, there is one that stands out above the others, and it is none other than the networks social. No less than 3 out of 4 cases of abuse that were recorded in the study came from a social network.

Taking it to the total American population, that means that 31%, which makes almost a third of the citizens, have at some point experienced aggressive behavior towards them through the networks social. In addition, just over 80% of affected users consider that those responsible for these websites do not take the necessary measures to prevent this type of event.

A third of the total population, according to the data on the prevalence of online bullying, would agree on make those responsible for the respective social networks legally responsible for the conduct of digital harassment in which these happen. All these data come from the study carried out in 2020 by the Pew Research Center, with a sample of more than 10,000 participants.

• You may be interested in: "The 10 types of Social Networks and their characteristics"

Prevalence of online bullying according to age

But they are not the only conclusions that have been drawn about the prevalence of online bullying. No less than 90% of those surveyed consider that online harassment, such as that which occurs in the networks social networks and on other platforms, it is a problem to be taken into account and against Act.

If an age distribution is made, some differences can be seen in the victim's profile. In that sense, the younger, the more likely to receive a digital attack. The group of participants under 30 years old has almost two-thirds of victims. In other words, 64% of the people up to 30 years of age who participated in the study have suffered cyberbullying at some point.

In the next strip, the one that goes from 30 to 49 years, it has 50% of victims. One in two participants of this age has experienced virtual bullying at some time. In people aged 50 and over, this figure drops to 25%, which is one in four. One of the factors involved may be the level of activity and presence in social networks, being higher in the youngest.

Cyberbullying based on gender and sexual orientation

If we take gender into account instead of age, the data on the prevalence of online bullying is also interesting. In general terms, there is no significant difference between bullying received by men (43%) and that received by women (38%). But there are differences according to the type of harassment received.

In this sense, men receive more attacks such as physical threats (16% versus 11%) or are insulted in some way (35% of male victims to 26% of female victims). The most frequent type of harassment in women is sexual, being 16% of them victims of this type, by 5% of men. Stalking is also higher towards women (13%) than towards men (9%).

Crossing the data on age and gender, it is observed that the segment of the population most prone to being a victim of online harassment is young women, under 35 years of age. A third of that group has been the victim of these behaviors. What's more, women are more likely to report digital bullying behavior than men.

Although men, on average, receive a slightly higher percentage of digital assaults than women, they are those who believe to a greater extent that this is a problem that should be tackled (61% compared to 48% of men who think same). The perception of the act of bullying as annoying is twice as powerful in women (34%) as in men (14%).

Sexual orientation also influences the prevalence of online bullying. Gay or bisexual people receive significantly more cyberbullying than heterosexuals. Of the first group, approximately 70% declare themselves victims of this type of aggression, and 50% would also be the victim of severe forms of aggression.

On the other hand, for the heterosexual population, it has been detected that the victims represent approximately 40% of the total. If we focus only on serious assaults, in any of the ways we saw earlier, that number would drop to 23%.

Bibliographic references:

• Feinberg, T., Robey, N. (2009). Cyberbullying. The education digest.
• Olweus, D. (2012). Cyberbullying: An overrated phenomenon? European journal of developmental psychology. Taylor & Francis.
• Vogels, E.A. (2021). The State of Online Harassment. Pew Research Center.