online bullying case study

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Cyberbullying linked with suicidal thoughts and attempts in young adolescents

At a glance.

Young adolescents who experienced cyberbullying had an increased risk of suicidal thoughts or attempts.
Screening for cyberbullying may help identify more young people at risk of suicide.

Preteen girl looking at phone while three girls laugh in the background

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults in the United States. In-person bullying is known to raise the risk of thoughts of suicide and attempts for both victims and perpetrators.

Cyberbullying—bullying that happens online—has been on the rise in this age range. Increased use of the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic has further boosted this trend. But the links between cyberbullying and thoughts of suicide and attempts are less well understood than the effects of in-person bullying.

To help fill in this gap, NIH-funded researchers led by Dr. Ran Barzilay from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia used data from more than 10,000 young adolescents with an average age of 12. The participants were enrolled in a long-term study tracking brain development and child health.

As part of a survey for the study, adolescents reported if they’d experienced or perpetrated cyberbullying. This was defined as “purposefully trying to harm another person or be mean to them online, in texts or group texts, or on social media (like Instagram or Snapchat).”

The participants also answered questions about in-person bullying, including physical, relational (being left out or ostracized), or reputational (such as gossip) harm. Another study questionnaire asked whether they had experienced thoughts of suicide or attempted suicide.

The team explored the associations between the types of bullying and thoughts of suicide and attempts. Results were published on June 27, 2022, in JAMA Network Open .

Almost 9% of the young adolescents reported being a target of cyberbullying. Less than 1% reported perpetrating cyberbullying, but most of those who did also experienced cyberbullying. Female and Black participants were more likely to be bullied online.

The participants who experienced cyberbullying were more than 4 times as likely to report thoughts of suicide and attempts as those who didn’t. This association diminished but remained significant when the researchers adjusted for other factors known to affect thoughts of suicide and attempts. These include family conflict, racial discrimination, parental monitoring, and being supported at school.

The researchers also found that experiencing cyberbullying increased the risk of thoughts of suicide and attempts independent of in-person bullying.

Unlike the trends seen with in-person bullying, perpetrating cyberbullying wasn’t linked with an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts. The study was not designed to understand why this might be the case. The researchers suggest it may be due to the fact that cyberbullies often don’t observe and understand the effects of their bullying on the victims.

“At a time when young adolescents are spending more time online than ever before, this study underscores the negative impact that bullying in the virtual space can have on its targets,” Barzilay says. “It may be prudent for primary care providers to screen for cyberbullying routinely in the same way that they might screen for other suicide risk factors like depression. Parents and educators should also be aware of this risk factor.”

—by Sharon Reynolds

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Bullying, Interrupted

Posted August 30, 2021
By Gianna Cacciatore
Counseling and Mental Health
Disruption and Crises
Human Development
Online Education

The COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and forced students into online education, causing widespread worry among parents and educators that an increase in cyberbullying would follow. But that increase never materialized, reports a new study by Andrew Bacher-Hicks , Ed.M.’14, assistant professor of education at Boston University, and co-authors Joshua Goodman , Jennifer Greif Green , and Melissa Holt . In fact, bullying and cyberbullying rates, measured by the frequency of online searches for bullying-related terms, actually dropped during the pandemic. We caught up with Bacher-Hicks to learn why.

We wanted to look into bullying during COVID in particular because, after the massive shift from in-person instruction to online learning in March of 2020, there was a lot of concern that cyberbullying might increase (since students were spending more time online). We wanted to see if that increase had indeed come to pass.

How did the study work?

We used Google search trends in this study, for two purposes: First, we looked at historical Google search trend data from before the pandemic to figure out whether or not Google search trends for words like “bullying” or “cyberbullying” actually predict bullying behavior. Linking historical search popularity for those terms with survey responses from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey , we provided clear evidence that increases in internet searches for bullying historically predicted higher reported rates of bullying.

Then, we tracked Google searches for “bullying” and “cyberbullying” during the periods directly before and after schools closed in March 2020. We also tracked search frequency during the summer of 2020 and into the fall of the 2020–21 school year.

What did you find?

The main result was that both bullying and cyberbullying searches dropped dramatically (by 30 to 40%) in months immediately following school closures. We also found that, for schools that remained remote in the fall of 2020, decreases in both in-person bullying and cyberbullying persisted.

When we looked at schools that remained fully remote versus schools that offered in-person instruction for the 2020–2021 school year, we found that the drops in bullying were concentrated among schools that remained fully remote. This is consistent with the idea that shifting to remote schooling was an important mechanism that drove down the rates of both bullying and cyberbullying.

Interestingly, even in schools that shifted back to in-person instruction, we found that in-person bullying and cyberbullying did not fully return to pre-pandemic levels.

Why do you think that is?

There were likely some differences between the fall of 2020 and past falls. For schools that returned to some in-person instruction in the fall of 2020, bullying rates may have been lower than historical patterns because those schools had lower rates of in-person attendance. Just because a school offered in-person instruction doesn’t mean all students accepted it.

Another possible reason is that even if everybody did return for in-person learning, there were additional structures in place. Prior literature has found that bullying tends to happen during unstructured time — when students are passing in the hallways, at recess, during lunchtime. With COVID precautions, in-person schools had less unstructured time, meaning there may have been fewer opportunities for in-person bullying to occur.

What about cyberbullying rates? Why might those have initially dropped and, in schools that returned to in-person learning, remained lower?

This gets into one of the most surprising results of this study. It was not surprising to me or my co-authors that in-person bullying dropped, but it was surprising to us that cyberbullying dropped.

Our study didn’t examine this question directly, but it might be the case that there is a link between in-school interactions and online interactions. Prior research shows that the same individuals are often involved both in cyberbullying and in-person bullying. Some instances of bullying, therefore, may start in person and then shift online. If these in person interactions are disrupted, then the spillover onto online bullying may also be disrupted.

What do these findings mean for educators and families?

They suggest a few things. The first is that we, as families, educators, and policymakers, do not have to accept high rates of bullying. The pandemic has shown us that bullying rates can change quite dramatically. Second, this research suggests that we may be able to identify effective strategies implemented during pandemic to decrease bullying rates in the future. For example, school leaders might think carefully about unstructured time in a school day, how those student interactions have differed during the pandemic, and if any of the additional structure introduced during the pandemic would be useful to offer moving forward.

Finally, I think a lot of research on the educational effects of COVID-19 has focused on negative consequences — things like learning loss, student achievement, and anxiety. It’s certainly crucial that we document these harmful effects, but this study suggests that there are at least some aspects of students’ learning experiences that may have improved. Highlighting the decrease in pandemic-era bullying allows us to see the shift to remote as not entirely harmful. This is important to remember, as there might be other benefits we can learn about from the shift.

The latest research, perspectives, and highlights from the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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What You Can Do

Share Your Cyberbullying Story

Share and read cyberbullying stories posted by others below. We have many resources on this site to help you deal with cyberbullying. If you are a teen, check out: Responding to Cyberbullying: Top Ten Tips for Teens. If you are an adult who is being harassed online, see our recommendations here . If you are a parent of a child who is being cyberbullied, please see: Responding to Cyberbullying: Top Ten Tips for Parents and educators should review: Responding to Cyberbullying: Top Ten Tips for Educators.

If you feel comfortable sharing your story, we would like to hear from you. You can anonymize your experiences if you’d like, and we promise to maintain your individual confidentiality to the maximum extent of the law. The more detail you can provide the better. We use these stories to educate the public about the serious nature of cyberbullying with the goal of preventing others from doing it. We read every one of these stories and please know that you are not alone. Even though it may seem like there is nothing that can be done to stop the cyberbullying, don’t give up.

Please note that any stories, anecdotes, or screenshots sent through email or through cyberbullying.org to us can be used by us as real-life examples of cyberbullying in academic papers, books, and presentations. While form submissions through cyberbullying.org are anonymized, we will never share any personal, identifying information that you voluntarily choose to provide us in your communications to (or with) us. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please contact us .

SOME CYBERBULLYING STORIES SHARED WITH US

The following is a small sample of the thousands of anecdotal cyberbullying stories and comments we’ve received from children and adolescents who have experienced cyberbullying. If you would like to anonymously submit a description of your cyberbullying experience to us, please do so in the form below. Please provide as many specific details of your experience as you can.

""There is a site right now on face book that is called "Calling all hoes" that seems to be a place for people to write, for all the world to see, any hurtful or sick thought about anyone that they don't like-- Face Book refuses to take the page down... I don't know what to do and I feel that something needs to be done before we are hearing on the news about some poor kid who killed themselves over what's being written about them on this vile site. Help..... Anyone know how I, we, can begin the process of taking this Facebook page down?" " - 17 year-old girl from US

""I have been friends with this person for 3 years now. Well best friends. I never thought she could do this to me. She's lying and getting our friends on her said. All i can do is watch. She's called me " Ugly RagDoll , Useless , Babied all my life , Jealous , I need to grow up , unpopular , I can go and riot under a rock! Who says these kinds of things? Only someone that is heartless and that has never been bullied before. They don't know how it feels i guess."" - 12 year-old girl from MI

""My sixteen year old son was cyber bullied on Facebook over a period of 8 hours. The event was so traumatic it caused my son to have an acute psychotic break and to be hospitalized in an adolescent psychiatric ward for almost a month. He is changed forever and will never be the same mentally. Internet bullying can hurt and affect people and kids need to know this. These kids are not being punished in any way and think the incident is funny! We know it is life changing." " - Parent of 16 year-old boy from MN

""Being I have been bullied many times before it makes me not want to live in this world anymore. I've been called probably every name out there.it really hurts. I sometimes contemplate suicide but i think where will that get me? i would only end up hurting the ones that i love."" - 14 year-old girl from WA

""I am a Facebook user and I have reported these two people who are female who are putting all kinds of things about me on their wall and Facebook apparently don't care because they have not done anything about the bullying so far before or now. I don't think that this is right they should take these problems very serious!"" - 36 year-old woman from Pawtucket, RI

""I've been bully by the same person for almost 4 years now [AND YES, IS STILL HAPPENING RIGHT NOW] and he is an underclassman at my school. I don't know what the problem that got into him, I wasn't even doing anything. I thought that underclassmen should respect upperclassmen. He added me on Facebook and I just randomly accepted him, then on my birthday he start to say bunch of random crap to me and bunch of harsh stuff. Then a week ago, I blocked him and deleted him from my contact because he keeps bullying me no matter when, even in class or online. You don't have no idea how it makes me feel. Being bully by the same person for more than 3 years is pretty sucks, whenever i see him, I always look myself down even though I'm a whole lot older than him, I feel frustrated.”" - 15 year-old boy from Muscat, Oman

""Whenever I am on Facebook, I am in fear of my account being hacked, mostly for the fact that Facebook app Yoville is a very effective method to obtain information and be able to successfully hack Facebook. I can't help but play it because i have online friends that I chat with. I just hate the fact that there are people that hack Facebook accounts through yoville for pleasure."" - 18 year-old girl from NM

""It feels like you could die inside." " - 13 year-old girl from CA

""My friend is Jamaican. There are 5 boys in our class and they bully this girl because she is black. They tell her to go back to KFC and they call her "Black Momma". No, this problem is not being solved and I'm scared to help her and tell them to stop. They are very mean and dangerous kids. We are in the same class.7th grade. In the age group of 12-13 or possibly 11 or 14." " - 12 year-old girl from Brooklyn, NY

""A boy in my sixth grade math class called me mean names. Like four eyes, alien and more just for wearing glasses. It made me very upset. I don't think that kids who wear glasses shouldn't get made fun of. It's not someone's fault for wearing glasses."" - 11 year-old boy from MI

""I have been threatened that someone was going to kill me and told me to shut the fuck up here is a picture http://twitpic.com/48br8p"" - 12 year-old boy from WA

""I've been bullied on Twitter, by two people in the last couple weeks. I've told them to stop and to leave me alone, but they keep at it. After I told them to stop and leave me alone, I stopped communication with them but they still kept tweeting me. I feel like I can't say anything with someone on Twitter bullying me. I try to make it look like I don't care and all, but it never seems to work. I've reported and blocked them. Anyone have any suggestions please?" " - 21 year-old girl from USA

""How ironic that Miranda Cosgrove is being used as the celebrity face for anti-bullying, since I just told my 11 yr. old she can no longer watch "iCarly" because Carly and Sam (especially Sam) consistently bully "the less cool kids" on that show. Just watch one episode and you will see it. This is the problem. Everyone talks about stopping bullying, but they don't even recognize that THEY ARE THE BULLY!!!"" - 11 year-old girl from USA

""There's a game called habbo.com. Now there's a certain room in the called chromide club where the kids go to make fun of people. It's bad because they get your Facebook and make fun of the way u look. They spam your Facebook throughout the game and it hurts people's feelings."" - 13 year-old girl from USA

""My daughter has recently been bullied by her so called "friends" so badly that we had to take her out of the school and enroll her in a private school which allows us to home school since it is such a distance to travel. We approached the school which did nothing. They acted concern but did not act on the information. The bullying did not stop at school, it went on further onto Facebook. The girls thought they it was funny and tried to make it look like my daughter had been saying ugly things about them. The awful part was while they were doing this they were acting like they were her friend and staying at our house. They actually said they had been planning all of it!! We thought it would quit once we took her out of the school, but they did not quit. It has affected her emotionally. She feels isolated because they went throughout the whole school telling lies about her. People were texting her and calling her as well as posting on Facebook. She blocked so many people but it has really affected her. I feel for her safety and that it has really affected her self-esteem. As a parent, I am angry at the other parents and at the school system. We have been let down by this school system. I am considering contacting the Texas Education Association. This is a large school district which has turned a blind eye to my child's wellbeing."" - 16 year-old girl from TX

""some weirdo on twitter said some very hurtful things to me. Mostly about being a Christian. i don't want to go into it any more than that."" - 13 year-old girl from WI

""Well i always get bullied and i hate it i feel like killing myself sometimes."" - 13 year-old girl from Victoria, Australia

""I found my daughter was being cyber bullied a week ago. It had started a few weeks earlier but became extreme last week. This was part of an ongoing bullying campaigned by a group of girls at her school after a broken friendship. When it became Cyber I kept copies of the harassment which was lucky as I was able to take it to the school. She had been called vile horrible names, accused for things she hadn't done and set up to appear racist. There were threats of bashing. Finally she was provoked and she ended up using language out of character in retaliation. We rang the school who suggested the Police. We rang them and they said that as they are all under 14yrsold they couldn't do much. I then referred to the got schools policy which clearly stated that if cyber bullying could be directly related to the child and school then it was an issue the school had to deal with in order to create a safe environment for my daughter. Feeling i might be dismissed with "your daughter is too sensitive" or similar I wrote a very precise 3 page letter with 6 attachments cover 22 pages of evidence. Protocol was then followed which was satisfactory. I did however suggest that a very active learning program be set up to educate these children on how to use Facebook and how to change privacy settings etc. I explained that banning this technology was a useless endeavor and would not work so we need to work with it. I would love to be able to do more in the schools so have found your site fantastic."" - 11 year-old girl from Australia

""I was walking home from school when i got a text message that read ‘you wait till tomorrow bitch you're going to die' when i got home i asked what was the matter she told me that she heard i told my cousin which was her boyfriend she was cheating on him (which was a lie). i tried to confront her but it failed i kept getting threating messages but it soon stopped when my cousin broke up with her."" - 18 year-old girl from Victoria, Australia

""My son has been receiving text messages that are being set up on a computer internet webmail address. The person is sending him little messages, not really threatening, but bothersome. The person set up a bogus email address and sends messages to his cell phone up to 50 to 60 at a time of the same message. It ties up his phone and is a problem. He has already had to change his number once but the person found it. We are going to go to our State's Cyber bullying division for help after local police could not do anything."" - Parent of 19 year-old boy from MS

""When I was 15, a freshman in high school, I was bullied over the Internet and at school. I felt like it came out of nowhere. One day the group of girls I called friends turned against me viciously over MySpace. They created a fake MySpace profile for me, which contained my cell phone number and instant message name. They photo shopped obscene sexual photographs of me and posted them in this profile. I was getting calls and began being stalked by strange men. These girls would make up sexually explicit rumors about me even though at the time I was a virgin. They would instant message me and tell me I was going to die. They were going to kill me. I was afraid to leave the house, to have friends, to pick up the phone. I lived in fear for so long. I knew they were looking for a fight and I refused to give them one so I deleted all known online presence and changed my number. I became recluse, a prisoner in my own home. Once I graduated high school I applied to college outside of my hometown to run away. Now, I am 22 and still have to live with the effects of these cruel girls. Trauma is hard to recover from but I know it is possible and I am stronger now than I have ever been. I am not that scared 15-year-old girl but I am still haunted by the girl I used to be." " - 22 year-old girl from Middletown NY

""A guy i know (he is a good friend of mine now) used to be pretty cruel to me in front of my friends, mocking me. But i just want to say to every victim out there, don't stop believing it will all get better. Stand up for yourself, fight, do whatever you can. Peace."" - 14 year-old boy from IA

""I think that cyber bullying is one of the worst things that a teenager may be exposed to. But in this age kids cannot act properly. The cyber-bullies are always not self-confident children who, in many cases, envy their victims. I was bullied twice. The first incident happened 2 years ago in a new social site- Formspring.me In this site you can send your opinion or question anonymously. One person sent me a message claiming that I was fake and that I wasn't a good friend. I was too offended to answer and I just disabled my account. The second incident happened a year ago. Those who I had considered my "best friends" tended to tease me often about my appearance. This teasing eventually led to harsh words exchanged over Facebook, which by a month time resulted in cyber-bullying. The bullying ended when I blocked them, and moved after the school year. So if you are bullied the best thing to do is to block those people or just find a different social network. Don't pay attention to the bullies because most of things they say are not true. However, if the bullying becomes very serious then an adult should be informed for help."" - 14 year-old boy from USA

""I was and still am being bully by girls that once where my best friends. They tease and taught me and call me ugly, and some not so nice names. They keep messageing me on facebook and saying i need to stop when it isthem. Yesturday i heard this story of a 13 year old boy who committed suicide because of the bullies i was crying becasue of what happens to me. i just want it to STOP! But every time i tell the pricipial he will not listen:(...it is very hard but i deal with it."" - 12 year-old girl from IL

""Cyber Bullying is a serious topic! I was bullied and began to cut myself... You may want to know why... time to tell I was bullied, stalked, and harassed. Never to my face but online the people who bullied me would make fake pages and put me on them saying I'm how and everything I'm willing 'to do' with a guy, but nothing on them were true... They told people to walk up to me and ask me if I was a hoe, lesbian, dyke, slut, pregnant.. etc. I couldn't take it anymore I was on the verge of suicide and when you're going through this you want to handle it alone, but truthfully you can't. So I began to cut. For everything I was going through. I got help. I came clean to a trusted adult and they told my mom everything my mom got very upset and began to take pills to solve her problems. I got madder and cut even more then I finally said no! STOP I haven't cut in a month and 5 days... i use to cut every day. So to wrap this up I'm done cutting my mom's still on pills and I told the police (about the bullying) and guess what. The sites and texts are gone!!! :)"" - 14 year-old girl from MN

""On December 17, 2010, my daughter was a victim of cyber bullying. There were four children involved in a chartroom within their e-mail accounts. One ring leader who seemed rather angry with my daughter started name calling, letting her know nobody liked her, and even went as far as wishing she would die in a hole. This obviously was a very hurtful conversation which led to my 11-year-old daughter to even consider death as an option. I thankfully monitor my child's accounts and was able to copy the conversation, and bring this conversation to my child's school. They acted quickly, and knew the severity of the situation. My hope is that there will be a positive outcome, and the four involved will have the opportunity to learn from this. Education and positive guidance are important tools to use as you do not want it to repeat, nor for you want it to fester in the minds of these young souls."" - Father of 12 year-old girl from VA

""Our Pastor was texting our daughter early morning and late at night. Then started FB emails telling her to stay in contact however she could. He told her how horrible her family is and what liars we were. Told her we did things just to make her feel bad. We spent $35,000,00 to get a Permanent Injunction prohibiting contact for 10 years. Now he is suing us for his attorney fees."" - Mother of 17 year-old girl from IL

""I stopped being friends with this girl who was just a bad influence on me, and she got a couple of her friends to hate me. On MSN they had a group chat room, and it was the two girls, and they were threatening to bully me at school, and I got scared about it. (The first girl) said if I came to school she would beat me up during recess, so during that day I hid in the bathroom at lunch."" - 12 year-old girl from AL

""I have an account on this site called Formspring, and what it was is I got cheated on by my ex, and someone was just like, ‘You need to let him go,' and started cussing me out. People are harsh. People are very harsh. Then they were saying my articles suck."" - 16 year-old girl from AL

""I broke up with this guy because I wanted to keep our relationship secret. So after a week he all of a sudden started texting me and saying how me and my brother were brats and how I was a B****. He said some pretty nasty things. I asked him why he said it and he said it was because I broke his heart and he was getting revenge from that. Me and my friends often get bullied it's one thing if it's at school but to bring it home was another. We have to stick up for each other. I thought school was supposed to be safe."" - 16 year-old girl from USA

""When I was thirteen, a friend of a friend, whom I had previously contacted on good terms, decided that in the absence of my physical self, the bullying that used to go on in elementary school (I had become homeschooled since) should start a new online. She insulted me, telling me how glad she was not to be put in close proximity with my allegedly ugly face anymore and mocking me for my perceived sexual orientation. Whenever I thought I'd seen the last of her, out of the blue she would instant message me again just to share her opinion. I hadn't seen her in almost a year, but she still entertained herself by telling me how horrible I was. It was like she was conjuring up the school situation which I had tried so hard to overcome."" - 15 year-old girl from CA

""My daughter is a victim of cyber bullying she is 15 ,someone placed her picture on another person's face and wrote a lot of vicious, hateful, discusting lies about her and from one cell phone to another the hole school had it going around she didn't want to go to school anymore i had a place herin another school, her self-confidence, self-esteem her grades were failing, she got sick, the school didn't help us they just wanted us to not pay attention to this cruel behavior, as a parent i was pissed, hurt and confused, all i could do was try to talk to her but she said mom it's too hard to overlook when everywhere you walk people are pointing at you calling you names, i just took her away from the school changed her cell phone number and just pray." " - Mother of 15 year-old girl from Los Angeles, CA

""I had asked a guy to prom and posted pictures on Facebook of me and him. a girl that used to be my friend from where i used to live commented on them saying that i was desperate and i only asked him because i knew no one would ask me. Luckily, some of my real friends defended me, but i will never forget sitting in front of the computer screen crying because of something someone said."" - 16 year-old girl from AZ

""WELL I WAS IN THIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS BOY CEJAY AND HE STARTEDTO GET UPSET BECAUSE I DIDNT WANT TO DO ANY THING SEXUAL OR PHYSIACAL SO HE STARTED TO POST MEAN AND HERTFUL BLOGS ABOUT ME. HE EVEN COMMENTED ON ALLMY STATUS I WAS EMBARASSED. WHEN I CONFRONTED HIM ABOUT HE DIDNT EVEN CAREOR HAVE ANY REGRET BUT IT WAS A DIFERRENT STORY WHEN I GOT REVENGE BY TELLING THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ON HIM. THEN HE GOT UPSET AND DONE EVEN MEANER THINGS TO ME LIKE SEXUALLY HARRASSING ME BUT SINCE THEN IT BEEN BETTER BECAUSEI ERASED ALL OF MY EMAIL ACCOUNTS EVEN GOT OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL."" - 14 year-old girl from Columbus, OH

""I was the new girl in school and everyone just had to be mean to me. The girls in my class wrote my name on the bathroom stall saying i like two boys when i did not even like one of them. i had trusted two of the girls and they let me down. In the bathroom stall every single girl could see it. Luckily i told my mom and then she told my teacher and they got detention with the principal for a week."" - 12 year-old girl from Ontario

""Last year when i was 16 i was bulled because i liked this boy, my friend liked him too. So i started talking to him one day and my friend seen us so she stopped talking to me. She started spreading rumors about me. People us to beat me up after school. This went on for months until i told my father he went up to the school and told the principle. He suspended the kids now they don't mess with me anymore. If you are being bulled don't be afraid to tell an adult don't take matters into your hands don't let bullying happen if you see it tell an adult."" - 16 year-old girl from OH

""I was on Facebook when a friend of mine wrote on my wall that whenever I was in someone's life their life started to get fucked up. That hurt a lot because I trusted this person. He verbally bullies me whenever he gets the chance. I don't want to tell my mom because she'll make a big deal about it. I'm really getting hurt from this. Why does he have to be a wimp and say it online and not to my face? He'd be a man if he did."" - 15 year-old boy from MI

""I was bullied on a site, like MySpace. I had a MySpace page devoted to me. I thought for the longest time about killing myself, until one day I realized that god put me on this earth for a reason.. And killing myself wouldn't so any good. My bullies put signs in my yard. What killed me is the fact that the school could not do anything because it was done online. I will never get over this. Even though it happened a few years ago."" - 16 year-old girl from IN

""Some girl in my daughter's grade started a rumor that my daughter is a lesbian, this got all over school, not happy with that she starting texting her with all this comments. I spoke to her mom and ask her to please make her stop. Well big mistake...she post comments on Facebook, mocking her. We will start counseling very soon, I'm afraid for my daughter safety, not sure how bad this is affecting her, and she tells me that she's trying to avoid them in school. This is a terrible experience that no child have to go thru."" - Mother of 14 year-old girl from Suffolk, NY

""People always make fun of me because of my weight. They say I'm pretty but i can't believe them. Last year i was being bullied by an 8th grader at my school. People would send me messages saying that I'm a disgrace i shouldn't be in this world. my best friend also told me that after we got in a fight, i cried for so long knowing my best friend thought that of me and what hurt me too was that she said it with hatred the look in her eyes was like she never wanted to see or hear from me again. i felt so bad i wanted to kill myself. i thought it was the only way out. I've been bullied since i was in pre-school. i thought it would go away by now but its only getting worse. My sisters even make fun of me but they say that their just playing around. They don't think it doesn't hurt me but it does especially coming from my sisters, it makes me feel even worse."" - 13 year-old girl from NV

""This girl I've known for a few years liked my boyfriend. She would always try to make me jealous by hugging him or anything she could think of. One day she posted a bulletin on MySpace all about him and I told her she shouldn't talk about him like that. She ended up harassing me online, calling me names. But when I went to school she would never say anything to my face, she denied ever saying anything to me when I confronted her in front of her friends. Then when I went back home she kept doing it over the computer. Her insults getting worse. Then I went to school and confronted her again and got in a fight. She hit me and I beat her up and now I don't know if that was the right thing to do. What else could I do?" " - 15 year-old girl from NV

""My 14 year old daughter is being cyber bullied now. Found a website she belongs to called "Formspring". This is where anyone can (even if you dont know them) can post a comment to you or ask you a question. Then you respond if you want. I was so appalled that you can post and ask questions anonymously and you have no have no idea who is posting. Many of these posts are telling my daughter that they hate her and she should just go kill herself. If you cant see who posts these things what options do you have? I have banned my kids from the computer now unless it's for homework. I have deleted their Facebook accts. At my wits end. My 24 yr old son has started a web page for this. And I think everyone should start one to try to pull together communities in fighting this."" - 14 year-old girl from USA

""I have a formspring account, which anonymously allows people to ask you questions. Instead of receiving what i thought would be nice questions, i constantly was sent comments like "you're ugly", "you're stupid", "you're a slut", etc. I have a total of over 1000 formspring "questions" and i would say that 95% of them were verbal abusing me and completely destroying my self-esteem. It got to the point where i couldn't stand going to school or even looking at myself in the mirror knowing that when people see me they think of a stupid, ugly, whore. People that stick and stones can break your bones, but names can never hurt you. But i have come to realization that the statement does not apply to the majority of teenagers. Verbal Abuse hurts."" - 16 year-old girl from VA

""I was picked on in the 5th grade by having my stuff pushed off the table or having my belongings stolen. it went into 7th grade where i completely lost it, beat up the kid who was the leader of the bullies, and now he gives me the respect i deserve. Violence isn't usually the way to go, but in this case it helped a lot."" - 14 year old boy from MA

""Hi my name is _____ i was targeted online on Facebook. One of my friends who i thought was my friend made a Facebook page that had the title _____ is pregnant. I'm not pregnant. I was so frustrated and upset because i didn't deserve this. My family and I am Catholic. One of my friends got brought into this. I went to the principle and he dealt with it. I have been a target my whole life how do i stop it."" - 16 year-old girl from PA

""I have a fifteen year old who suffers from anxiety and depression and just yesterday I filed a police report. My son has a Facebook account and a classmate was posting some very disturbing comments to my son he was telling my son to end his life already, threatening him that if he went to school he was going to kick his a#! and calling my son a spic and telling my son to go back across the border my sons status on face book is bisexual and the things they were saying about him were disturbing. I printed all the posts went to my local police dept. were the police officer told me that he was not sure they could do much since they are minors could you believe that! I insisted I wanted something done and charges filed he gave me a report number and would call me today. I called my lawyer!"" - 15 year-old boy from MD

""Teammates, unknowingly to the victim, accessed the victims phone and put embarrassing remarks on the victims Facebook page, which were attributed to the victim. It appeared that the victim was confessing that they were gay."" - 14 year-old boy from MD

""I came to college thinking everything would be all fun and games. I shortly found out it was not. My suite-mates, did not like me, for reasons I do not know. When they discovered I had a formspring page, they took the chance to say things to me that hit home, and then took actions against me in person. I felt hopeless, and the University I currently attend did not do anything about it. It was a low point in my life." " - 18 year-old girl from NY

""I try to ignore her but she turns everyone against me and makes my life miserable. She spreads awful rumors about me and i just can't take it."" - 14 year-old girl from TX

""My best friend and I were so close, we could almost be sisters. We were going on holiday to Scotland in October to take a break from all our crazy work from school, because we both just started an early GCSE. Until she started getting friendly with another girl, who I instantly didn't like, as I thought she was a bad influence. Eventually I started getting nasty texts and emails, and messages on MSN about my appearance and personality. I broke down in tears one night when something about Scotland came on the television. I started getting emotionally depressed at home and at school, and my work was getting effected and my family was deeply alarmed by this. In the end I told her that I wasn't sure if i wanted to go to Scotland with her, so the messages got worse. In the end I showed my parents and teachers and they were had a word with. It's not so bad now, even though I still get depressed sometimes, but now I'm sure who my true friends are." " - 13 year-old girl from England

""When I was 13 in middle school I would receive anonymous phone calls on my cell phone during school and after school from some boys in my Spanish class threatening to rape me, kidnap me, kill me, and kill my dog. It was literally one of the most terrifying things that had ever happened to me, and after about 2 weeks of putting up with it, I finally reported them and they were arrested. Unfortunately that's not where it ended. These boys turned out to be the well-loved class clowns of the school and the torment from other students continued on MySpace. I ended up deleting it and didn't create another one until mid-8th grade when tensions died down a bit. I felt miserable for the rest of my middle school career and pleaded with my parents to transfer schools but they wouldn't listen. I did try to commit suicide more than once. The depression carried over into high school, but it was masked by having new friends that actually liked me. Eventually I did get help mid-Senior year and am continuing talk therapy in college."" - 18 year-old girl from FL

""As you know, Japan has very bad bullying. Cyber bullying, physical bullying, and mental abuse bullying. We have a very high rate of suicide attempts at the age bracket of middle school kids to high school kids. This is a story about a best friend I had who committed suicide right in front of me. And all it started was a crush she had, it was such a small thing. All she wanted to do is have a normal teenage life; that never happened. She wanted to join in the group but everyone called her "gloomy, sullen, creepy." It wasn't very nice at all. The tone of their voices changed when she came in the room, there were thumbnails in her shoes, dead animals in her desk, and many more. There were also a lot of hate mail. Sometimes just to ease the pain I deleted the mails before she could even see them, but that didn't do much good. I wish I could've helped more... Every day I saw her eyes die and become darker and darker. It was the time when I was going home with her and we were waiting for the train to pass by; it was that time when she just pushed me away and ran in front of the tracks and committed suicide. Now it has been 3 years since she did this act, I still regret not saving her, I still regret everything I could not have done."" - 16 year-old girl from Japan

""I was cyber bullied when i was in 8th grade by a bunch of girls telling me that i need to get a life so i went home told my mom and they kept bullying me still so then i just kept skipping school and getting i n trouble at home and then just ran away then i finally got everything figured out with the cops."" - 13 year-old girl from KY

""When I was 8 years old, I met a girl who had gotten into a fight with me a week later. This resulted in cyber bullying that lasted 5 years. The girl was now 16 and was still harassing me. I told my parents who stopped the messages but then the girls mugged me and attacked me. I was in the hospital for 1 week. The girls were caught by the police and now the girls are in juvenile hall. I'm glad that it stopped."" - 14 year-old girl from Wales, UK

""Honestly when I was being cyber bullied I felt like I wanted to never get out of the house or talk to anyone ever again. It led me to depression and the person who was bullying me... they believed that it was funny. I ended up staying quiet and even today I do get bullied online."" - 17 year-old girl from NJ

""I get mean messages on Formspring, with people telling me I'm fat and ugly and stupid. I don't know what I ever did to anyone. I wish it wasn't anonymous..."" - 15 year-old boy from IL

""I frequent the adam4adam site often; at some point started getting several negative emails from this person who me of i have never met; I changed my screen name a few times only to have my old screen name come back tiaras me even more over the same thing. have complained to the adam for adam site & the best advice they could give me is to just block the person; what really made me up site with the site was that was once called a porch monkey & all they did was tell me to block the guy & not much was done to stop him from accessing his account; have complained many times that I want to take legal action against the person that keeps changing screen name when i change names; how can I find out this persons isp address to press charges??"" - 45 year-old man from CA

""I got cyber bullied after i got surgery on my knee & it was horrible they always said go die & your worthless why are you here? You're wasting air. it made me so depressed and i thought of suicide plenty of times but i wasn't going to let them get to me so i deleted all of them from my Facebook, MySpace and all that & it stopped until i went back to school. i just had surgery and couldn't walk so they put me in a wheelchair & everything was fine the few first days i had so many friends and they all loved me & helped me, but when my best friend came home from Mexico all hell broke loose, & people kept saying i was talking about her & lying about everything which wasn't true someone hated me so much they decide to make my life hell. That day @ lunch i had about 20 girls who were mad @ me because "i lied " & i didn't. they all tried to hit me & fight me when i was in a wheelchair after 5days after my surgery, so my boyfriend took me to the consular & that when i know i am de the biggest mistake, after that i got horrible texts,& people would call me & leave me voice mails & stuff and it was horrible , i thought about suicide & my mom caught me & ending up in the hospital i never want to go through that again it was horrible, all this was 1 year ago & this stuff is still going on I wish it would just stop."" - 13 year-old girl from OH

""I usually feel pretty and liked it's not like i brag i just feel regular then on MySpace I comment on some girls status saying something like "I do that too!" I was just replying to something she said. Then like 5 minutes later she put.. "Sorry Friend But I See The Opposite Of Beautiful & Gorgeous When I Look At Herr (;" I felt something go threw me like jeeze what's wrong I was nice and friendly i don't deserve this! And usually I'm very insecure about my appearance and when I finally feel better she had to ruin it oh well STOP CYBER BULLYING" " - 13 year-old girl from Sacramento, CA

""My elderly mother has been harassed by email by two different neighbors. The bullying has gotten so bad that it is causing health issues and my parents are trying to sell their house. They have hired a lawyer and reported the harassment to the police but to no avail. The police said they could arrest the people responsible but that wouldn't stop the harassment. I think this comes under the cyber bulling law in Iowa but I don't know if it has been used other than with schools and youths. I really need help for my parents."" - Daughter of an 83 year-old woman from IA

""okaay so it's this boy and my friend use to go with him.. and so he liked me and i liked him back and so i asked my friend is it ok if i go with the boy she said alright she over him and i can have him and when i start going with him she started getting mad at me and i told her if it means that much to you ill break up with the boy cause i don't need no boys in my life as long as i got my friends.. so then she started calling my phone and started cussing me out so hung up and put her on my block list and she left me a voicemail threating me and all this other stuff i ignored it. Cause it doesn't really matter anymore."" - 12 year-old girl from TX

""I was on aim minding my own business, and then all of a sudden a screen name I didn't recognize popped up. They started to talk to me and call me really horrible names. I felt like crying. I asked who it was a bunch of times and all they said was "none of your business." I blocked them but they always made a different screen name. I remember every word they said to me. I will never ever let it go because from that day on I was harassed badly and still never figured out who it was."" - 11 year-old girl from CA

""My friend and i have 3 cyber bullies. They would call us randomly on their phones and not leave us alone. They would also text us really mean and bad things, like they called us lezbians and something else really bad. Yesterday i was watching a movie and she called me 2 times and i said stop. Then she kept texting me so many mean things that i wanted to throw my phone against the wall. I told my mom and she called her. My mom told her that she wanted to talk to her parents and the girl hung up. After that the mean girls texted me, wow you can't fight your own battles! Now my friends mom and my mom are doing anything they can to stop this. My mom is worried this is going to carry on into middle school."" - 11 year-old girl from MI

""My son has been cyber bullied by the same child that is his age for a while now, he has threatened to beat him up and tells my son to kill himself because no one cares about him. My child is so sensitive and not to mention small for his age with type one diabetes. I have no idea who to turn to for this problem. I want to go to this other kids house and have a chat with his mother, but I don't know my rights."" - Mother of 12 year-old from WI

""I was at this anime site where peopled bulled non-stopped in this chat room. All they did was tell me how stupid i was for a year. But then i would go back because people where nice to me. I've went their for a year people keep yelling at me calling me stupid stupid stupid stupid stupidstuipd stuipd buti was addicted to chatting . now i've been banned thank god and is freeeeee."" - 15 year-old boy from IL

""Hi, my son has been repeatedly humiliated and harassed through an online gaming forum by other teenagers. It has had a tremendous affect upon him, he has cried, become angry, and is confused as to why these people don't like him. There has been continues postings about him and harassing personal messages sent to him. I naturally told him to stay off of this site. When I contacted the administrators of this forum, I received a response from an Attorney who is an administrator. He told me there was nothing they could do. As our conversation continued and I expressed to him that as a Dad this forum that accepts children has an inherent responsibility to protect them. He eventually banned my son, ridiculed me as a Father and challenged me to try and do something. What can I do as a Dad to ensure that Children like my son won't be emotionally abused through a Forum that allows children?"" - Father of 12 year-old boy from CA

""My friend and i have 3 cyber bullies. They would call us randomly on their phones and not leave us alone. They would also text us really mean and bad things, like they called us lesbians and something else really bad. Yesterday i was watching a movie and she called me 2 times and i said stop. Then she kept texting me so many mean things that i wanted to throw my phone against the wall. I told my mom and she called her. My mom told her that she wanted to talk to her parents and the girl hung up. After that the mean girls texted me, wow you can't fight your own battles! Now my friends mom and my mom are doing anything they can to stop this. My mom is worried this is going to carry on into middle school."" - 11 year-old boy from MI

""I am tired of having him messaging me and saying inappropriate things, threatening, and just being downright annoying! I'm tired of having to block him over and over, I've reported him more than once...but he is still here. This whole conflict with him is ruining my gaming experience. I hardly enjoy signing onto the PSN."" - 16 year-old girl from USA

""Somebody on Facebook would not stop bullying me. He was harsh and kept saying I was a "slutty bitch" whatever that is. I was very depressed, regardless."" - 12 year-old girl from Russia

""Once i went on Facebook and all my friends were making fun of me. They said that i should kill myself and no one likes me and stuff like that. i was depressed for a long time. All my 'friends' weren't talking to me and i didn't know what to do. i went home and thought about suicide but i just couldn't. The principal in my school had found out about this and confronted these kids. They said sorry but they didn't mean it. I've always thought about suicide ever since." " - 12 year-old girl from OH

""For years, in middle school i spent every day of my life being bullied. i was called "the emo lezbo" for almost 3 years straight. now i am 15 and in high school with low self-esteem, and still thinking about suicide as the way out. i can't ask for help, I'm scared my mom will take it out on herself. Sometimes i can't handle it, i wish i could have started over, not as me, but someone pretty and smart that everyone would love."" - 15 year-old girl from USA

""My so-called "best friend" and I were joking around making a fake music video, and when we were making it she pranked me by pushing me in the pull. I broke my nose pretty badly and the video went around my school like wild fire. To this day I still get made fun of and its 2 years later."" - 18 year-old girl from USA

""I have a form spring and for the past month that i have had it I have been bullied on it. Thank god i am not like that 17 year old girl because the things being said to me are so mean I don't even know how a person can come up with this "shit" for lack of a better word. I feel if this person has such a problem with me they need to grow up and say it to me in person instead of try to act tough posting stuff without their name on it. The web site is for questions not insults and I think police should be more active on these site so people like that can get help because clearly there are issues!!!"" - 17 year-old girl from Tewksbury, MA

""As a mom, I'm devastated by the cyber-bullying taking place against my 15-year-old daughter. Kids are ganging up, saying horrible things - ugly, fat, bitch - anonymously. If it's devastating for me, I can't imagine what it's like for her."" - 15 year-old girl from CT

""My friend told me about a chat website, so I went on it. It was fun at first, until there were people who started saying mean things and harassing me on the site for no reason. I still remember some of the things they said, and I wish I didn't, because you keep on remembering and wondering if maybe it is true." " - 14 year-old boy from M

""I was on aim minding my own business, and then all of a sudden a screen name i didn't recognize popped up, they started to talk to me and call me really horrible names. I felt like crying . i asked who it was a bunch of times and all they said was "none of your business" i blocked them but they always made a different screen name , i remember every word they said to me ,this happened to me about 3 or 4 years ago. i will never ever let it go because from that day on i was harassed badly and still never figured out who it was . Note: for every kid that has an aim, and you don't know who it is , and when you ask them over and over again and they don't tell you , tell an adult . It's the best thing to do when your being harassed good luck everybody i wish you all best of luck."" - 11 year-old girl from CA

""I've never ben bullied myself .yes I've bullied and i regret it and want to apologize to the people who have been bullied it is wrong and don't think anyone should take your life nor feel depressed because jerks want to bully."" - 14 year-old boy from NC

""Sometimes it's hard to believe what starts it, The truth is whatever the reason revenge, or because it makes you feel good. Cyber bullying or bullying of any type is against the law. It can have horrible outcomes that will kill others, and sometimes it can lead others to do crimes, murders, and sometimes even cause deaths to innocents that had nothing to do with it in the first place. Its time to take a stand now, that when we teach our children its okay to get revenge, or hurt others if they have hurt you, then its then we teach them its okay to cause pain, wars, this is bullshit. We don't have a right to cause any pain to any person for whatever reason. The time is now to stop the violence and it stops here and now. In our schools, Computer Labs, and the internet. STOP hurting others, it doesn't feel good, and in the end could cause you more harm then you realize. I was the victim of cyber bullying, I was also the cause of it at one point because I had continued to try to get revenge on those that hurt me. In the end it wasn't much of anything but pain, and the pain continued on to my own friends and others. It's not worth it no matter how much someone hurts you its needs to stop and it stops now... So here I am trying to make it stop."" - 33 year-old man from AZ

""I have autism and have been made fun of for most my childhood. It hurts me so much when people pick on me and hardly ever think before they speak. They gossip and say whatever they want to without asking themselves if they will be rude to someone else by saying it. I have grown up quite a bit and wish they could understand, but they don't. My heart breaks from this pain inside me and they don't care at all."" - 17 year-old girl from WA

""I gett harassed by this girl named amber she is in my class she always say im ugly and i cry every day :("" - 12 year-old girl from CA

""BIENG BULLIED ISN'T GREAT BECAUSE AFTER A WHILE YOU START TO BELIEVE THE STUFF THAT THEY SAID TO YOU. I STILL CRY WHENEVER I THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY SAID."" - 10 year-old girl from CA

""My son made the high school baseball team in December by February the team started to call him Down syndrome Darren. They would tease him all the time and push him in the hallways with his books. In March we found out about a Facebook page made called Down syndrome Darren and he was mortified. He stopped eating as much. Cried a lot and made comments about death. We went to the coach and team mom and they said they would take care of it. The boys that made the website were suspended for one baseball game but the teasing continued and the physical bullying got worse even though the website came down. He had his gear hidden, grape fruits thrown at him, he was tripped, pushed, shoved, and he was given a baseball with a penis drawn on it with all kinds of obsinities written on it. My oldest son came to a game and the parents told him that if he started anything they would call the cops. He told them they should call the cops on their own kids. They told the school that my oldest son threatened their sons and the police called me the next day telling me that there would be someone there to watch the games and not to bring my oldest son to the games any more. I was glad someone would finally be watching the team, but he was there to protect the other boys not my son. When the season was over he left. The coach was so concerned about his varsity players that he left his junior varsity and freshman players alone and my son was ganged up on and forced to wrestle and body box twice while being filmed by several boys. He did not win. He was teased and humiliated. He came home really out of control of his emotions he was so upset. He was punching things, flipped over the couches, and was screaming at the top of his lungs. We had to take him to the hospital when he threatened to kill himself for he cut his arm all up. He was in the hospital for 6 days. The most the school has done is said they are investigating it and that they would refer him to a new school. He never wants to go back to that school but come on that is the best they can do?"" - Parent of 14 year-old boy from CA

""A group of boys who i meet through my hall of residence have always had a thing against me, i appear to be outgoing, happy, confident and loud. I stand up for myself. What they didn't know is that I suffered from a mild depression from issues in my past. After constantly saying mean stuff and making mean gestures to me whenever they saw me or i came up in conversation they decided to make a Facebook group for a 'leaving party' for me, even though everybody new they did not like me. i am going on a unit exchange and they said this was for me and sarcastically talked about how sad they will be and how will they cope without me. Everybody knew it was a joke, they publicly humiliated me and expressed their hate for me. I was very very distressed and my confidence was and still is lowered. I was diagnosed with severe depression and have had suicidal thoughts which i am working on to get better. It has been a month and not one of them has apologized, my mother and father are furious and want me to go to the proctor of my university about it or the police but I am unsure if they could do anything about it. I thought when I got to university this would stop but it has gotten worse and I do not know what action I should take against them but I am scared that they will do it to someone weaker to me and this could be very, very bad."" - 19 year-old boy from NZ

""2 or 3 years back, when I used Youtube as my social network, I was cyber bullied by a white-power obsessed bully. On my profile I said I lived in the United States but was from Ecuador. When this guy read it he started posting rude spam comments calling me a "spick" and "wetback". Of course, I fought back as much as I can, and when my friends read his comments they helped. They were also being victimized. After a while, I just blocked him and we all reported him to the site. He was gone, but later on he came back, and the same thing happened. When he returned months later, I was already fed up with it and blocked him fast. Happened one more time after that, but I learned that I should just ignore it because whoever the person is, he doesn't know anything about me. Right now, nothing recent has happened, and I don't use Youtube anymore, and I hope that kids know never to let someone get to you because if they have to insult you through the computer, then they aren't worth the second thought."" - 15 year-old girl from NY

""how does it feel being the fat ugly outcast of all your pretty skinny friends why do you take a bazillion pictures of yourself ...like your some kind of model? i think you're a little too big for even a plus size model...and think you have to be pretty to model ... so epic fail for you nuff said... "" - 14 year-old girl from DE

""When I was very young, in about 4th grade, I remember this group of girls made a website about me. It had a picture of a pig on it and said " _____ is a fat pig and everyone hates her!" I was devastated when it happened, but when I look back I just laugh. Cyber bullying is a problem because the internet and technology gives people a sense of security. People are much more likely to send a threatening text to someone then say something to someone's face these days."" - 19 year-old girl from MN

""I was at this anime site where peopled bulled non stopped in this chat room. All they did was tell me how stupid i was for a year. But then i would go back because people where nice to me. I've went there for a year people keep yelling at me calling me stupid stupid stupid stupid stupidstuipd stuipd but I was addicted to chatting. Now I've been banned thank god and is freeeeee."" - 15 year-old girl from IL

""Whenever i get on Facebook all i see on people's pages are people getting bullied and it is so upsetting. i have gotten bullied through I'm on Facebook to and it hurt..."" - 13 year-old girl from IN

""I was bullied on the internet and it made me feel like I wanted to kill myself. I have MySpace and not Facebook, but a friend of mine has Facebook and there was a class photo that I was in, and this guy from my school that I don't even know wrote "isn't that eco girl i thought she left last rofl". I am really quiet in school, so I only speak to like 3 or 4 people but i thought that was offensive because i once liked green peace in 8th grade but what was written on fb was in 12th grade!!! then this other guy wrote "yeah it is and in the other photo she is smiling. i didn't even think she knew how. Very rare indeed" and another said "very rare indeed. my god". the whole time ppl would show me fb, no one had ever commented on anyone else so rudely. Ever. Thank god I graduated by now, but it still makes me upset and feel worthless. Sometimes I just think I should get plastic surgery or die my hair so that none of those jerks will ever recognize and hurt me again! Seriously."" - 18 year-old girl from VA

""Ok well this is more like an ongoing thing. A month or so ago my girlfriend dumped me, ok that's nothing bad but she started to threaten me with the law over a t-shirt and a couple dvd's that i probably don't even have. She's been getting worse and worse ever since we broke up. I need to know what to do. it's getting way too far out of hand. I've asked her to leave me alone, never worked. I've tried to block her number somehow that didn't work either. If she can't text me she sends me emails, it's me, or messages me on my yearbook or MySpace. I'm normally a level headed person which is why I'm doing this. I just want it to stop.”" - 16 year-old boy from MO

""I had just moved to a new school in san Antonio called Harlandale.It was my second day of school and all of a sudden people were calling me a bitch and taunting me all the time. Random girls woyld try to fight me, boys called me ugly and said I had an STI, and some girls even pulled my hair and puched me. It got worser as time passed. I told my teachers, peers, the counselor and even the principle, but no one cared. I was beyond depressed and tried several times to commit suicide. I had never felt such pain inmy life."" - 11 year-old girl from San Antonio, TX

""I'm not going to lie, I'm not the prettiest girl out there, but when people tell me that online, it really hurts me. The fact that I don't know who they are extremely bothers me. It could be the girl next door, someone at school, or even my friends. For me, the internet is stressful. Thing shave been leaked out that I would not like people to know. This makes me on edge every time I share information with my best friends. In fact, after a while of this bullying, I stopped talking to people completely. Isolation seems to be the only remedy that helps. There have been many occasions where I have tried to confront my parents, but they're quite ignorant (not being mean) when it comes to the internet. I can't just quit getting online, because the internet is the only way to get away from everyone. I don't like being around people, due to my extreme cases of bullying on and offline. Only certain people do I feel comfortable around. Those most likely similar tome. I wish people would just have a sense of sensitivity. Maybe this would prevent some bullying. When teens do cruel and harmful things to others, it makes me feel as if they don't have much of a heart. I know they do, but they need to show compassion once in a while and take a minute to think if they are hurting others."" - 14 year-old girl from IL

""On MySpace a friend of my friend sent a friend request to me, I accepted even though I didn't know her, if she was friends with one of my other friends she'd be OK. But the next time I got on MySpace I noticed I had a comment. It was the same girl I added earlier, and for no provoked reason, she commented on my picture that I was ugly. I denied the comment and deleted her from my friends list, but for the rest of the day that comment secretly bothered."" - 14 year-old girl from IL

""I'm sure you've all heard about this new site formspring.me. It's a truly horrible site. It gives bullies a chance to verbally insult people without putting a face or a name to them. It wears people down after a while and only causes drama. I was harassed for a good amount of time on it when I had one. It caused drama between a good friend of mine and me. Thankfully we resolved it. People also thought it was their business to know about my boyfriend and I, and would constantly ask questions, and my parents also saw these too. Formspring.me should be deleted. It will only cause hurt for teenagers around the world."" - 15 year-old girl from CA

""I was on a social networking site and I was invited to a group that was about me and how no one liked me. I am now in therapy."" - 14 year-old girl from WA

""Being bullied is something I've had to deal with for a very long time. I learned that after a while you start to believe that what people are saying is true. Your ugly, you should go die, vampire, ghost, fatty, demon, your unwanted, you're not needed, no one cares about you, i wish you were gone then life would be so much better. I've gotten a few of those, the thing is though, and I've dealt with it since pre-k. Not many can say that now can they. The thing is though that you could go home and get away from that, but when you add the internet those hateful people find you even at home and then you can't escape those lies, and because you can't escape you start believe them. I probably wouldn't be here today if it weren't for my lack of strength to do something like that, and if it weren't for my only true friend that found me during the best possible time to save me from my withering mind. It still happens today, and every now and then i break down and cry thinking it would be better just to die but I'm too weak to do that."" - 16 year-old girl from USA

""I had left a comment on a picture on Facebook one afternoon, saying nothing that could be possibly hurtful. About five minutes later, A girl replied telling me, "Shut up, no one cares about what you have to say." This was a good friend of mine, who supposedly liked me. I responded saying, "Uh, where in the world did that come from?" She told me she hated me, and that I was a fat slut. She of all people should have known that I'm no good at handling critics. I knew this girl could be harsh, but none of her other friends would stand up to her. Instead, they all ganged up on me! A boy I never spoke to in my life then started a HATE group, about me! People whom I've never spoken to joined, and this girl who I thought was my friend took my pictures from my profile, and uploaded them onto the group, using mean and hurtful captions. During this time, I was already dealing with horrible depression, OCD, and General Anxiety. It made everything worse, and I felt like my suicidal problems were coming back. I would be too scared to even log into my email, in fear of being harassed by strangers. Eventually, after at least a month, Facebook deleted the group, even though I reported it long before then. I will never be the same because of this experience. Now, I know how badly it hurts to be bullied, and feel as if no one is on your side anymore."" - 13 year-old girl from NC

""This just happened recently. This girl i know keeps calling me flat chested and anorexic. I'm not either of them. She just does it to annoy me. It's getting old. Plus she is way skinnier and more flatter than me. She has no room to talk either. And then whenever i told her that what she was doing was immature, she still does it! And I will feel bad if i tell the teachers, because then a whole bunch of people will think I'm a baby. And I am confused about all of this."" - 13 year-old girl from WI

""The website CollegeACB.com needs to stop receiving revenues from advertisers and be shut down, because the website has become a place for cyber bullying. My daughter is the recipient of cyber bullying from this website from University students. It is a site for name calling, derogatory comments, insults, and humiliating words. How can a student show face at a university when this site postings and threads are anonymous, open to anyone to read? The site is being misused, and the terms of use and laws allow this and the owner of the site written words "they do not monitor or are responsible for the content". Changes need to be made."" - Mother of 21 year-old girl from CT

""My younger sister, a seventh grader, started getting texts from her so called "best friend." These texts consisted of "You're a whore." "No one likes you." "You can go die." My sister confronted these people and told them to stop, and then i said something to them also. She is proud she confronted them and they have stopped being meant to her. All of her friends stood up for her too, they knew it was wrong." " - 17 year-old girl from ID

""My son is 15. Some kid at his high school has posted a hate page on Facebook. I reported it 2 days ago but it has not been removed. It's obviously created by high scholars so I don't know why not. A few kids signed on to it. My son would not have told me about it but his friend told me. He said my son said he would be suicidal if people signed on to a hate page and there it was. I don't think he is suicidal. I know he and his friends are having a hard time with adolescence. I have seen these boys through their growing years and seen many instances of bullying among them -- which I have challenged them to change. My son says the kid who made the page wants to date my son's ex-girlfriend and is angry because she still "sweats" my son. Also another boy slapped my son a few weeks ago. He did not retaliate because: a) he didn't want to get into trouble with the school (they didn't find out anyway) and b) rumor was that this kid had a gun and was on outskirts of a gang. My son is a popular kid on the whole. He is an athlete, thinks well of himself, socializes possibly too much. But he's not a kid with all the advantages: we are struggling for money and have never really had a middle class lifestyle despite my master's degree. Also my husband died one year ago. Schools never think my son is vulnerable because of his overt optimism and popularity by the way. "" - Parent of 15 year-old boy from OR

""My son has been resiliently harassed, humiliated, insulted, and persecuted by a class mate and his friends due to my son's religious and political beliefs; he has also attacked my son due to his physical appearance and weight. The bully went as far as to use my son's picture and full name to post a false message in which my son was "coming on" to him as if he was a gay person. He actually published this fabricated conversation on Facebook and lobot 'for all to see. He has defamed my son's character at school. The school has not be able to contain or neutralize this student's actions. They suspended him for a few days, but the teen continues to post comments about my son. Facebook has done nothing to stop the harassment despite constant complaints from us. The school administrators fails to see the connection between the cyber bullying and the promotion of a hostile environment at school. The bullying is such that we are considering a civil suit against the bully. The behaviors has affected my son's self-esteem and desire to go to school. My son used to be an honor students but his grades are suffering. the Oregon Laws do not address cyber bulling. The school mandate to have a policy to address bullying only covers behaviors wile at school despite the fact that bullying behaviors at school and cyber bulling are heavily interconnected and are the continuation of each other."" - Parent of 17 year-old boy from Salem, OR

""I am currently 18 years old, but most of the bullying in my life occurred when I was in elementary school all the way through most of high school. Growing up, I was one of the few Caucasian children in my school. I was bullied constantly about that. People would constantly try to push me around, and threaten me. I felt horrible about the fact that I was white, so much that I started to resent myself for it. I can remember back to the third grade when I got so depressed about having to go to school and face the other children that did nothing but belittle me. I stopped going to school for days at a time. On average I would miss about 8 or more days in a month. I moved to a different town, where I thought things would be different seeing as I was no longer the minority. Eight grade proved to be even worse than the school in my hometown. I moved from the ghetto to a suburban town. This made me an even bigger outcast than before. I got picked on, pushed around, and verbally abused. The teachers and principal refused to do anything to the girls that were constantly putting me down because of the deep pockets that their parents had. I became suicidal by the time I was 13, but at the same time my focus was also on revenge. Every time I got picked on I wanted to target the abuser, I wanted to get even. High school came, and it got worse my freshman year. I stopped going to school any chance I had. On average I attended maybe 1 full week at a time. It got so bad that I had to be pulled out of a regular high school and put into homeschooling."" - 18 year-old girl from CA

""I've been cyber bullied for ages by different people. A lot of the people who I thought were my friends actually ended up stabbing me in the back, and hurting me. I couldn't go to school without thinking all day about these hurtful comments that they said about me. I just wish that I could be invisible from all of this sometimes, but I have nowhere to go in real life either since I'm a social outcast."" - 15 year-old girl from USA

""After a dance recital I was in, this girl who also danced that day instant messaged me on AIM. I don't know how she got my screen name because I had never given it to her. The words she typed into that chat box still echo in my head, two years later. She called me a "frizzy haired freak," "fat," "ugly," and a number of other things. I blocked her but then she either made another screen name or had one already and IMed me yet again saying even worst things. I only told one close friend of mine what had happened. I responded back in the conversation a couple of times saying "Why are you doing this?" and after a couple things she had said I responded "You're not perfect, so why are you pointing out my imperfections?" and at the end of the conversation I said "Thank you very much for putting my down so much that I can't stop crying." Now I had not been one to even think about self-injury but it's what I resorted in for the last couple weeks of school and for the past couple of years. Bullying online is the worst because if you have your AIM settings set to log the chats, then if you accidentally click the conversation, it will pop up for you to see it. Now I have not read the conversation since that day, but the words are just haunting. Even now when I see her, I drop my head down to my chest and stop talking and walk away. It's the worst feeling to feel inferior to a fellow student, but that's what has happened to me."" - 15 year-old girl from MA

""When I finished school my boyfriend and I broke up, he had been sleeping with another girl and after we broke up him, his friends and her friends would send me messages both on the phone and over the internet saying "you're fat" over and over. I got so many phone calls while I was at work and university. This continued for over 6 months and the police couldn't do anything. Aside from the cyber bullying I was also threatened with physical violence and my house and car were egged."" - 18 year-old girl from Sydney, Australia

""A girl in the year under me sent me nasty messages via Facebook. They were quite unfriendly and really made me feel bad - I'd never even spoke to the girl before them. She didn't know anything about me, still, she judged me. It's hurtful when people judge you for no good reason, when people make up lies about you, and when they isolate you. I've learned this the hard way." " - 15 year-old girl from UK

""My 11 year old daughter is in fifth grade and was called into the principal's office because a sixth grade girl had received a threatening email and the mother of that child had performed an internet search on the email and it came back with the name of my daughter and showed that she also had a Facebook account. My daughter has neither of these. They questioned her and believed that she was not involved. We found the Facebook accountant sent a friend request to it. The person accepted it. I asked this person, "who are you and where do you go to school?" They replied," your daughter and the name of her school" My daughter was standing next to me at the time, there is no way it could have been her. I was able to read the posts on the wall of this account and it had very vulgar language and even said "I love to have sex" What worries me the most is that this person has repeatedly added strange men to the site and when you pull up some of their pages they have pornography on them. Most claim to be from all over the world, but at least three list local addresses. I am very frightened for my daughter because now these strangers know where she lives and the name of her school. We have filed a police report, but until an actual crime has been committed, they will not investigate. The school has questioned several girls but was unable to find who is responsible. We have also sent Facebook complaints and a copy of the police report, but they have not responded and have not taken the site down. We were made aware of this over two weeks ago and the site just continues to grow. We are desperate to protect our daughter, but do not know what to do."" - Parent of 11 year-old girl from TN

""I'm 15, and I've been bullied by this one girl who accuses me of talking behind her back, when I really didn't. She has no respect towards me OR my best friend. I sometimes talk behind her back with my best friend, but I know that isn't nice, and she does it as well. One day she came up to me, like she was up in my face saying ''SAY IT TO MY FACE!!'' and I was scared and didn't know what to do... thank god a teacher was nearby... we worked out the situation, and my final answer was to not be her friend anymore. She wanted to be mine, but after how she treated me, came up to me and almost hit me, talked about me online, I don't want that to be in my mind as we are 'friends', but all I can say is ''I'm done with her and how she treats me. She has no respect.'' and that I'm moving on. People who make you feel sad, stressed, and mad, and even worried... they really aren't your true friend... A true friend wouldn't make you feel uncomfortable now, would they? So don't let the small stuff get to you. Good Luck :)"" - 15 year-old girl from NY

""I went to check my e-mail and there was a message from some people in my old school sent these threatening e-mails some saying "we'll hunt you down at your NEW school and you'll never know what hit you" i felt very scared and at the same time i wondered how they knew my e-mail address. So i told a teacher at that school but then I remembered that at that school they do nothing about this stuff and they are still coming those e-mails."" - 13 year-old girl from Canada

""I joined some forums and found out how quickly people dislike those with talent. The stuff they said made me want to off myself. But I never would do that it would give them too much satisfaction. Though I did cut myself. Cyber bullying is the real deal."" - 17 year-old boy from NJ

""I posted a video of myself singing a song on YouTube, and then 5 days later I found a video that an "anonymous" person made that basically took my video, slowed it down, zoomed into my face, and this person made side comments in the video such as "she's so ugly" and "i hate her." It made me scared, because I didn't know who would do such a thing, because it looked like it took a lot of time and effort to make the hate video, so this person must hate me A LOT."" - 15 year-old girl from CA

""I think people who bully should get a life. Seriously i mean what is the point. In life you are not going to like everyone you meet but that doesn't give you an excuse to hurt them. I was once bullied by my so called "friends" they made me feel like crap. I kept it to myself. About 6 months after they started I thought hay there must be a reason they are doing it. So that night i went outside and screamed my loudest 3 times to let all the hatred, guilt, empty feelings out it worked. The next day I had very good mental strength and when the bullies came up to me I said hay leave me alone you know the reason for your attempt to hurt me but why. They didn't answer they were so surprised they walked away after that they left me alone. The moral of this is to have a strong mental mind and you will have the best feeling and the bully/s will leave you be. to all the victims out there stay strong!"" - 13 year-old girl from Australia

""A friend of mine who is still in middle school is currently being harassed online. People are telling her daily to kill herself, and I can see her breaking down more and more. I told her to surround herself with friends and that it is perfectly okay to fall on them when times are hard. Unfortunately the messages she is receiving are anonymous, but her friends are keeping her strong."" - 14 year-old girl from NY

""Apparently, I look like a panda so kids at my school took it upon themselves to refer to me as panda express and "enjoy" the skateboard brand. At first I would just brush it off but then it genuinely started to get to me. I would go home and cry about it. I was already going through major problems at home but, getting called a panda at school would just make things hell for me. Then I got a form spring where i received comments telling me to go kill myself and that every time i walk the whole earth shakes. I wanted to kill myself. One night i was sitting there on my computer just shaking and crying so bad that i was ready to kill myself. I felt like nothing else mattered and everyone hated me. I had never done anything to these people for them to hate me so much that i don't deserve to be alive and i didn't get it. One day, I went to a concert and met every person i wanted to meet i even got kissed by some band mates I realized that in 10 years these people won't matter at all. I realized they were going to become nothing and by them doing that to me was terrible and that karma would get back at them."" - 15 year-old girl from NC

""It all started with a silly argument on 'windows live messenger'. Name calling us just it at first. Then they all added there older, tougher friends into the conversation. It began to become scary, the older kids were threatening them. Promising to kill them. They all left the conversation, hoping it was just a joke, and saying: they want touch us. The day after they all got texts, saying: were coming. That's when they started getting worried. More texts came through but just to one now. It's you that we want' it said. They picked the smallest out of the gang, everyone was scared. The walk home from school was normal. No trouble from anyone. They girl went to the park, but some went home. The next day at school she came in with a black eye. 'They got me' she said crying. Cyber bullying is serious." " - 12 year-old girl from England

""Hello, I have this model called the iPod touch. Over the years i have been cyber bullied with this chatting game called ‘Tap Tap Revenge' i think this is very unacceptable behavior of the bully, I was very upset with this because this specific bully was making funny of my skin color, I personally think that was very mean and cruel."" - 11 year-old girl from WA

""A boy my daughter has known for years left comments on her Facebook page that was extremely disturbing. He told her (and anyone else readingher wall) that the world would be a better place without him, that all of his pain would be gone and that he was sick and tired of bi--ches lying to him. He wrote several lines of extreme profanity and a graphic sexual comment. One of his last comments was "someone is going to die". Icontacted the local police who called the boy's home phone. The officer contacted me and told me what had happened and that because he could not locate the boy's home address there was nothing further that can be done. I spoke with my daughter and she removed his name from her 'friends' list and told me she would not text him or contact him again. My daughter told me she didn't want this boy to know someone in her family had called the police. She denies being afraid of this boy because she said he always says these kinds of things but he doesn't really mean them. Where do I go from here?"" - 15 year-old girl from WA

""Have been cyber bullied but at the same time sexually harassed online. It started off with things being instant messaged from a boy in my class that was inappropriate but then they got worse. There were vulgar pictures, videos, songs, etc. sent to me. I didn't report him for a year. That was wrong to do, so once they got more threatening and violating i reported him to a teacher and to the police. I had to go to a small trial and he was found guilty i turned out okay but always report cyber bullying."" - 12 year-old girl from NY

""I had chosen to give my Facebook password to one of my "best friends" she was friends with a girl that i had been having some bullying problems with. One day my "best friend" was at my enemies house and decided to get on my Facebook and delete all my pictures and they took a picture of this boy that i really liked and put it as my profile picture. they wrote "i miss you" "i am in love with you" ";i cry over you all the time" all over my profile. So all my friends saw it. and they also posted a video about me on YouTube saying that i copied their hairstyle (i had it 4 months before them) it was all really stupid but it hurt me so bad."" - 12 year-old girl from NC

""I was talking to one of my friends on Facebook and I had no idea what was going on. I thought she was my friend but I was wrong. I talked to my parents about it and they told me to do what I thought was right. So I decided to go to my school principal and she called her down we started to talk and she said it was all a lie and that it was her friend. Ever since I was little I have been getting bullied and It caused me to feel bad about myself. I still am getting the same treatment. I asked her if i did something wrong and she just looked at me and walked way. I heard her gossiping about me and saying rude things. I found out that my guy friend was also a part of this. He took one of my pictures off of Facebook and photo shopped it. It hurt me really bad. He shown it to all the guys at my school and all the guys called me a slut a bitch a hooker and a whore. One of the guys kept harassing me and I just did not know what to do."" - 13 year-old girl from FL

""I'm being harassed nonstop by so called friends from my elementary school, and people I don't even know but somehow they got a hold of my number. I am keep getting name called such as fag, douche bag, small dick, etc."" - 15 year-old girl from Mississauga, Ontario

""There were bad comments made about my daughter on topix.com that she had been sexually active with several people and she named listed as the topic in my small town. How can topic be stopped. They don't sensor anything that anyone says and this has given my daughter a bad reputation because it's not true."" - 15 year-old girl from KY

""Well it was Halloween and i stayed at one of my friend's house we when chipy and her mum gave me 1 for a bag of chips. We fell out the next day because she had the same hair style as me. A few weeks later she was sending me text is saying i owe her money if i don't give it her back she will batter me. The money she was talking about was the 1 her mum gave me. She written on Facebook that i am a tramp and i eat like a pig and calling me names all my friends at school fell out with me till they found out the truth."" - 11 year-old girl from Manchester, UK

""Being bullied makes me feel like I'm worthless i matter to no one everyday i deal with it doesn't get better and people find new ways to intentionally hurt you. Everyone should be aware. Mine started out with a rude comment in kindergarten and is continuing now in the ninth grade. People always have to say something mean to me its become a part of their day. My only regret is wishing i knew what i know now don't worry about what people say too much it will only drive you to who knows what. Bullies are getting smaller everyday i know of a bully who is only in the pre k level. Just because it's not life threat ending doesn't mean its harmless many people make the mistake of not listening to you that's how a problem can be ignored. because no one took my friend seriously, she now resides unknown all because of bullies." " - 14 year-old girl from NC

""My daughter was not only cyber bullied but our cars in the driveway were defaced and keyed. Phone calls and cell phone texts and every day harassment from two girls in her High school. I spoke with the principal, two assistant principals and the guidance counselor of the school, nothing was done about it because my daughter had deleted the information on her Facebook and her phone so they had nothing, even after one of the bullies confessed to some of it. This caused her to make some choices that affected her future, she is doing better now but her self-esteem is still low."" - Mother of 16 year-old girl from Boca Raton, FL

""Two of my friends didn't like one of our teachers, and we found out that she was on a dating website. So they created a fake guy that was perfect for the teacher and chatted with her and stuff. They even set up dates with her and then went to the meeting place to watch her get stood-up. They always had the guy come up with some excuse for not making it to the date in order to keep the harassment going. I felt really bad for the teacher when my friends told me what they had been doing, so I told her about it without telling her which students it was because I didn't want my friends to get into trouble. She was really hurt by it...I could see it in her reaction to me telling her. She thanked me and told me that telling her was the right thing to do, but she ended up quitting her job and we had a substitute for the rest of the year, who was absolutely terrible. My friends never got into trouble for it because they were never identified as the culprits. I sometimes think that I should have given up their names, but then they could have done something mean like that to me too. They didn't even know that I told the teacher or that they were the reason that she quit. It was terrible."" - 14 year-old boy from WI

""I am 13 year old girl who got upset with her best friend and made a very nasty picture of her. it involved her doing untrue sexual things with another girl. i am very ashamed of what i did and i apologized. We are now best friends again and we try to never bring up the horrible incident." " - 13 year-old girl from NJ

""Ok so i was in class and this girl beside me sent an email to everyone in my class and they were all laughing and i did not know why well people made all kinds of rumors but this girl said that i got a hotdog stuck in me which was so not true but ya know well they sent me emails about it and printed off pics of a hot dog and gave them to me it was the worst thing ever i was so upset and i told the principle and they did nothing is sucked so bad!!"" - 15 year-old boy from NC

""Well, I started a website about the principal and saying how much we hated him. No one ever threatened him but it hurt his feelings. Needless to say, even though I did no wrong, I got in trouble for making the website. Needless to say I don't regret making the website because everything on it was true. He really is a jerk. I do however wish the things that were said about him were said in a nicer way. Now instead of getting expelled I have to write a stupid paper on cyber-bullying. Which is how I got to this website."" - Boy from USA

""Hi I'm a 13 year old girl and its 2009 this whole year of school i have been getting bullied o this website called Tagged it's a fun website to be on and chat with your friends but when older guys start asking you to put naked pictures on there or starts asking what your body looks like to me it's hard i told them to leave me alone and they have just been harassing me 24/7 it's like I'm a punching bag i hate it they call me slut and whore an I'm sick of it and they even say worse words than that and it makes me want to kill myself bad because i can't take it anymore and i don't think it will ever change sometimes i wish it did though." - 13 year-old girl from Marysville, OH

""Sometimes I get insulted for no reason because i said my mind so then I get into a fight and feel good when i convince the person/change their perspective/prove I'm right because it shows I have an impact on people. Once I got into a huge fight because these girls were bullying one of my friends and I tried to tell them to stop resulting in them insulting me very badly but me getting insulting them all the same. They made threats to beat her up, what else could I do? They printed out what I said but not what they said and showed the principal. I got in a lot of trouble but talked my way out of it telling the TRUTH (something THEY didn't do) and got let off with a warning."" - 20 year-old boy from VA

""I was at my house one day and i texted my friend well she said she hated me and she never waned to talk to me again and i asked why and she said because I'm a dumb bad word and had no friends and she said that i was lonely and hated by my parents my family and i got scared when she finally said either go kill yourself or she is going to come kill me by herself or someone else will for her so that night i want to bed my phone off and i turned it on in the morning and there were some more texts from her saying you need to die if you die no one care because everyone hates you finally it got to the point where i did want to kill myself so i blocked her number then got onto my email the next day and she sent me nasty messages and she hacked into my email and sent messages to guy that were so nasty i do not even want to say what she did and from then on i don't know what I'm going to do."" - 13 year-old girl from Marysville, OH

""I was bullied by these mean girls and they would tell me i don't deserve to live and that was a bitch and they would do all this mean stuff to me at school too.one day when i couldn't take it anymore i thought about committing suicide."" - 17 year-old girl from NY

""I get bullied every day and i just want to hang myself I'm thinking about it but i doubt i will."" - 14 year-old boy from USA

""When i was a little bit younger me and my 10 yr. old sister were bullied online what had happened was the person who i though was my best friend had lied and said they were not on a chat room well she ended up giving our phone number to a guy who was way older than us and he called our house it was scary because he called our house asking for my sister." " - 17 year-old girl from PA

""If you honestly feel that bad about yourself that you feel the need to harass other people...then you need to point blank get a life. If you're religious, then trust in God to give you some self-esteem. If you're not good luck with that. The bottom line is that saying mean things to make yourself good is malicious and idiotic. It only makes you look like a fool and be branded as an oppressor. So if you're one of them and have the AUDACITY to try and justify yourself. Save it for someone who cares because i know for a FACT none of the people here do. It may be wrong to judge but those who commit this crime can't possibly have ANY character whatsoever."" - 17 year-old boy from USA

""I've never been bullied online, and I've never bullied anyone else online. People chose to use the internet for this because they're too cowardly to say it in front of you so they do it anonymously. If someone's going out of their way to do this, it's because something about you or something you have that they don't is making them so angry that they can't stand to see you happy, they're just compensating for something they don't have by trying to destroy it. E-mail addresses can be changed. Web site administrators can track IP addresses which can be used to locate the computer used to post that message. Keep log files of their offenses as evidence, report it to someone (parent, teacher, police), nobody will just stand by and allow this to happen and these people can be found and will be dealt with seriously. Don't let yourself just be a victim thinking nobody can do anything because it's online, don't do nothing in hopes it will go away. Don't give them the satisfaction of getting upset and yelling at them. Solve the problem in the real world, don't give them the satisfaction by responding to what they say."" - 17 year-old boy from Canada

""My story begins when a mother of one of my daughter's friends called me concerning two girls bullying our daughters at school. She began to explain that other girls have said that there was stuff written about her daughter on MySpace, and since she had no internet, she asked if I could investigate. When I went into the MySpace pages and started to read some things, I discovered that this one girls (one who bully's) had written about killing my daughter! I copied all of this right away so I could be armed with the information when I took it to the police station! They didn`t make a report. They sent me to the school and now the wheels are in action (I hope) for something to be done to punish these girls. I need some information on the cyber bulling law (if there is one) so I my plan my next step of action. I feel this girl should be punished for threatening my daughter's life. This is NOT a case of "girls just being girls"!!! I need to know what to do and where to go from here."" - Mother from USA

""My friends don't want me around and i have invaded their privacy by bebo and found out that they hate me but feel sorry for me and bitch about me. Everything i say to them goes around my school. They have taken over my bebo account more than once and sent messages around saying that i had a sex change when i went on holidays. They are the only people in my class that i hang around with and i don't want to lose them but i have become depressed and suicidal and am afraid that if I'm pushed over the edge then it will be too late."" - 16 year-old girl from USA

""My daughter was the target of cyber bullying. Although it occurred only once on the computer, I still consider it bullying. A group of girls downloaded her MySpace pictures and wrote hateful and obscene comments about her. They then sent it out to all of their friends. People began calling our home and telling us about the site. As soon as I called one of the parents, the web page began deleting--but not before a friend printed a copy of the first page of it. I didn't get all of it, but I got enough. These same girls continue to make references to my daughter on line, without actually saying her name, but we know they are talking about her. The worst part is that none of the parents will hold their daughters accountable because only one actually did the typing. We are left angry, hurt, and paranoid about what these girls will do next. These people were supposed to be friends, but one got mad at my daughter and then a group of these girls just thought it would be funny to make this web page. What recourse is there? That's what I'd like to know."" - Mother from USA

""Hi - someone in the chat room that I frequent has been sending instant messages to my friends, telling them false things about me - for instance, I was told I called a friend from the chat room a "drunk" and a "dope head" - I smoothed that one over, but, this person has also taken to calling people at HOME and telling them to put me on "Iggy" and to not talk to me - she has also accused me of stalking HER, of reporting people to yahoo (which I have NOT done) - of paying for a search for her and her husband (again, NOT done, I DID do my research on a chat engine, to cover MY bases in this issue - but, it was all out there and available on the internet, public information). What recourse do I have to STOP her from doing this all the time? I mean, I spend HOURS in pm's explaining to people what I have not done, I have people mad at me, this is getting ridiculous, I have been coming IN this certain chat room for almost six years, she has been coming in there for 2. Please help! Don't tell me to just put her on ignore, she just pm's people with more lies, and I still hear about it, I want her to STOP. "" - 17 year-old girl from USA

""My child struggles with her weight. In whom she thought was two of her best friends she confided her weight during a sleep over and the next day it was posted on their bebo sight. How cruel can kids be. Anyhow, I see profanity and slam every day on the internet while kids are so called chatting, as a parent my kids know that i am going to step in and read what is going on at any given minute. More should do so."" - Mother from USA

""This one time this girl that was a lot bigger than me made me cries when i talked to her online because she told me if she saw me in school she was going to stuff me in a locker and that no one was going to find me for a very long time. I faked sick for a week and a half until i found the courage deep inside me to go to school. Nothing bad even happened. I was really relieved."" - 18 year-old boy from NY

""Cyber bullying sounds interesting and I wasn't aware of that until I learnt it in class so I did bully some kid because he had pissed me off. I didn't know the damages can be that severe but what I did served him right, keeping him on his toes as he seemed real tough and rude outside but inside he was nothing but a chicken and I did what he deserved although I personally don't support cyber bullying."" - 14 year-old boy from USA

""Hello i came out of the closet and not have my parents bullied me but many of the people at my school and many of the nuns in my parish have cyber bullied me and said i was committing a sin. But it's not my fault i love her."" - 13 year-old girl from USA

""I hate how AOL is a place for haters. I always go this certain chat room and I've been doing it since I was 14 years old. I don't know why I even started, because all I face is people who tease me, ex-boyfriends from online who side with my enemies and people who criticize my looks. I'm often told in real life that I'm very pretty, but when I go online people tell me otherwise, like I have a big nose or other things wrong with me. I finally know that none of this is true, and that the person doing it has issues with themselves."" - 15 year-old girl from USA

""I would like my story to be anonymous. I am a 14 year old girl who has been called fat online for many years. One day i was talking to my friend that i was pregnant. She sent the conversation to everyone and soon enough everyone called me pregnant. I got kicked out of school and i started to cut myself. i was admitted to a hospital and spent 5 months in intensive care until my baby was born. Cyber bullying ruined my life."" - 14 year-old girl from USA

""When i was 13, i started dating a boy from the next town over and apparently a girl from that town had a huge crush on him and was very upset with me when she found out that i was dating him. She started yelling at me and threatening me over msn instant messenger. She scared me so much and when i would try to block her address, she would just create a new profile and continue where she left off. It got to the point where i was scared to go to see my boyfriend in his town because i was scared of running into her and what she would do to me. I am from Ohio."" - 14 year-old girl from OH

""Being bullied really upset me. I hated the fact that people started to turn against me when I did absolutely nothing. Now I am a stronger person and I do not let anyone bother me. I just am myself no matter what. Always know that God is with you."" - 15 year-old boy from NY

""Please call me re:post on an ADULTs MySpace blog with a minor girls picture - with the word 'whore' written over it - it was up for approx. a week than the girls face was 'whited out' but still appears on site "" - Adult woman from USA

""People tell me that i am not good enough for my boyfriend and they mail me saying that they are going to kill me if i don't break up with him and i really love him so i don't want to break up with him"" - 13 year-old girl from TN

""People get bullied on the net all the time, if you can call it that. Only a fool would be hurt by it, everyone knows it's all done for the lulz." " - 16 year-old boy from USA

""I think it is wrong to be bullied over the computer. When I watched a movie in my health class a boy committed suicide by hanging himself from the shower i thought i was going to cry. And I didn't even know him but he was only 13 years old. My message is don't bully or hurt anybody else and don't commit suicide. If you are bullied tell somebody. Yes i was bullied over the internet and it hurt and i agree that sticks and stones make break my bones and names will never hurt me is a lie because names hurt especially when it is about your image like getting called fat. It is just wrong and i may have bullied but not on purpose and i regret everything i said so talk to someone if you're getting bullied and if you're a bully then STOP your hurting people!!!!!!!!!!!"" - 13 year-old boy from USA

""My name Monique i know how it feels to be bullied i have all my life but now I've became a peer mentor its where u give information out to people younger than u that needs your advice I'm aged 15 i wanted to help people like other people helped me i love what i do because I've experienced it myself"" - 15 year-old girl from Canada

""I know what it feels like to get bullied it is not fun and although people who get bullied bully people back it is still not right so please don't bully and keep safe 4-ever & always!!!!!!!!!!!!<3 love is the key not hate<3<3<3<3<3"" - 12 year-old from USA

""There is a website called www.g00ns.net and there objective is to do are Cyber Bullying Online, Destroying and Hacking other Server Properties. Is there any rule that we have the rights to sue them and bring them to court. If you read regards to the information is there objective is to do a lot of online terrorism. I have a Server and they just destroy all of the Menus. I set my security in to high. However, they can still get in my server and ruin everything."" - 18 year-old boy from USA

""I guess somewhere around where i live some kid committed suicide because he was being cyber bullied. I can't imagine what was going through his mind. Then the other day my friend was being bullied around and getting her computer hacked into and people that think they need to prove something or get equal with someone need to rethink it. Just forget about their insecurities and try to understand what they are going through because one day your payback might cost them their lives."" - 14 year-old boy from USA

""I remember it like it was yesterday, they called me names of which I could never feel comfortable with. It was already hard enough to deal with my sexuality but then they had to make it even tougher with names such as "fag", "gay boy", "Michael Jackson's b****". It was just too much to deal with and I even felt like killing myself at one point."" - 17 year-old boy from USA

""My daughter came home from school yesterday with some very disturbing news. Someone had gotten the password to her Yahoo account and sent sexually explicit e-mails to her friends, teacher, and family members. This is the first time we have dealt with this so I'm not sure what actions to take, but we've got a meeting scheduled with the school and I have contacted the police and I'm waiting for the investigators to call me back. If anyone could give me some advice I would greatly appreciate it."" - Father from USA

""Some people write mean things about me and they don't think I will find out, or they will make sure I will see it, it is so mean. They call me fat, ugly, nasty and i just hate how they treat me!!!" - 13 year-old boy from USA

""I have never actually experienced anything having to do with cyber bullying directly, but from what examples and stories listed in various places, I can tell this problem grows with the intensity and consequences of all other problems surrounding young people today. I wholeheartedly support efforts to abolish these senseless, demeaning acts."" - 16 year-old girl from USA

""I am now home schooled because i was so badly harassed for being bisexual I'm dealing with my problems now but it still sucks that i can't go to a normal high school because of my sexual orientation the worst part is that i would actually convenience myself that these people were right and it got to me so bad that i was 50 one 50ed for cutting my wrist i know now that there comments don't and didn't matter and i wish someone would have told me that a long time ago."" - 18 year-old girl from USA

""My daughter was devastated to discover a website called the I hate....(her name ) website on Bebo. It took us 5 months for Bebo to acknowledge that the site was willful bullying because they have so many sites. As it was an overseas site her education dept. in Qld stated they could not order it to be removed. The contents were so disgusting that when Bebo kept asking for more details we pasted the entire webpage and sent it, within 28 hrs. it was removed. Why doesn't Bebo screen the contents of each page? Because there are too many, thus the bullies have found the perfect way to bully until someone dies over this (suicide or murder as my daughter wanted to do) then there'll be an enquiry! Why have these free websites anyway? What moral, ethical and uplifting purpose do they serve?"" - Adult woman from USA

""I never realized how dangerous MySpace could be...It was foolish of me to put that suggestive picture of me in my bikini up. One day a guy sent me a message saying that he wanted to "do it" with me, and if I didn't he would tell everyone at school that I'm a little whore...I called the police after crying all day and talking to my parents."" - 15 year-old girl from Canada

""I use to be cyber bullied; it makes you feel cared and vulnerable. I didn't like the feeling at all. The girl that was doing it got all of her friends to gang up on me and harassed me at school and posted embarrassing pictures of me online. I believe children chose to cyber bully because you aren't really talking to the person, you are writing. It isn't as scary to write something and not to look at them. I believe cyber bullying should be stopped before it led to scary situations than the ones that we've heard of."" - 18+ year-old girl from USA

""I'm Nicole I'm in 1st year / 10 grade i get bullied by these girls at school they found out my msn and bullied me every time i block them they found new ways to bully me one day i told someone and it changed everything the girls can't go on the computer anymore and I'm so happy that i told."" - 14 year-old girl from USA

""My daughter was informed that a website was developed about her. When we visited this awful site, I sent her out of the room and read all the horrible comments and untrue stories they had made-up about her. She is ten years old and a sweet person with a big heart. She is trying not to let this bother her, but honestly how does one do that? It is difficult for me to understand how someone could be so hurtful. Why would you spend the time to create an entire webpage full of ugly things to hurt someone?"" - Adult woman from USA

""My friend started bullying me online ever since the summer had begun. She'd been calling me an ADD freak, sped ("special ed" for short), lesbian, and gave me credit for writing the worst songs ever made. She said she rocked, she was so good, and I was so terrible at guitar. Now the upcoming party on my schedule, might give me a chance to grab a microphone and give away the horrible secret of this girl."" - 13 year-old girl from CA

""October 9, 2006 my 17-year old niece, Rachael Neblett, took her own life after being bullied and stalked on MySpace. Six months after her death, Rachael's close friend, Kristin Settles, also committed suicide from depression. So, in an indirect way the bully cause two teenage deaths and destroyed two families. The families, along with community members in Mt Washington, KY have created a non-profit organization to spread awareness of cyber bulling and suicide. Our website is www.makeadifferenceforkids.org"" - Father of 17 year-old girl from Mt. Washington, KY

""Whenever I speak my mind on the internet I am bullied for it. I have many hobbies that I like to share and I am put down for them. It makes me want to throw those hobbies away because it has been happening ever since I started posting my work on the internet. I get bullied for the way I look and for what I like to do. Just because I am not as good as some people out there at my hobby doesn't mean you have to bug me about it until I give up."" - 22 year-old girl from Canada

""Being bullied, whether in person or online, can make you feel horrible. I know it made me feel terrible. It lowered my self-esteem, and I can still remember the painful words that were said to me. Personally, I don't know if I'll ever recover from the emotional blows. Other times, I would just become a target for speaking my mind, and receive instant messages with nasty comments. For a long time, I've believed that there's some good in everyone, but now I am not so sure."" - 18 year-old girl from USA

""Well i was talking on MSN on time this girl msn me saying that I'm gay, ugly and worthless. That made me feel so horrible inside....like I'm actually worthless. But i talked to my mum about and she made me feel happy."" - 14 year-old boy from New Zealand

""This one guy in my school was bothering me, it involved blackmail (once using the private messaging system in an MMORPG), extortion, threats, name calling, slander, and many other things."" - 15 year-old boy from USA

""I was good friends with a boy before i moved, once i started to email him he began to be very cruel and i cried a lot because we were really close before i left ... i gathered up the courage to tell him how he made me feel and his response was that because he couldn't see me he felt more at ease saying what he really felt - let me tell everyone out there that in the outside world we don't sat things for a reason, people's feelings. If you can't say it to my face don't say it at all."" - 14 year-old girl from USA

""I used to be best friends with these two girls. Let's call them B and C. One day, B emailed me and said to check out this cool website. I went on and found that it was all about me. It said that I was a loser, a bad friend, an idiot and a backstabber. When I emailed B back she started saying that she didn't write that, it was all C but that it was funny and all so true. I then emailed C and she said it was all B. At that point, I just said "Forget it" and I stopped hanging out with them. It was one of the best decisions I ever made."" - 16 year-old girl from USA

""I am a 12 year old boy from Canada being bullied it makes me feel really sad and mad they call me names I need help I don't know what to do any more."" - 12 year-old boy from Canada

""One person has been harassing me on my aim instant messages and she has been using seven different screen name I blocked all of them and she always kept put new screen name to aim me.... she even harassed on my daughter (12 years old) for no reason... What do I do? Should I report cop about that?"" - Adult woman from USA

""A kid was sending my son emails on MySpace and saying that we were going to kill u and they kept doing then someone broke in to our house but it was one of Billys friends."" - 13 year-old boy from USA

""I have never been harassed but I'm scared it's going to happen...i heard that people get their pictures taken and videos are being made when you are changing in the locker room when you don't know it and I'm kind of paranoiac but that so now i go and change in the bathroom stalls. I hope I'm not going to get my picture taken when i don't know it...signed unknown from Cali..."" - 15 year-old girl from CA

""Hi i have been teased and gossiped about my weight and face and its really sad Because the Girls who bully me because they are jealous"" - 13 year-old girl from USA

""Yes, i am a mother of a 21 yr. Old daughter, who has 2 beautiful baby boys and a boyfriend. The oldest boy's dad is crazy and has been sending text containing verbal harm messages and even a text holding a gun and a message to the boyfriend and just wanted to know what we should do. i worry about the babies"" - 21 year-old girl from USA

""I got bullied for being popular. you wouldn't think it would happen and neither did i, but i got targeted for having boyfriends other girls wanted and for going out with guys other guys were jealous of. People disliked me because i was happy with myself. Looking back i guess they wanted the self-confidence i HAD. it hurt but i lay low. i guess it got better, but of course there is the event of them never forgetting what they said about you in the first place, i still deal with that today."" - 14 year-old girl from Australia

""Being bullied on websites on YouTube makes me sick since they can post rude comments and make hate videos to humiliate you there nothing but a bunch of stupid high school jocks."" - 23 year-old girl from NM

""When i was in first grade there was this girl who bother me a lot she call me names and also tell me that my mom was fat and a slut it makes me feel bad and every time she told me that i cry and the kids laugh at me." " - 14 year-old girl from Middletown, NY

""I was talking to this girl on msn, we never met before but my cousin knew her. She started bullying me and saying I'm a spoilt brat, i need a new life, and my life is soooo miserable. I started to say things back to her, it really did NOT help. I'm not that strong in religion, so she started to say I'm going to go to hell and i will live an even horrible life if i don't believe in god. She was saying more stuff to me that i don't even think I should put down. It lowered my self-esteem, i couldn't stop think about it. I don't think i should have said anything back, it just made thing worse... But it is tempting to say something back. I suggest you block them straight away, even if you do really like them, because they will just do it again and again and again."" - 11 year-old boy from Australia

""Well once i was on MySpace and this kid started saying bad words and he said that he was going to kill me i was scared."" - 12 year-old girl from Goshen, IN

""My old friend KC cyber bullied me all the time she would cuss me out and say really hurtful thing one day she texted me and said she was going to tell everyone my secret i was scared outta my mind she was going to tell my friends i was on medication for HIV then i told my mom about it and she told her mom and she told me that she would never do it again but we were never friends again."" - 15 year-old girl from Daytona Beach, FL

""My ex-friend was telling everyone online that i was a fag and said that i didn't deserve to live everyone made fun of me and wanted to kill myself it hurt so bad but i switched schools last year and gotten better."" - 17 year-old boy from NY

""I think everyone has cyber bullied, with or without realizing. And that is okay...if it doesn't go too far and you learn from your mistakes. Well in truth, I was a cyber-bully. I thought it was just fun and harmless since they never seemed to be hurt. After a while though, I felt guilty and I didn't know why. Then I heard of cyber bullying and I knew I was doing it. I quit then and there, with apologies and left those websites. Later on though, I became the victim. I was on a website, and some people I didn't know seemed to just choose me to target. They weren't really threatening, just annoying. After a while it got worse and worse and worse, and finally I snapped and got them reported to the websites moderators, and then I left that website as well. What I have learned? You can use the internet for good and bad, but the worse you use it for, the worse you will feel."" - 12 year-old boy from USA

""I don't like any form of bullying at all. I am bullied every day at my school and I don't even get a break. A few days ago I even got a trash can put over my head and then they started kicking it. I HAVE BULLIED ALL OF MY LIFE AND NEVER AMITTED IT. That hurts me more than the bully's because that is the main reason my self-esteem is very low." " - 13 year-old girl from TX

""I've had my Facebook for 3 or so years. i woke up one morning and someone had clearly hacked it. My name was whora cum-stain, and there were some very hurtful things posted about me on there. The internet is a clear target for someone to get hurt. It's clearly very easy to access your information. I don't have a Facebook anymore and I'm starting to appreciate not having one. I never want to go through that again."" - 16 year-old girl from Canada

""I was bullied at school all those years ago. I still feel powerless and afraid of those people, I still feel they are better than me, have more than me etc. I still feel like I'm a loser who is a doormat. I hope I can stop feeling like this one day, but I see these people and I feel afraid again."" - 41 year-old man from Australia

""This happened a few months ago maybe early September. A friend of mine slept over my house and asked to use my cell phone. I gave it to her and she began texting someone. I took back my phone and began texting whoever it was thinking it was a guy. But no it was some girl. We began fighting through texts and she began calling me some nasty names. I felt so horrible i wanted to kill myself after what the girl said to me."" - 13 year-old girl from PA

""Well i was best best friends with this girl and i never knew that she was bullying my other friends so i always hung around her and i had no idea what was going on behind the scenes and if my friends told me what was happening i would just tell them she doesn't do that she's nice then a few months later everyone got really mad at me and i was so sad then she ganged up on me and was hurting me in horrible ways i can't count how many times i cried, after i realized what was happening my friends stopped being mean to me but that ex-friend is still horrible and i always felt like saying something mean to her but my mum always said "write it and delete it " so i didn't ever send anything bad to her but she sends me nasty Emails, I have told lots of teachers but because she always acts like a goody-2-shoes they won't believe me and won't tell her this is wrong to be mean. So please everyone who has bullied think about this and what i have said."" - 11 year-old girl from Australia

""My name is Donna Faye Witsell. My daughter is Hope Sterling Witsell. She of course as you already know made the BIG mistake of sending a nude photo of herself to a boy she liked and trusted. That was not the beginning of her being cyber bullied. There is much more to Hope's story than what has been public at this point. I appreciate what you are doing. If I can be of any help to you know that, I have a new mission for the rest of my life. That is to be Hope's Voice and do whatever I can to help others to know that there is Hope and suicide is NEVER the answer."" - Parent of 13 year-old girl from FL

""About two years ago, I was cyber bullied. Former friends of mine posted hate blogs, and most recently I found a YouTube video of them burning my picture with the theme song of I hope you die. The funny thing is the video was posted nearly two years ago. The scary thing is, even though I survived it. I pray that my college professors will not look up my name. If they do they will find it. To me this is a serious concept. I flirted with the idea of taking my own life during the time. That's the thing. Information spreads fast. With me it was no different. I was being attacked in my own living room."" - 16 year-old bo from USA

""I get a haircut. And I'm a cheerleader and i get lots of layers, i tease them and i thought that they looked really cool. The next day i go to school wearing skinny jeans and neon stuff you know, the works. About 3 days later, i get an email witch is making me want to die. It says quote, That doesn't mean cut yourself because of your pathetic ugliness. It means stop and be your old seventh grade self, not some raging popularity whore you think people like. I hate myself. i don't know how this happened. This isn't making any sense. I don't get how this happened; i don't even know this person. Now everyone hates me. I never did anything for this to happen. I just want to die. After hearing how ugly and stupid i am i never want to do anything anymore. I have no confidence and i have been broken down from head to toe."" - 13 year-old girl from MN

""Well I've noticed that this kind of thing doesn't get that much notice it's sad. As of right now i am thinking about killing myself i created a twitter account and at first everything was fine until i ran across some people who don't like girls who consider themselves "Barbie's" at the time i didn't but they started using my @ name in everything saying that I was ugly and a lot of mean things i ended up blocking them and reporting them but i don't think they take this type of thing serious enough. i have a few screen shots of the things these guys started saying about me that was pretty much the last straw.. I'm trying to hold on but I'm pretty much done with this life. Jesus is taking too long and I'm ready to leave. I just don't want to take my own life and end up in hell."" - 17 year-old girl from Clinton, NC

""Our daughter has been bullied since the 4th grade. Back then the bullying included everything from giving her the 'stare' down', giving her the silent treatment, (she would often eat lunch alone and go an entire day at school with not one girl in her grade speaking to her), and magnets placed on her school locker saying 'cry baby' stay home etc. It has progressively gotten worse over the years, and although I am so proud that she wasn't afraid of sharing her pain with me from the beginning, as soon as I contacted the school for support the bullying got worse. Recently, it has involved cyber-bullying in horrible hurtful ways through text messaging. Again, I have contacted the school because the text messages are being sent to other students about my daughter during the school day. I have asked to meet with the principal and have yet to have received a response. I also went on-line and pulled up the school policy manual. Sadly, it has not been updated since 2003. I think many school are at risk for potential serious lawsuits if they do not take this seriously, as my daughter is only one of thousands of young people who are being bullied. Has my daughter been affected by this? WITHOUT A DOUBT. She has been in therapy because like so many of you know and are aware; WORDS do affect people and often in extremely severe ways. Not everyone can 'brush it off' and move on, and they shouldn't have to. I know firsthand that if an anti-bullying committee would ever to be set up at this school, the girls doing the cyber-bullying would be sitting in the front row. I say these sarcastically because the one's doing the bullying are blindly loved by teachers who don't have a clue what is going on. Having procedures and punishments in school for using a cell phone or computer to bully other students should not be an option to school administrators, it should be required. I strongly think though in this small state that often is so slow in everything...that it sadly will take a suicide for something positive to happen."" - Parent of 17 year-old girl from ND

""You people that are being bullied need to stop listening to other people i truly think it's not rite and the bullies need to stop... Because just in case they haven't notice there has been a major increase of teens suiciding them self's... It breaks my heart when i here that teens or even adults are suiciding them self's because, they are getting made fun of or are getting picked on whatever the reason it breaks my heart when i here that people have killed themselves because of it. Also because of the bulling people have gone to the extreme they have gone and killed people at their school like for example the columbine high school massacre... that occurred in 1998 i believe it was these 2 students that got picked on and they took matters the wrong way. Well you guys can research it if you guys are interested i recommend you guys do especially those bullies out there to see what that can cause people to do. But i believe that these two boys were crying out for help but no one would listen. Well there's much more i have to say but don't want to write a whole page on here but if you guys feel the need to talk to someone here's my email address we all have things we need to let go. It can be about anything problems with family anything I'm a person that is here to listen and help you" " - 16 year-old girl from Corcoran, CA

""When i was in high school, i went through an extremely rough time. When i first arrived to high school on the first day of grade 8 i was excited, nervous and scared (in the end, i was scared for all the right reasons). My friends from primary school said that i would hang out with them on the first day. However when push came to shove, the girls that were so called my friends, found another group of girls on the first day to hang out with, and i was left with nobody. Just me, all alone on the first day of high school. I met up with a girl called Shannon* on that first day as she was in my home room class. She was nice and invited me to hang out with her and her group. Little did i know what i was getting myself into? Weeks went by and the girls were discussing topics i had not even discussed with my parents before.. Sex, boys (the things i just was not into at the time. Peer pressure got the better of me. They were all teasing me because i had not had sex and i didn't have my period. I wasn't classified as one of them, because i didn't have my period. I felt left out. So i pretended to have my period so the teasing stopped. That weekend i was invited out to a party, and i begged my parents to let me go, because i was struggling to make friends. "Yes as long as your home by ten". My heart raced with excitement. I met Shannon and the girls at this person place and i was amazed to see things i had never even imagined. Drugs, sex and a whole lot of craziness." Try some pot" Shannon said. "No thanks, not really interested". She punched me in the face, a range of anger bursted out of her. "Try it, or u mas well leave". (If i had known then what i know now, i would have just left. I tried it and the effects were that bad i was taken to hospital. Shannon had punched me so hard across the face, i had internal bleeding to my brain and the effects of the pot made me out of control. These girls made me cut my hair, try drugs, drink excessively and have sex early in life- just so i could be accepted. Girls, and boys, DONT FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO BE ACCEPTED WITHIN A GROUP, BE YOURSELF AND DO NOT LET PEER PRESSURE GET THE BETTER OF YOU. That is my story, and i am just hoping somebody out there can read this, and find that you don't have to do everything to suit everybody else. Be true to yourself."" - 17 year-old girl from Australia

""I had a huge crush on this really popular guy. Shy, plump girl with glasses and acne. I started to contact him through AIM hoping for a magical ending. Then later I talked to his friends and to make a long story very short. I was harassed and teased through Facebook and AIM, told I was ugly, fat, no guy would ever like me, that I was a female dog, to go cut myself, and even received death threats. Granted, I reacted and said things I would never usually say, but since that year I always think a part of me has died and I will never be as I was before. Did the school do anything to help? Did my parents understand that Facebook was my connection to the rest of the school? An addiction? It's so stupid, as I look back on it, and I know I made mistakes, but no one deserves to be verbally and mentally abused via the internet or anywhere else."" - 15 year-old girl from USA

""So it all started in the middle of my 8th grade year and everything seemed like it was going great. I met some friends from my dad's neighborhood and became really close friends with these boys. Some of my friends also began talking to them and we all became really good friends. On day at school one of my close friends came up to me and ask if the rumor about me was true? I told her i didn't know what she was talking about. She explained to me that the there was a rumor going around about me that I put peanut butter on my private parts and my dog licked it off. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever heard and I couldn't even bare the tears that were running down my face. That entire day people kept calling me "peanut butter girl" and asking if it was true. People even threw peanut butter crackers at my lunch table. That year was probably the worst and I cried most of that year. I didn't tell my parents at first because I was embarrassed and thought it would just blow over and everything would be fine next year at high school. Well I was wrong it was stuck with me for all 3 years of high school and it is just never ending. Yeah sure it has died down and people have forgotten about it but there are just some people who will never let it go. I am now in my 3 year of high school and it is half way over and people still tend to bring it up once in a while. And it has gotten to a point where there is nothing I can do about it and i just try to ignore them. I am almost finished with high school and hopefully it won't follow me to college. If anything like this happens to you don't be afraid to tell someone because hopefully you will be able to catch the person who started it. But that's the thing about cyber bullying no one really knows that started it. That's my story and it is horrifying and terrible but i have gotten through it and hopefully it will die down and people will be able to grow up."" - 16 year-old girl from Ohio

""I had this boy who used to like me. But I never liked him. So one day I asked my friend to help get him off my back. We invited him into this chat room and started talking about him. And at first he was defensive, then angry, then sad. He soon logged off. A few months later I learned about the pain of cyber bullying...and he admitted that he was so depressed about that day that he thought on suicide."" - 16 year-old girl from IL

""Miley a girl at my school. Posted something on MySpace that said "I'm going to bring a knife to school and kill Sarah" Later on that say the girl got arrested. She really brought a knife to school! A few days before this happened Miley and Sarah got into a fight and Sarah one. Throughout the day Sarah bragged about it. Then it lead to the comment on MySpace. Sarah would have died if someone hadn't stepped up! ALWAYS TELL SOMEONE IF YOU ARE BEING CYBER BULLIED! You might end up committing suicide! THESE NAME WERE NOT REAL I MADE THEM UP SO INFORMATION WOULDN'T GET PUTOUT!"" - 11 year-old girl from USA

""THERE WAS A PROBLEM WITH A GIRL STEALING MY iPod AND MY DAD DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ONCE I GOT THE iPod BACK THE GIRL GOT ME AFTER SKOOL THE BULLYING CONTINUES BUT I HOPE SOMTHING WIL BE DONE ABOUT IT ...THERE IS SOME CYBERBULLING INCLUDED."" - 13 year-old girl from Orange County, CA

""Funny how sometimes you think the worse bullies are girls. Try guys. I spent my birthday with 3 of my guy-friends. All three of them are against me. I can't anything without being told I'm stupid, etc. I can respond sarcastically, I can't respond playfully, I can't respond seriously. Everything is open for interpretation and I'll always look bad, no matter what."" - 17 year-old boy from Quebec

""When i first joined Facebook i went on an app called bathroom wall... i honestly thought it was just a place where people talked about random stuff, but boy was i wrong. It turns out it is a app designed specifically for gossip. I figured that out when i went on once and there was a chat group about me. it said up to 30 mean and hateful things, and at some points i just cried and cried, wondering what in the world i had ever done. the worst part was that it was all from " anonymous" senders. I remember quite clearly feeling horribly alone and i hope it'll never happen again."" - 12 year-old girl from Canada

""When i first got Facebook my friend helped me get it . She already had it and told me a good password i used it. Big mistake. The first year of middle school. She told the guy she liked my password and he went on my Facebook and wrote things like "I'm lesbian" or " I like Robert Pattinson" and more hurtful things my mom checked my profile and saw someone wrote that, knowing that i would never would do that she told me and i changed my password and about a week later i found out it was her. The she convinced my other friend that they weren't going to be my friend anymore. They turned almost everyone against me and i am having a hard time."" - 11 year-old girl from Canada

""This guy is really freaking me out; he says he wants to have sex with me on yahoo messenger. He keeps talking to me and i keep telling him to leave me alone. He goes to the other school, but my ex-friend is really mean and she told him where i live. I'm really scared that he is going to try to rape me now that he knows where I live. He really scares me on yahoo messenger and he won't leave me alone."" - 15 year-old girl from USA

""There was this girl who would try and ruin my life everyday online. By creating a fake account and make up some horrible lies about me. We had been best friends for years until she got really jealous and back stabbed me. I told my parents about it right away and I had a little help from my sister and got her to leave me alone by having a my fake lawyer call her and tell her that she could really go to jail. Then she stopped doing it."" - 17 year-old girl from ME

""Recently, I was very much hurt by cyberbullying. This guy I know, let's call him Tom, started to IM me. He said that his friend was over, let's call him Joe. And then, randomly, Joe starts insulting me. He calls me a loser and that I look like a potato. He curses and I feel like crying. The hurt was so real that I felt like throwing up. I hate IMing people now because I am scared of this kind of hurt."" - 12 year-old girl from NY

""Well, I myself was never cyber-bullied, but I know that in most cases, it's from someone you know in either school or public. Also, I know that most kids online aren't even old enough to be on."" - 14 year-old girl from PA

""My daughter was informed that a website was developed about her. When we visited this awful site, I sent her out of the room and read all the horrible comments and untrue stories they had made-up about her. She is ten years old and a sweet person with a big heart. She is trying not to let this bother her, but honestly how does one do that? It is difficlut for me to understand how someone could be so hurtful. Why would you spend the time to create an entire webpage full of ugly things to hurt someone?"" - Woman from unknown location

""Well I was talking on MSN one time...this girl messaged me saying that I'm gay, ugly and worthless. That made me feel so horrible inside....like I'm actually worthless." " - Girl from New Zealand

""I signed her up for a bunch of dating services and used my cell phone to take a picture of her in class and posted it on the web."" - 16 year-old girl from NY

""When I was a little bit younger, me and my 10 year-old sister were bullied online. What had happened was the person who I thought was my best friend had lied and said they were not on a chat room. Well, she ended up giving our phone number to a guy who was way older than us and he called our house...and it was scary because he called our house asking for my sister."" - 17 year-old girl from PA

""I was brought out for being a bisexual and made fun of, being told that I'm against God's will and am going to hell."" - 17 year-old boy from Canada

""Someone sent me numerous emails with like two words in the email like 'your gay' 'your dumb' and that kind of stuff. When I am bullied (which is infrequently) I am called homosexual or gay so I'm used to it but it still hurts."" - 14 year-old boy from Canada

""Sometimes I just feel ignored by my friends on chats. I'm sure it's just that they've got other people to talk to, and I totally understand that. It just makes me feel weird sometimes, but I'm a very talkative person, so that's probably why I felt a little sad. I'm passive though, so I probably won't say anything about it."" - 15 year-old boy from NM

""This girl I used to have a crush on but later realized I didn't like her said some very rude things about me. She made a list of the bad things about me and the good things about her, and put it on her Livejournal (online journal) for me to see. She had moved away, so our only means of communication was computer. We argued because I am straight edge and she's does drugs. She said that all these people hated me and that I should do drugs. She said that because I once told her I felt sorry for her (she had a lot of family problems and I knew drugs weren't the answer) and she took it the wrong way."" - 16 year-old boy from CA

""I was talking to someone in a chatroom and they started telling me things. Like was I really that stupid and making fun of me. I told them privately to please stop and they wouldn't. They then told me they were going to harm me and I was scared because I don't know how but they knew where I lived. I am scared sometimes. One time someone made me feel so bad that I wanted to kill myself because I believe those things that they said. My friends calmed me down and told me not to do anything dumb. I dislike it when people spread rumors online about you and it has happened to mostly everyone who chats."" - 17 year-old boy from CA

""I have never been a victim of being bullied online, but I once had a friend who was being bullied online. He was so angry and sad and he had every right to be. The kid couldn't even go online without being bombarded with degrading messages. He didn't want to read e-mails because of all the degrading ones."" -

""One of my friends started hassling me on MSN messenger. She was sending me nasty messages and text messages and this carried on at school. I told my parents, my friends, and a teacher. She was spoken to a few times but it still carries on a bit now but not as bad because I have blocked her online. This really affected me at home and at school. I couldn't concentrate on school work and I was always upset and down. Now I just ignore it and get on with it. I have plenty more friends and I don't need her anymore. Maybe one day she will give up and grow up."" - 15 year-old girl from Canada

""Random people I've never met before will flame my friends and I (that is, send is nasty, disrespectful messages) through the various different forms of online communication simply because they disagree with something I/we like (such as a webpage we made in honor of say... a certain character, or something)."" - 15 year-old girl from AZ

""I think that it is not right and that people need to have respect for other people as in the saying treat others how you would like to be treated. The people that do bully people just want to show of how much bigger and cooler they think they are. Bullying isn't just threatening or any thing else, it is spreading rumors and like sending mean messages with threats in them. If that does happen you should either block their email address, save them and call a local police to come and read it (they could serve time for hate mail). But one of the things you should not do is RESPOND TO THE HATE MAIL!"" - 11 year-old girl from TN

""Most people say it isn't bullying if you're not talking to them but it still is. It is annoying when people don't leave you alone or tease you. I think bullying is wrong because sometimes people get so down they think about suicide and some actually commit suicide."" - 12 year-old girl from UK

""People told me I was retarded, that I didn't fit in. This girl said that I was bitch and say that she wished I was dead. I never did anything to her but I got really upset and depressed and started cutting myself and started seriously considering suicide. I just ignored them but it still really hurt."" - 13 year-old girl from Australia

""I was online in a chatroom and this guy was sexually harassing me by saying stuff to me and wouldn't leave me alone. I had to exit the chat room and my email."" - 14 year-old girl from Canada

""It happened on MSN Messenger about a year ago...A girl threatened to kill me...She said she knew my family and where I lived...She'd come at 1 o'clock to kill me...Then she logged off...I called my mum and told her, she said I should try to find out who if was, if it continued we'd call the police. I sent an email to the girl, telling her I'd call the police. She replied and said she was sorry and she was only kidding. In front of her email address, there was her name! It was a girl in my class."" - 13 year-old girl outside of USA

""The last time I was bullied online, I was on MSN (instant messaging) talking to some people from school. Someone from my class who doesn't like me started talking sh** about me to everyone else. And a bunch of people that she had been talking to came and started harassing me. They were talking about how I had bad grades in math and how I bite my fingernails and other stupid stuff like that. They still say stuff about me at school and make things up about me and tell everyone."" - 13 year-old girl from Canada

""I was talking to a friend and she kept calling me fat and ugly and I couldn't stand it anymore so I blocked her but she kept coming up on different screen names calling me the same thing so I just signed off for two days."" - 13 year-old from CA

""I just tried to ignore her, but her e-mails kept getting even more threatening so I finally turned her into a teacher. I showed her all the e-mails and she was given a months detention."" - 13 year-old girl from the USA

""I was talking to 2 girls who used to be my friends we where talking about me because that's what they both started on about then they started saying things about me then went on a chat I was also talking on and started saying horrible things about me they used my screen name and everything. They even told one of my guy friends that I liked him since the day we met and he stopped talking to me I was both depressed and angry. I wanted to die. I wanted to leave everything behind. I blocked them and signed off the internet."" - 13 year-old girl from WV

""It was on a message/bulletin board where people chat. I had said something about my opinion and people thought I was stupid and immature. Also a photo of myself was somehow posted on there and there was severe tormenting and teasing by people of all ages. It was probably for fun but it made me feel terrible."" - 13 year-old girl from UK

""Kids seem to like to use IM to say swears and words they would never usually say out loud."" - 13 year-old girl from MA

""I was surfing the Internet and decided to look at my email. Kristina, a friend from school, said in a e-mail tomorrow watch your back we are coming for you. It made me feel so bad i started to cry. Nobody likes me."" - 11 year-old girl from CA

""Well the only reason I bullied is because the same person I was doing it to, did it to me like a week before. It wasn't the right thing to do but at the time it felt like I was getting revenge."" - 15 year old boy from USA

""However, I feel powerless to do anything because I am scared for my own safety."" - 12 year old girl from UK

""It's one thing when you get made fun of at school, but to be bullied in your own home via your computer is a disgusting thing for someone to do and I think anyone who gets kicks out of it is disgusting. It makes me feel badly about myself. It makes me wonder how people can be so rude and disrespectful of others and makes me lose faith in the human race. It decreases my self esteem and I often wonder what I did to make someone treat me that way."" - 16 year old girl from AL

""The bullying and torment on [AOL Instant Messenger] and on my websites made me feel absolutely terrible."" - 9th grader from SC

""When I still had AOL, this one guy asked me how I looked and wanted to know about my body and stuff and I just flat out told him leave me alone!!! I would "have reported him but AOL wouldn't even let me block him without parental permission so he bullied me and stuff online when ever I got on. I felt horrible. That was over four years ago and I still remember every thing he said to me. Every exact word. I felt awful. I hated it. I wanted to tell my parents but I was afraid that they would never let me chat again and I know that's how a lot of other kids feel. It is a bad feeling knowing that people that don't know you are judging you."" - 13 year old gril from VA

""One of my friends started hassling me on msn messenger; she was sending me nasty messages and text messages and this carried on at school. I told my parents, my friends, and a teacher. she was spoken to a few times but it still carries on a bit now but not as bad because i have blocked her online. This really affected me at home and at school; I couldn't concentrate on school work and I was always upset and down now I just ignore it and get on with it, I have plenty more friends and i don't need her anymore. Maybe one day she will give up and grow up."" - 15 year old girl from UK

""The internet is not a place to harass others or hurt them. The internet is supposed to be a place that is safe and fun for people, not a place to be criticized or harassed. I used to be bullied at school frequently and I was sometimes hurt so badly that I had to fake sick at school just so I could go home. One girl actually told me she would come and murder my parents and kill me personally. She made me cry so hard that I threw up. So, I know firsthand what its like to be bullied beyond your imagination."" - 12 year old girl from MI

""I was online in a chat room and this guy was sexually harassing me by saying stuff to me and wouldn't leave me alone. i had to exit the chat room and my email."" - 14 year old girl from Canada

""It makes me feel bad and rather depressed. Like I don't want to be a part of this world any more."" - 14 year old girl from NY

""Some girl in my class emailed me calling me a freak and a loser. It made me feel really depressed because I had other things going on too at that time. I told my dad and he called her up and spoke to her. He told her that i didn't read it yet, that it would crush me and that she should think before she does anything like that again. Well, she never did it again so i guess it worked."" - 15 year old girl from NY

""But I know because I have myself been bullied. It lowers my self-esteem. It makes me feel really crappy. It makes me walk around the rest of the day feeling worthless, like no one cares. It makes me very, very depressed."" - 12 year old girl from MA

""I still cry when I think of what she said. After awhile you start believing all of the things people tell you that aren't true. When I look in the mirror I wonder if I'm fat (I'm not) after what my ex-friend said."" - 14 year old girl from IL

""Being bullied besides over the internet is worse. It's torment and hurts. They say "sticks and stones may break my bones,but words will never hurt me." That quote is a lie and I don't believe in it. Sticks and stones may cause nasty cuts and scars, but those cuts and scars will heal. Insultive words hurt and sometimes take forever to heal."" - 14 year old girl from NJ

""My friend's friend started to make fun of my ethnic background, so I told him to stop disrespecting me. He ignored my plead and started to get even more verbally abusive. I ignored him but he started talking to me saying that I shouldn't f***k with him because he would beat my a** down in front of his friends."" - 15 year old boy from NJ

""I think most people who bully online just do it to act tough but since they're not saying it to someone's face makes them seem more of a wimp."" - 15 year old girl from NY

""I had recently picked on a old friend of mine, for what I will not reveal because it was unusually cruel, however she had done something to me that was equally as wrong or if not worse. I was disappointed in her, and for that I decided not to be a friend any longer and spread her deepest secrets to everyone, which made her look like a complete fool. I felt somewhat guilty because I had known her for years, at the same time it was a pay back and I think she learned from it some when it comes to attempting to mess around with me."" - 17 year old girl from Pennsylvania

""Being bullied makes me feel really bad, and I often get depressed later at home. I would also plot revenge and privately express my 'hatred' towards the bully, but I doubt I would really do anything about it...I don't usually go to adults to 'tattle' on people, even though I know it's not tattling, it's real."" - 12 year old girl from CA

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A majority of teens have experienced some form of cyberbullying, 59% of u.s. teens have been bullied or harassed online, and a similar share says it's a major problem for people their age. at the same time, teens mostly think teachers, social media companies and politicians are failing at addressing this issue..

For the latest survey data on teens and cyberbullying, see “ Teens and Cyberbullying 2022 .”

The most common type of harassment youth encounter online is name-calling. Some 42% of teens say they have been called offensive names online or via their cellphone. Additionally, about a third (32%) of teens say someone has spread false rumors about them on the internet, while smaller shares have had someone other than a parent constantly ask where they are, who they’re with or what they’re doing (21%) or have been the target of physical threats online (16%).

While texting and digital messaging are a central way teens build and maintain relationships, this level of connectivity may lead to potentially troubling and nonconsensual exchanges. One-quarter of teens say they have been sent explicit images they didn’t ask for, while 7% say someone has shared explicit images of them without their consent. These experiences are particularly concerning to parents. Fully 57% of parents of teens say they worry about their teen receiving or sending explicit images, including about one-quarter who say this worries them a lot, according to a separate Center survey of parents.

The vast majority of teens (90% in this case) believe online harassment is a problem that affects people their age, and 63% say this is a major problem. But majorities of young people think key groups, such as teachers, social media companies and politicians are failing at tackling this issue. By contrast, teens have a more positive assessment of the way parents are addressing cyberbullying.

These are some of the key findings from the Center’s surveys of 743 teens and 1,058 parents living in the U.S. conducted March 7 to April 10, 2018. Throughout the report, “teens” refers to those ages 13 to 17, and “parents of teens” are those who are the parent or guardian of someone in that age range.

Similar shares of boys and girls have been harassed online – but girls are more likely to be the targets of online rumor-spreading or nonconsensual explicit messages

Teen boys and girls are equally likely to be bullied online, but girls are more likely to endure false rumors, receive explicit images they didn't ask for

Overall, 60% of girls and 59% of boys have experienced at least one of six abusive online behaviors. While similar shares of boys and girls have encountered abuse, such as name-calling or physical threats online, other forms of cyberbullying are more prevalent among girls. Some 39% of girls say someone has spread false rumors about them online, compared with 26% of boys who say this.

Online harassment does not necessarily begin and end with one specific behavior, and 40% of teens have experienced two or more of these actions. Girls are more likely than boys to have experienced several different forms of online bullying, however. Some 15% of teen girls have been the target of at least four of these online behaviors, compared with 6% of boys.

In addition to these gender differences, teens from lower-income families are more likely than those from higher-income families to encounter certain forms of online bullying. For example, 24% of teens whose household income is less than $30,000 a year say they have been the target of physical threats online, compared with 12% whose annual household income is $75,000 or more. However, teens’ experiences with these issues do not statistically differ by race or ethnicity, or by their parent’s level of educational attainment. (For details on experiences with online bullying by different demographic groups, see Appendix A .)

The likelihood of teens facing abusive behavior also varies by how often teens go online. Some 45% of teens say they are online almost constantly , and these constant users are more likely to face online harassment. Fully 67% of teens who are online almost constantly have been cyberbullied, compared with 53% of those who use the internet several times a day or less. These differences also extend to specific kinds of behaviors. For example, half of teens who are near-constant internet users say they have been called offensive names online, compared with about a third (36%) who use the internet less frequently.

A majority of teens think parents are doing a good job at addressing online harassment, but smaller shares think other groups are handling this issue effectively

Today, school officials, tech companies and lawmakers are looking for ways to combat cyberbullying. Some schools have implemented policies that punish students for harassing messages even when those exchanges occur off campus. Anti-bullying tools are being rolled out by social media companies, and several states have enacted laws prohibiting cyberbullying and other forms of electronic harassment. In light of these efforts, Pew Research Center asked young people to rate how key groups are responding to cyberbullying and found that teens generally are critical of the way this problem is being addressed.

A majority of teens think parents are doing a good job in addressing online harassment, but are critical of teachers, social media companies and politicians

Young people have an especially negative view of the way politicians are tackling the issue of cyberbullying – 79% of teens say elected officials are doing only a fair or poor job of addressing this problem. And smaller majorities have unfavorable views of how groups such as social media sites (66%), other users who witness harassment happening online (64%) or teachers (58%) are addressing harassment and cyberbullying.

Teens’ views on how well each of these groups is handling this issue vary little by their own personal experiences with cyberbullying – that is, bullied teens are no more critical than their non-bullied peers. And teens across various demographic groups tend to have a similar assessment of how these groups are addressing online harassment.

About six-in-ten parents worry about their own teen getting bullied online, but most are confident they can teach their teen about acceptable online behavior

Parents believe they can provide their teen with the appropriate advice to make good online decisions. Nine-in-ten parents say they are at least somewhat confident they can teach their teen how to engage in appropriate online behavior, including 45% who say they are very confident in their ability to do so.

About six-in-ten parents worry about their teen getting bullied online, exchanging explicit images, but this varies by race, ethnicity and the child's gender

These parental concerns tend to vary by race and ethnicity, as well as by a child’s gender. Among parents, whites and Hispanics are more likely than blacks to say they worry about their teen being cyberbullied. Hispanic parents also are more inclined than black parents to say they worry about their child exchanging explicit images. At the same time, parents of teen girls are somewhat more likely than those with a teenage boy to say they worry about their teen being bullied online (64% vs. 54%) or exchanging explicit images (64% vs. 51%). (For details on these parental concerns by demographic group, see Appendix A .)

Pew Research Center measured cyberbullying by asking respondents if they had ever experienced any of six online behaviors. Respondents who selected yes to one or more of these questions are considered to be targets of cyberbullying in this study. Throughout the report the terms “cyberbullying” and “online harassment” are used interchangeably. ↩
A 2017 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults also found age and gender differences in receiving nonconsensual explicit images; women ages 18 to 29 are especially likely to encounter this behavior. ↩

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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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West J Emerg Med
v.12(3); 2011 Jul

A Case Study with an Identified Bully: Policy and Practice Implications

Bullying is a serious public health problem that may include verbal or physical injury as well as social isolation or exclusion. As a result, research is needed to establish a database for policies and interventions designed to prevent bullying and its negative effects. This paper presents a case study that contributes to the literature by describing an intervention for bullies that has implications for practice and related policies regarding bullying.

An individualized intervention for an identified bully was implemented using the Participatory Culture-Specific Intervention Model (PCSIM; Nastasi, Moore, & Varjas, 2004) with a seventh-grade middle school student. Ecological and culture-specific perspectives were used to develop and implement the intervention that included psychoeducational sessions with the student and consultation with the parent and school personnel. A mixed methods intervention design was used with the following informants: the target student, the mother of the student, a teacher and the school counselor. Qualitative data included semi-structured interviews with the parent, teacher and student, narrative classroom observations and evaluation/feedback forms filled out by the student and interventionist. Quantitative data included the following quantitative surveys (i.e., Child Self Report Post Traumatic Stress Reaction Index and the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children). Both qualitative and quantitative data were used to evaluate the acceptability, integrity and efficacy of this intervention.

The process of intervention design, implementation and evaluation are described through an illustrative case study. Qualitative and quantitative findings indicated a decrease in internalizing, externalizing and bullying behaviors as reported by the teacher and the mother, and a high degree of acceptability and treatment integrity as reported by multiple stakeholders.

Conclusion:

This case study makes important contributions by describing an intervention that is targeted to specific needs of the bully by designing culture specific interventions and working with the student’s unique environmental contexts. Contributions also are made by illustrating the use of mixed methods to document acceptability, integrity and efficacy of an intervention with documented positive effects in these areas. In addition, implications for policy and practice related to the treatment of students identified as bullies and future research needs are discussed.

INTRODUCTION

Bullying is one of the most significant school problems experienced by children and adolescents and affects approximately 30% of students in U.S. public schools. 1 This included 13% as bullies, 10.6% as victims and 6.3% as bully-victims. 2 Bullying has been defined as repeated exposure to negative events within the context of an imbalanced power relationship. 3 Bullying is a serious public health problem that may include verbal or physical injury, as well as social isolation or exclusion. 3 – 4 As a result, research is needed to establish a database for interventions designed to prevent bullying and its negative effects within the context of school policies. 4

Researchers have found that bullying may have deleterious effects for both perpetrators and victims, including social, emotional, mental health and academic concerns, as well as loss of instructional time. 5 – 12 For example, a relationship has been found between bullying behavior and internalizing problems (i.e., depression and anxiety), as well as externalizing problems (i.e., aggression and hyperactivity). 11 – 12 Further, bullies have been found to have more conduct problems and less favorable views of school than their non-bullying peers, which may lead to academic disengagement. 5

Rationale for the Case Study

The purpose of this case study is to describe the implementation of an individualized psychoeducational intervention with an identified bully and to report the outcomes of the intervention in terms of acceptability, integrity and efficacy. 13 This case study was unique because we used mixed methods (i.e., both qualitative and quantitative methods) to contribute to the database on acceptability, integrity and efficacy by providing a rich description of the cultural and contextual variables that may influence the implementation and outcomes of the intervention. 14 This case study was distinctive because it used the Participatory Culture-Specific Intervention Model (PCSIM) to design, implement, and evaluate the intervention. 15 Based on an ecological-developmental stance, PCSIM addresses individual and cultural factors related to mental health and promotes cultural competence using culturally valued resources and coping skills. 16 – 18 PCSIM uses an iterative data collection process that incorporates feedback from stakeholders to promote treatment acceptability and cultural validity, treatment integrity and efficacy. 15 The research questions were: (1) What was the nature of acceptability from the perspectives of stakeholders? (2) What was the treatment integrity of intervention implementation? (3) Was there a reduction in this student’s: (a) externalizing symptoms, (b) internalizing symptoms and (c) bullying behaviors?

Context and Informants

We conducted this study in a southeastern urban public school district with 2,484 students and 499 students at the target middle school. The population was diverse with respect to ethnicity (approximately 40% African American, 52% Caucasian, 2% Asian, 2% Hispanic and 4% multiracial) and socioeconomic status (30% free and reduced lunch). The research team had an ongoing collaborative relationship with this school district for eight years. 19 Bullying behavior was addressed in the district discipline policies, which were distributed to students at all grade levels. The school response to bullying depended on severity and could include: student participation in a conference with school personnel, assignment to alternative lunch area, partial or full day in-school suspension (ISS), out of school suspension, financial restitution for the repair of any damage, or consideration of an alternative placement for up to 10 school days.

The informants included the mother of the target student, the interventionist, a classroom teacher, the seventh-grade school counselor and the target student. The target student’s mother, Ms. S., was an African-American woman who worked in the education field. The interventionist was an African-American female doctoral-level school psychology graduate student who was certified as a school psychologist and had 10 years of classroom teaching experience. The seventh grade counselor was an African-American female masters-level school counselor who had been employed by the district for many years. Based on the tenets of PCSIM, stakeholders participated as informants by providing data to develop intervention goals and to assess intervention acceptability, integrity and efficacy. 15

Qualitative Data

All interviews were semi-structured and produced qualitative data. Interviews were conducted with the mother, teacher and the target student. Interviews were conducted with all informants prior to intervention to facilitate development of the intervention sessions. The pre-intervention student interview was audio taped, transcribed and coded for major themes. The interventionist took ethnographic notes during all other interviews. Teacher and parent interviews were conducted post-intervention to enhance outcome data. Parent interview questions included a focus on the target student’s behavior at home and school, parent concerns related to his behavior, and the results of previously employed strategies. The course instructor, which this student received the lowest conduct grade, participated in data collection (i.e., interviews, observations, and surveys). Examples of the questions from the student, teacher and parent interviews are reported in Table 1 .

Sample interview questions asked of the bullying student, his parent and teacher.

Behavioral observations

The referred student was observed in structured (classroom) and less structured settings (hallway, lunch) to determine the frequency and nature of bullying behaviors and to aid in intervention development. We used a narrative approach (i.e., rich description) for conducting behavioral observations to gain information regarding peer and teacher interactions.

Evaluation/Feedback Forms

We used qualitative student evaluation and interventionist feedback forms to gather narrative information related to intervention implementation, including acceptability and integrity of the intervention. The student feedback forms were completed at the end of each intervention session and were used to determine what the participant liked about the session, as well as what he would change about the session. The interventionist feedback form was completed following each session and provided documentation about culture-specific modifications as well as treatment acceptability and self-assessment of the interventionist’s performance.

Quantitative Measures

Behavior assessment scale for children: second edition.

The Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (BASC-2) was administered to the teacher, parent and student pre- and post-intervention. 23 These data from the student were not considered because of observations indicating that the student did not read the items carefully and, instead, provided invalid responses. The BASC-2 is a behavior rating scale that was designed to evaluate personality characteristics, emotions, self-perceptions or parent/teacher perceptions of adolescents. At-risk T-scores range from 60 to 69 while T-scores of 70 or above are considered clinically significant. This instrument has high test-retest reliability ( r = .91) and internal consistency ( α = .89). 23 We used the internalizing, externalizing and bullying scales for this case study.

Child Self Report Post Traumatic Stress Reaction Index

The Child Self Report Post Traumatic Stress Reaction Index (CPTS-RI) was administered before and after the intervention to determine change in symptoms related to post-traumatic stress experienced by the target student. 20 The CPTS-RI was used to supplement information provided by the BASC-2 regarding internalizing problems. The CPTS-RI has high internal consistency ( α = .86) and test-retest reliability ( r = .84). Although the CPTS-RI does not yield standard scores, raw scores of 38 and above have been described as clinically significant in previous research. 21 , 22

Qualitative Data Analysis Procedures

The qualitative data (interviews, observations, & evaluation feedback forms) were subject to thematic analysis by having one coder read through each piece of data to create a list of themes that were reflected by these data. 24 We employed a deductive approach to coding in which the coder identified information regarding externalizing, internalizing and bullying behaviors in the data. 17 After the first coder had read through all data to generate a list of themes, a group of three coders read through all of the data again and used a consensus-based approach to confirm or modify each theme. This team also selected quotes illustrating these themes. 25

Quantitative Data Analysis Procedures

We analyzed the pre/post quantitative data (internalizing and externalizing from the BASC-2) using a two-step process that included calculation of the Reliable Change Index (RCI) and determination of whether an observed change was clinically significant. 26 – 28 We calculated the RCI based on the standard error of measurement or reliability of the instrument and the student’s pre- and post-scores for each instrument. We used the following formula based on Jacobson & Truax (RCI = X 2 − X 1 /S diff ). S diff is calculated by taking the square root of 2(S E ) 2 , where S E is the test’s standard error of measurement. 27 RCI scores of 1.96 or greater are considered to be statistically significant. Mean scores from the CPTS-RI and bullying content scales were analyzed descriptively. We did not calculate RCI scores for these two variables because standard scores are not reported for the CPTS-RI and there are insufficient data about reliability and standard error of measurement for these two instruments.

Background of the Case Study

The target student for the intervention was David, a 12-year-old African-American student in the seventh grade. David’s mother (Ms. S.) provided background and medical information. David lived with his mother and nine-year-old sister. His family history included a recent martial separation. However, regular contact with his father was maintained through weekend and extended holiday visitation. David’s medical history included a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, which was managed through medication and counseling.

Reason for referral

David was referred for the bullying intervention by members of the administrative and counseling staff and was described as a “provocative bully” by administrators and teachers. An administrator indicated that David had a tendency to “annoy” his peers verbally until they “reach[ed] their limit” and as a result became physically aggressive with him. The administrator described David’s behavior as verbal bullying. The school counselor expressed concerns about his limited ability to engage in prosocial interactions with peers and school personnel, as David appeared to “ignore the comments of adults” and seemed unaware of how his actions or remarks were perceived by peers. Ms. S. (David’s mother) expressed concern that her son was becoming verbally aggressive in reaction to being bullied at school. She cited school reports of inappropriate comments to teachers and peers as evidence of David’s verbal aggression and indicated that his bullying behaviors persisted or escalated irrespective of school and home interventions. Ms. S. and the school personnel stated that they were interested in determining the best ways to intervene.

INTERVENTION

Data obtained from interviews, surveys, review of records and observations were used to develop an individualized eight session intervention to address David’s bullying behavior. 29 Intervention sessions are described in Table 2 including the sessions, the goals, and cultural modifications that resulted in the individualization of the curriculum. 29

Sessions, goals, and cultural modifications used to individualize the curriculum.

Note. Adapted with permission of the authors.29 Please contact second author for more details regarding the curriculum.

Consistent with the PCSIM, we evaluated this case by examining both the process and the outcomes of the intervention that was implemented with a student who had been identified as a bully-victim. We answered the acceptability, integrity, and efficacy of the intervention for this case study. 15 , 30 – 32

Acceptability: Research Question 1

We defined acceptability as the extent to which stakeholders (e.g., mental health professionals, parents, teachers and students) find a particular treatment or intervention to be fair, appropriate, reasonable and consistent with their expectations of treatment. 31 We collected acceptability data through parent, facilitator, student and teacher report and used data to modify the curriculum in an effort to increase acceptability and efficacy. 15 For example, David reported in the session evaluation that activities that were less contingent upon verbal interaction were more acceptable than those that required him to discuss emotions. Through the recursive process of the PCSIM, subsequent sessions were adapted to allow for choice between various less verbally demanding tasks, such as those that allowed David to respond to the curriculum by creating artwork such as drawings or collages. 16

Examples of high acceptability also were revealed through post-intervention data obtained from all stakeholders. For example, Ms. S. indicated that she viewed the intervention as an important resource to address her son’s social deficits related to interpersonal relationships with peers and family members. David’s teacher acknowledged the value of the intervention as a reinforcement tool by informing David of her ongoing communication with the interventionist to encourage him to behave appropriately in order to have positive remarks relayed about his behavior. We also obtained measures of acceptability from the interventionist after each session, suggesting that initial sessions were less acceptable due to the resistance encountered and the slow development of rapport between the interventionist and the target student. However, treatment acceptability increased during subsequent sessions as rapport developed due to curriculum modifications made based on student feedback (i.e., less verbal input was required).

Integrity: Research Question 2

We defined integrity as the degree to which core program elements are implemented and cultural adaptations are documented. 15 This study employed a partnership model to maintain treatment integrity, by focusing on collaboration with stakeholders in order to be culturally responsive while maintaining the essential components and content of the intervention. 30 We obtained integrity data through the interventionist feedback forms to evaluate the ways in which session goals were met. Based on a thematic analysis of these forms, treatment integrity was high as session goals were met in all of the intervention sessions (meeting the threshold of greater than 80% implementation of intervention components). 31

Efficacy: Research Question 3a –Externalization

We collected qualitative and quantitative results related to David’s externalizing behaviors from the teacher and parent report. The teacher reported in an exit interview that David no longer engaged in disruptive activities after completing assignments but instead chose to read. David’s mother reported a decrease in the number of phone calls received regarding disciplinary concerns from the school during and after the intervention. There was a clinically significant difference in the teacher pre- and post-intervention BASC-2 scores reflecting reduced externalizing behaviors (RCI = − 3.74). There was no change indicated by the parent pre- and post-test BASC-2 scores on externalizing behaviors ( Table 3 ).

Pre-post scores for internalizing, externalizing and bullying.

Efficacy: Research Question 3b- Internalization

The school counselor reported that David was less withdrawn at the end of the intervention. For example, she indicated that he made eye contact and acknowledged the statements or requests of school personnel, which were skills addressed in sessions related to empathy and perspective taking. Although David’s CPTS-RI raw score of 20 did not meet the threshold of clinical significance (i.e., 38 and higher), his post-intervention score of seven suggested a lower perception of internalizing symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress after the intervention. Specifically, he indicated that he had fewer bad dreams and was better able to concentrate at school. Quantitative findings from the BASC -2 included a clinically significant decrease in Internalizing Behaviors based on Teacher report (RCI = −3.79). However, there was no change related to internalizing symptoms based on parent report.

Efficacy: Research Question 3c- Bullying

The results of the BASC-2 completed by his teacher revealed that David’s bullying behavior decreased based on pre-post test data. His score on the bullying content scale from the teacher BASC-2 decreased from the at-risk range (SS = 66) to within normal limits (SS = 59) for students his age. Ms. S. reported no change on the parent BASC-2 from pre- (SS= 62) to post-test (SS = 62) in regards to David’s bullying behavior. However, as mentioned earlier, she reported the number of discipline referrals decreased during and after the intervention. Further, qualitative findings from school personnel also suggested improvement in David’s behavior after the intervention. Additional support for positive change in this area is that there were no additional counseling or disciplinary referrals for the remainder of the school year ( Table 3 ).

This case study contributes to the literature related to intervention with bullies by providing an in-depth description of a promising intervention model and by using mixed methods resulting in evidence that this intervention had high acceptability, integrity and efficacy. 13 Using the PCSIM, this intervention successfully integrated data about the culture of bullying within the target school, as well as using knowledge gained through collaboration with parents, teachers and school personnel. 15 , 20 This psychoeducational intervention engaged multiple stakeholders, including school personnel, the mother, and the target student, to facilitate intervention acceptability and integrity and thereby increased the likelihood that the desired outcomes would be achieved. 15 , 30 Further, the use of mixed methods and multiple informants strengthened validity of the intervention and evaluation by examining findings across multiple informants and multiple sources of data. 14

An important finding in this case study was related to the efficacy of this intervention. Based on prior literature, the referral concerns and the pre-intervention data, the intervention was designed to reduce behaviors and symptoms associated with externalization, internalization, and bullying. 11 – 12 Predicted reductions in externalizing behaviors and bullying were partially confirmed with quantitative findings reflected by the RCI for externalization and clinical significance on the bullying scale from the BASC-2. 26 – 28 Additional support was provided by qualitative data from interviews and observations. Similarly, the predicted reductions for internalization were partially confirmed based on the RCI for internalization on the BASC-2 as well as by descriptive data from the CPTS-RI. These quantitative findings were confirmed by qualitative data obtained from school personnel. However, it is noted that the findings for internalizing were not supported by parent report.

The participatory approach to problem identification and intervention development incorporated in the PCSIM was successful in several ways. 15 For example, school personnel and the target student’s mother identified ongoing communication with the interventionist as a strength of the intervention. This enabled teachers to provide insight into the daily interactions of the students, the previous intervention efforts of school personnel, and an overview of the student’s social, emotional and academic strengths and challenges. Further, collaboration with the interventionist provided teachers with an opportunity to experience the target student in a different light by examining the influence of family context on the student’s behavior. This interaction between stakeholders and the interventionist exemplified the recursive nature of the PCSIM and illustrated the potential importance of mental health consultation in facilitating positive outcomes when intervening with bullies. 15 , 33

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

Since this case study was conducted with a single participant, more research is clearly needed to demonstrate the acceptability, integrity and effectiveness of this individualized intervention with identified bullies. In addition, given the range of findings from both the parent and teacher, future efforts should be designed to include input over time from multiple participants and to use these data for recursive revision of intervention plans. School-based (e.g., school counselors, school psychologists, school nurses) and mental health practitioners are uniquely qualified to design and implement culture-specific interventions for bullies in schools by using their relationships with stakeholders, along with ongoing data collection, to increase intervention acceptability, integrity and efficacy. 15 Future research may include a greater emphasis on systematic evaluation of the processes used to consult with educators and parents, particularly since educators and parents can have different views, while also having great potential to influence children. Based on information gained through the iterative process of the PCSIM, the intervention might be used as a method of primary prevention by extending it to younger students. 15 Further, research is needed to examine the range of ways that this intervention may need to be modified to address the characteristics of other bullies and their unique cultural and ecological circumstances. Such modifications might include multiple sessions per week, meeting with members of the target student’s peer group, and a greater focus on behavior management strategies.

POLICY AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

This case study has important implications for practice in the context of public policy. While the ideas discussed in this paper may have the potential to create meaningful change in some bullies, it requires intense levels of data collection and analysis to address the acceptability, integrity and efficacy of this type of intervention. This requires a public commitment to the expense needed to carry out such intervention effectively. It also may require research based on public health models that seek less expensive methods of intervention and that emphasize a full range of preventive interventions, including primary prevention. 4 In this context, it is noted that policies in place within a school, school district and/or community may play a role in strengthening intervention efforts. 4 For example, the intervention described in this paper was implemented in the context of school policies that did not tolerate bullying and that had clear guidelines for school responses to bullying. Also, schools policies of service delivery referred to as response to intervention that include a simultaneous focus on a range of services including primary prevention, risk reduction, secondary prevention and tertiary prevention. 34 Research is needed to develop an understanding about the impact of such policies on the efficacy of individualized interventions such as this.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the student, parent, and school personnel who participated in this intervention. Funding for this work was supported by the American International Group, Inc. Additional funding was provided by the Center for School Safety, School Climate, and Classroom Management and the College of Education Dean’s Office at Georgia State University.

Conflicts of Interest: By the WestJEM article submission agreement, all authors are required to disclose all affiliations, funding sources and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. The authors disclosed none.

Reprints available through open access at http://scholarship.org/uc/uciem_westjem .

Open access
Published: 14 December 2023

Online and school bullying roles: are bully-victims more vulnerable in nonsuicidal self-injury and in psychological symptoms than bullies and victims?

Boglárka Drubina ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3930-4293 1 , 2 ,
Gyöngyi Kökönyei ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6750-2644 2 , 3 , 4 ,
Dóra Várnai 2 , 5 &
Melinda Reinhardt ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7010-5623 2 , 6

BMC Psychiatry volume 23 , Article number: 945 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Bullying leads to adverse mental health outcomes and it has also been linked to nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) in community adolescents. It is not clear whether different roles of bullying (bully, victim, bully-victim) are associated with NSSI, furthermore the same associations in cyberbullying are even less investigated.

The aim of the current study was to test whether students involved in school or online bullying differed from their not involved peers and from each other in psychological symptoms (externalizing and internalizing problems) and in NSSI severity (number of episodes, number of methods). Furthermore, mediation models were tested to explore the possible role of externalizing and internalizing problems in the association of school and online bullying roles with NSSI. In our study, 1011 high school students (66.07% girls; n = 668), aged between 14 and 20 years (M age = 16.81; SD = 1.41) participated.

Lifetime prevalence of at least one episode of NSSI was 41.05% (n = 415). Students involved in bullying used more methods of NSSI than not involved adolescents. In general, victim status was associated mostly with internalizing symptoms, while bully role was more strongly associated with externalizing problems. Bully-victims status was associated with both types of psychological problems, but this group did not show a significantly elevated NSSI severity compared to other bullying roles. Externalizing and internalizing problems mediated the relationship between bullying roles and NSSI with different paths at different roles, especially in case of current NSSI that happened in the previous month.

Conclusions

Results highlight that students involved in bullying are more vulnerable to NSSI and to psychological symptoms compared to their peers who are not involved in bullying. It is suggested that bullying roles, especially bully-victim status, need to be identified in school and online settings and thus special attention should be addressed to them to reduce psychological symptoms and NSSI, for example by enhancing adaptive coping skills.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

As nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) – the intentional, direct destruction (e.g., scratching, bruising, cutting, burning, biting) of one’s own body tissue without suicidal intent [ 1 ] – is a considerable behavioral problem, especially among adolescents [ 2 , 3 ], and has become an even more widespread phenomenon throughout the last decade [ 4 , 5 ], research should focus more on this topic. Some evidence indicates that NSSI can be a stronger predictor of suicide attempts than previous suicidal behavior [ 6 , 7 ]. NSSI typically occurs in early adolescence (between the age of 12–14) [ 5 , 8 ] and peaks in mid-adolescence [ 9 , 10 ]. The prevalence can be remarkably high in community youth samples (between 14.5 and 46.5%) [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], and based on meta-analytical results, females are more at risk for NSSI [ 14 ].

The current study focuses on three phenomena typically occuring during adolescence and thus may also be the cause of difficulties in school settings: along with NSSI , we also focus on bullying , and internalizing and externalizing problems. While previous research mainly focuses on bullying victimization and victims, by differentiating the roles of bullying (bully, victim, bully-victim), the aim of this study is to investigate whether bullies and bully-victims are also vulnerable to mental health issues (NSSI, internalizing and externalizing problems). Furthermore, another intention of this study is to establish and test mediation models that can be taken into consideration when planning NSSI and mental health related interventions in school settings. Our research includes cyberbullying as well, which is less investigated as school-based bullying but more and more a widely spread type of peer aggression.

Bullying and bullying roles

In the current study, bullying is defined as a type of youth violence which includes any unwanted aggressive behavior by another youth or group of youths who are not siblings or current dating partners [ 15 , 16 ]. Bullying can take place in the school or in any online platforms, the latter is cyberbullying [ 17 , 18 ]. In our study, a traditional classification of bullying roles was applied: perpetrator, victim, and bully-victim [ 19 , 20 ]. Bully/perpetrator is the person who commits the bullying and have a perceived dominance or more power than the victim. Victim is a person who suffers from being bullied and perceived as less dominant or having less power. B ully-victim s are those who are both victims and perpetrators [ 19 , 20 , 21 ].

Regarding bullying roles, gender differences can be observed: boys are more likely to engage in bullying others in school and in online settings [ 22 , 23 ], while girls are more likely to be the victims of online bullying [ 24 ]. Based on the data of the HBSC (Health Behavior in School-aged Children) study obtained in 2017/18, the prevalence of bullying perpetration and victimization shows a great variety across the 45 participating countries (the prevalence of perpetration varied from 0.3 to 30% in the 11–15-year-old students, and victimization rates ranged from 0.5 to 32%, respectively) [ 25 ]. However, in many countries there is a decline in bullying perpetration rates. Similar to offline bullying, a significant cross-national variety of prevalence regarding cyberbullying is observable (from 0.6 to 31% in cyberbullying others and from 3 to 29% in being cyberbullied) [ 25 ]. Regarding Hungary, according to the latest HBSC data collection, 28.4% of the 11–17-year-old students reported to have been bullied at least once or twice and 27.1% reported that they have bullied someone in school at least once or twice in the recent three months [ 26 ]. The rates of cyberbullying were lower: 17.8% of students have been cyberbullied and 12.7% of students bullied others online [ 26 ].

The link between bullying roles and externalizing and internalizing problems

Based on different roles in traditional school-based bullying, previous research differentiates connected mental health problems in adolescents. Most of the studies report that bullying perpetrators are more likely to face externalizing problems, while victims are more likely to face internalizing problems [ 23 , 27 , 28 ]. However, the perpetrator-externalizing and victim-internalizing associations can be oversimplifying based on Cook and his colleagues [ 29 ] findings who included online bullying as well. In their meta-analytical results, internalizing problems can be associated with the bully role as well (effect size = 0.12), but the association is stronger for the victims (effect size = 0.25). And similarly, externalizing problems are significantly associated with the victim role (effect size = 0.12), but the association is stronger for bullies, making externalizing problem behaviors the strongest individual predictor of being a bully (effect size = 0.34). Bully-victim role was associated with both externalizing (effect size = 0.33) and internalizing (effect size = 0.22) problems [ 29 ]. Although, previous studies have demonstrated that being a bully-victim in traditional school-based bullying [ 22 , 30 , 31 , 32 ] or in cyberbullying [ 33 , 34 ] might be associated with worse mental health outcomes than either bullies or victims, only a few studies investigated the characteristics and mental health problems of this vulnerable group [ 25 ].

The link between bullying and NSSI

Several risk factors of NSSI have been suggested in previous research (e.g., emotion regulation problems, impulsivity, depressive symptoms), that are mainly individual characteristics [ 35 ]. Less interest has been given to school and peer factors, although the climate of peer relationships or related negative life events can also play an important role in the development of NSSI, furthermore, as it has been recently suggested, academic-related stress and peer bullying is associated with NSSI behaviors [ 36 ], therefore investigating bullying in association with NSSI is essential.

Many cross-sectional studies suggest that adolescents who reported being victims of bullying were at an increased risk for NSSI compared to adolescents who were not victims of bullying or who reported low levels of victimization [ 37 , 38 , 39 ]. Based on two recent studies, involvement in bullying increases the likelihood to engage in NSSI [ 40 , 41 ]. Meta-analytical findings also suggest that bullying is associated with NSSI [ 14 , 42 ]. However, not many studies focused on perpetrators or bully-victims, the associations with NSSI of these roles or the trajectories through which perpetrators or bully-victims are linked to NSSI. Some results show that bullies also engage in NSSI [ 43 ], especially when they had a history of being bullied (which could have made them bully-victims) [ 22 , 44 ]. Additionally, bully-victim girls scored the highest in NSSI [ 44 ] compared to any other role of bullying, and NSSI has also been linked to cyberbullying [ 45 ]. Only a very limited number of research has focused on the association between NSSI and cyberbullying, and these studies mainly investigated cyberbullying victimization. Recent research however shows a higher frequency of NSSI among students involved in cyberbullying and shows that cyberbullying can be in direct association with NSSI [ 12 , 46 , 47 ]. Although online and school-based bullying share common features (e.g., bullying roles, association with mental health problems) remarkable differences occur as well (e.g., higher anonymity, fewer intervention opportunities for affected students, loneliness, role of internet safety features) [ 18 ]. Being alone in online settings might facilitate the appearance of NSSI as feeling lonely is associated with NSSI [ 48 , 49 ] and NSSI happens most often when adolescents are alone [ 50 ]. Furthermore, compared to school-based bullying, online bullying might be more difficult to deal with for the environment (e.g., parents, educators) [ 51 ], making it more difficult for the child to cope with it in the lack of adequate help from significant ones which can also result in a maladaptive coping strategy (e.g., NSSI). A longitudinal study found that cyberbullying can cause harm above and beyond traditional bullying [ 52 ]. Therefore, regarding the remarkable differences between cyberbullying and school-based bullying, it is essential to be able to compare whether bullying in different settings have the same association to NSSI or not. In the current study, online and school-based bullying roles are tested with different mediation models.

Although, most of the previously mentioned findings are cross sectional, some longitudinal cohort and case control studies [ 14 , 44 ] suggest that bullying is not only associated to NSSI but may also predict it.

The link between externalizing and internalizing problems and NSSI

NSSI is often considered as a transdiagnostic element in psychopathology, therefore NSSI-related variables (e.g., suicidality or impulse control difficulties) are best predicted by transdiagnostic variables [ 53 ]. NSSI episodes are prevalent in different psychiatric disorders and psychological symptoms during adolescence (e.g., depression, psychotic symptoms, substance abuse, borderline personality-disorder features, conduct problems, emotional problems) [ 54 , 55 ] and has been linked to externalizing problems (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder) [ 56 ], and to internalizing problems as well in adolescence [ 57 ]. Some findings suggest that externalizing and internalizing psychopathology are not only associated, but longitudinally predict NSSI [ 58 ].

Externalizing and internalizing problems as possible mediators

Bullying victimization and perpetration can result in interpersonal difficulties or negative interpersonal life events that can cause stress, negative emotions, and mental health problems in adolescence [ 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 ]. Subsequently, mental health problems and interpersonal difficulties can trigger and might result in NSSI, thus, they occur comorbidly [ 65 , 66 ]. To cope with negative emotions, NSSI might appear as a dysfunctional emotion regulation [ 3 , 67 , 68 ].

As described in the vulnerability-stress model, suggested by Hankin and Abela [ 69 ], internalizing and externalizing problems are rooted in both individual factors (cognitive vulnerabilities) and in environmental factors (stressors, negative life events, adversities). Environmental factors can be adverse life events that might strengthen the possibility of the development of mental health problems, psychopathology and NSSI in adolescents [ 32 , 70 ]. Bullying might be a significant environmental factor as throughout adolescence the importance of peer relationships and their opinion on oneself can considerably increase the negative influence on the quality of mental health [ 71 , 72 ]. Few mediator models have been established to explain the relationship between bullying and NSSI. Researchers so far have found a partial mediation regarding negative emotions [ 45 ], depressive mood and depressive symptoms [ 22 , 37 ]. In the current study, the possible mediating effect of internalizing and externalizing problems on the relationship between bullying and NSSI among community adolescents was hypothesized and tested.

Aim of the study

The global aim of the current study is to investigate the relationship of school and online bullying, externalizing and internalizing problems, and NSSI.

By establishing different bullying roles, this study seeks answers to the question whether those students who are involved in bullying suffer from greater mental health problems compared to students who are not involved in bullying. The following hypotheses were established:

Adolescents involved in (school or online) bullying show significantly higher internalizing and externalizing scores compared to not involved peers. It is also hypothesized that bully-victims score significantly higher in internalizing and externalizing problems compared to any other peer group (bullies, victims, not involved adolescents).

Adolescents involved in (school or online) bullying show significantly more serious NSSI behavior (in terms of the number of NSSI episodes and the number of NSSI methods) compared to not involved peers. It is also hypothesized that bully-victims show significantly more serious NSSI behavior compared to any other peer group (bullies, victims, not involved adolescents).

Considering that externalizing and internalizing problems are both correlated to bullying [ 23 ] and NSSI [ 65 ], the current study establishes six mediation models (Figs. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 ) to understand the relationship among different school and online bullying roles, externalizing and internalizing problems, and NSSI. Accordingly, the following hypotheses were examined:

The association of school and online bullying roles with NSSI will be partially mediated by both externalizing and internalizing symptoms (Figs. 1 , 2 , 3 and 4 ) given that both bullying perpetration and victimization might be related to internalizing and externalizing problems [ 29 ];

The association of the frequency of school victimization and NSSI will be partially mediated by externalizing and internalizing problems (Figs. 5 and 6 , respectively).

Gender and age are taken into consideration as control variables in the mediation models. As NSSI is predicted by various factors, it was hypothesized that externalizing and internalizing problems would only decrease the direct effect of bullying on NSSI rather than eliminate the association. The study also seeks answer to the question whether bully-victims are in need of intervention due to higher mental health problems (i.e., NSSI, externalizing and internalizing problems) compared to victims and bullies and not involved students.

Hypothesized mediation model 1

Hypothesized mediation model 2

Hypothesized mediation model 3

Hypothesized mediation model 4

Materials and methods

Participants and procedure.

This cross-sectional study involved 14 Hungarian secondary schools from the capital city and from the countryside. Specific schools were asked to participate based on accessibility to the researchers while following the idea to represent different type of secondary schools based on location (e.g., metropolitan area, smaller cities) and on educational profile (e.g., high-school, vocation schools). Data collection started in February 2019 and finished in January 2020. Participants were from all grades (grades 9–12) of secondary schools. During data collection, trained investigators were present, but not any teachers. Students filled out the questionnaires either in their classroom (paper-based questionnaires) or online (on the Qualtrics platform) in computer rooms or on smart phones according to the circumstances of the schools. Online questionnaires were filled out in the classroom, in-person settings as well (e.g., during informatics class) in the presence of trained investigators.

More than one thousand and two hundred students (N = 1232) were requested to take part in the study and a total of 1059 students agreed in participating. 173 students were either absent during data collection or declined to participate. From the 1059 who agreed in the participation, 48 were excluded due to incomplete answers. Thus, the final sample consists of 1011 students, mostly females (n = 668; 66.07% girls), the mean age came to 16.81 (SD = 1.41) years. The youngest participants were 14 years old; the oldest participants were 20 years old. Most of the participants live in cities (n = 450, 44.5%) or in the capital (n = 252; 24.9%), while 309 (30.6%) students live in villages.

All aspects of the study were ethically approved by the Institutional Review Board of ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. Students and one of their parents had to give their written consent to participate in the research, while headmasters of secondary schools were also informed about the details of the study and gave their consent to carry out the research in their institution. The Declaration of Helsinki [ 73 ] was taken into account while carrying out the research. An information sheet about the meaning, characteristics of NSSI and possible sources (online and in person) of help was provided to every participant.

Inventory of Statements About Self-injury

NSSI is often measured with the Inventory of Statements About Self-Injury (ISAS) [ 74 ]. In this study, Hungarian version of the short form was used [ 75 ] (Hungarian version: [ 76 ]). The short form of ISAS has two parts, the first assesses prevalence, types (12 different – plus one free answer – NSSI behaviors, e.g., cutting, biting, carving, severe scratching or hitting self) and characteristics of NSSI (e.g., age of onset, the experience of pain during NSSI, whether NSSI is performed alone or around others). The second part measures 13 functions of NSSI [ 74 ]. In the current study, only frequency, methods of NSSI and time of the last episode were analyzed from the first part of the ISAS. At the beginning of the questionnaire, definition of NSSI was given, underlying the importance of the act being deliberate without suicidal intent.

The Hungarian version of the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire [ 77 ] was used to measure bullying which was used in the Hungarian HBSC Study [ 26 ]. First, a precise definition was given to participants about the meaning of bullying: “We say a student is being bullied when another student, or several other students say mean and hurtful things to him or her; or make fun of him or her; or call him or her mean and hurtful names; or completely ignore or exclude him or her from their group of friends or leave him or her out of things on purpose. When we talk about bullying, these things happen repeatedly, and it is difficult for the student being bullied to defend himself or herself. We also call it bullying, when a student is teased repeatedly in a mean and hurtful way. But we don’t call it bullying when the teasing is done in a friendly and playful way. Also, it is not bullying when two students of about equal strength or power argue or fight.” In the first part, school bullying was measured with two questions: the first measures the frequency of bully perpetration during the past few months, while the second asks about the frequency of bully victimization during the same period of time. Online bullying was measured in the same way. The definition of online bullying was also given before the questions, containing examples as well (e.g., sending offensive messages to someone via SMS, chat programs or e-mail, posting such message on someone’s wall on social media).

Based on the previous questions, four different roles of school and online bullying were differentiated: school bullies were participants who at least once or twice have bullied someone else at school during the previous months, but they have not been bullied at all at school. Online bullies were participants who at least once or twice have bullied someone else online during the previous months, but they have not been bullied online. School victims were those participants who have been bullied at least once or twice during the previous months at school, but they have not bullied others at all in school settings. Online victims were those participants who have been bullied at least once or twice during the previous months on online platforms, but they have not bullied others at all online. School bully-victims are those participants who have bullied others at least once or twice at school in the previous months and who have been bullied as well at least once or twice at school during the previous months. Online bully-victims are those participants who have bullied others at least once or twice online in the previous months and who have been bullied as well at least once or twice online during the previous months. Not involved students have not bullied others and have not been bullied either, neither in school, nor online during the previous months.

In the second part of the questionnaire, seven different types of school bullying victimization (e.g., being excluded from activities or social groups, being ignored, being mocked) were measured. Items 6 (being mocked because of religion) and 7 (experiencing sexual comments) were developed by the Canadian HBSC group [ 78 ].

Participants could give their answers on a 5-point Likert-scale (1 = never during the past few months , 2 = once or twice , 3 = two or three times a month , 4 = approximately once a week , 5 = several times a week ).

In the current study, reliability of the second part of the questionnaire (types of school victimization) was good (α = 0.70). Previous studies did not report reliability data concerning the second part of the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire [ 77 ].

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)

The self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [ 79 ] (Hungarian translation: [ 80 ]) is a brief emotional and behavioral screening questionnaire for children and young people and is a valid and reliable instrument to measure externalizing and internalizing symptoms in adolescence. Respondents use a 3-point scale to indicate how far each item applies to them (1 = not true , 2 = somewhat true , 3 = completely true ). The 25 items are divided between 5 subscales, with five items: emotional symptoms (e.g., “ I am often unhappy, downhearted or tearful. ”), conduct problems (e.g., “ I fight a lot. I can make other people do what I want.” ), hyperactivity-inattention (e.g., “ I am constantly fidgeting or squirming.” ), peer problems (e.g., “ I am usually on my own. I generally play alone or keep to myself.”) , and prosocial behavior (e.g., “I often volunteer to help others (parents, teachers, children).” ). The authors of the questionnaire suggest the use of a three-subscale division of the SDQ [ 81 ] in low-risk or general population samples: internalizing problems (emotional symptoms + peer problems, 10 items), externalizing problems (conduct problems + hyperactivity symptoms, 10 items) and prosocial scale (5 items). In the current study, only internalizing and externalizing subscales were used. Reliability of the subscales were good in our study (internalizing subscale α = 0.75 was better than the original’s α = 0.66; externalizing subscale α = 0.76 was similar to the one in the original study α = 0.76) [ 81 ].

Data analysis

Basic characteristics of the sample, descriptive statistics of the variables and correlations were performed in IBM SPSS 28, the level of significance was taken as 0.05. Mediation analyses were performed in Mplus 8.0 [ 82 ].

NSSI was analyzed via two binary variables in the mediation models: one consists of no history of NSSI and past NSSI (at least one NSSI episode in the past, earlier than a month), while the other consists of no history of NSSI and current NSSI (at least one NSSI episode in the last month). In the ANOVA analysis, NSSI was a categorical variable with three values: no history of NSSI, past NSSI and current NSSI.

Two variables measured the severity of NSSI. Number of NSSI methods was a continuous variable, while number of NSSI episodes was a binary variable (non-repetitive NSSI = 1–9 episodes, repetitive NSSI = 10 or more episodes based on the suggestion of Gratz et al., [ 83 ]).

In the case of bullying, three different bullying variables were analyzed: (1) school bullying roles (1 = victim, 2 = bully, 3 = bully-victim, 4 = not involved in bullying) as a categorical variable; (2) online bullying roles (categories are the same as at school bullying); and (3) frequency of different school victimization types (higher score means more frequent school bullying victimization; used as a continuous variable).

Victim status was measured in two ways: in the first part of the questionnaire, the frequency of bullying victimization was asked in general (“ How often were you bullied during the past months?” ), while in the second part concrete items measure the frequency of different school bullying types.

As suggested in the literature [ 84 ], dummy variables were created for independent categorical variables (school and online bullying roles, see categories in the Measures part) to use in mediation modeling. Externalizing and internalizing problems were continuous variables, higher scores mean stronger internalizing and externalizing problems.

Pearson correlations were performed to measure associations between different variables. Group differences (NSSI, school bullying roles, online bullying roles) regarding externalizing and internalizing problems, and NSSI severity (number of NSSI methods) were assessed with one-way ANOVA. Crosstabulation was performed regarding the number of NSSI episodes (binary variable). In the case of NSSI severity (number of NSSI methods and number of NSSI episodes) normal distribution was violated, therefore the robust version of ANOVA (Welch test) was used. When Levene’s test claimed the violation of the homogeneity of variances, a robust post-hoc test (Games-Howell) was used, otherwise, the results of non-robust post-hoc test (Tukey) are reported. Post-hoc tests are used to compare group differences. To avoid type 1 error, p-values were adjusted during post-hoc analyses in the following way: when analyzing NSSI severity and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in different school and online bullying groups, 4 groups were compared with each other that resulted in 6 comparisons (not involved students vs. bully-victims; not involved students vs. bullies; not involved students vs. victims; bully-victims vs. bullies; bully-victims vs. victims; bullies vs. victims), therefore, p value of 0.05 was divided by 6 which results in p < .0083. Comparing three different NSSI groups in regards with internalizing and externalizing symptoms, three comparisons were made (no NSSI vs. past NSSI; no NSSI vs. current NSSI; past NSSI vs. current NSSI) therefore p value of 0.05 was divided by 3 which results in p < .016. In the Results, only results significant according to the adjusted level are reported. In the comparisons of groups, reference group was the not involved students in case of bullying roles. Regarding NSSI, reference was the no NSSI group (students who have never engaged in NSSI).

Six mediation models were established based on the literature and tested in the current study via Structural Equation Modeling. Mediator variables in every model were both externalizing and internalizing problems. Due to low correlation between the two mediator variables (r = .27), they were tested parallelly within the same models. Gender (1 = boys, 2 = girls) and age (continuous variable) were control variables in each mediation model.

In the models, observed variables were school bullying roles (Model 1, Fig. 1 ), online bullying roles (Model 2, Fig. 2 ) and frequency of school victimization (Model 3, Fig. 3 ). Outcome variables were No NSSI/Past NSSI and No NSSI/Current NSSI. Due to categorical variables, MLR (robust version of maximum likelihood parameter) estimator was used to perform Structural Equation Modeling [ 85 ]. Models are saturated as every possible connection is coded in the models.

Hypothesized mediation model 5

Hypothesized mediation model 6

Characteristics of NSSI

Almost one third (n = 320, 31.7%) of the current sample engaged in NSSI at least once within the last month. Prevalence of past NSSI was 9.4% (n = 95; participants who had engaged in NSSI some point in their life but did not engage within the last month). Among those who have ever engaged in NSSI, the most common methods were banging or hitting oneself (n = 222; 53.1%), interfering with wound healing (n = 218; 52.2%), cutting (n = 170; 40.7%), biting (n = 163; 39%), pinching (n = 162; 38.8%) and severe scratching (n = 144; 34.4%). Mean age of the first NSSI episode was 11.99 years (SD = 3.52). Significantly more girls (n = 293; 43.86%) engaged in NSSI than boys (n = 121; 35.27%; χ 2 (1) = 32.40; p < .001). The highest number of used NSSI methods was 11 from 13. Among those who have engaged in NSSI, 3.80 (SD = 2.69) methods were used in average. Mean score for number of NSSI episodes was 111.91 (SD = 935.96). Lifetime repetitive NSSI (≥ 10 episodes based on the suggestion of Gratz [ 83 ]) was 72.05% (n = 299) of those who have ever engaged in NSSI.

Descriptive statistics and correlation of the variables

Descriptive statistics and correlation of continuous variables, gender and age are shown in Table 1 . Female gender was associated to increased internalizing problems and to number of NSSI methods. Frequency of different school victimization types was slightly associated to lower age, while higher level of internalizing problems was associated to being older. School victimization was almost equally associated to internalizing and externalizing problems. Higher number of used NSSI methods was associated to a higher level of internalizing, externalizing and to more frequent school victimization.

Table 2 shows the crosstabulation of number of participants involved in different roles of school and online bullying. More girls were victims of school bullying (χ 2 (1) = 6.12; p < .01), while significantly more boys were bullies (χ 2 (1) = 20.92; p < .01) and bully-victims (χ 2 (1) = 4.15; p < .05), compared to girls. Similar gender differences emerged in cyberbullying with higher number of female victims (χ 2 (1) = 4.62; p < .05), higher number of male bullies (χ 2 (1) = 10.06; p < .01), and bully-victims (χ 2 (1) = 8.39; p < .01). Most frequent school victimization types were being excluded from activities, social groups or being ignored (n = 344; 33.9%); spreading rumors or fake news (n = 292; 28.8%); being calling names and teasing or made fun of (n = 249; 24.5%) and being the target of sexual comments (n = 120; 11.8%). Those who have ever been or currently are involved in NSSI reported higher frequency of school victimization (M = 9.44; SD = 3.21) compared to peers who are not involved in NSSI (M = 8.24; SD = 2.25; t = 6.53; p < .001). The number of participants who were bullied at school in any form at least once or twice (n = 568) is considerably higher compared to those who reported being bullied at school (n = 91) or online (n = 93) when asking simply how frequently the bullying happened (no concrete types of bullying were given).

Group differences in the severity of NSSI

Welch test revealed that different school-related bullying roles significantly differ in the number of NSSI methods (F (3;139.62) = 13.36; p < .001). Table 3 shows post hoc analysis and group differences. Those who have participated in school bullying in any form (bully, victim, bully-victim) use significantly more NSSI methods compared to their peers who have not participated in bullying at all. Similar results emerged in case of cyberbullying.

A crosstabulation in Table 4 shows the rate of repetitive NSSI and non-repetitive NSSI in different bullying roles.

Group differences in externalizing and internalizing problems

One-way ANOVA revealed that NSSI groups significantly differ in both the level of externalizing problems (F(2,1007) = 26.11; p < .001) and internalizing problems (F(2,1007) = 62.28; p < .001) as well. Table 5 contains post hoc comparisons of different groups. Regarding externalizing symptoms, the mean score of no-NSSI group was significantly lower than the mean score of past NSSI group and current NSSI group. Internalizing problems showed the same pattern.

School and online bullying roles differed significantly in the level of externalizing problems (school bullying: F(3,1001) = 15.93; p < .001; online bullying: F(3,1003) = 17.88; p < .001) and in the level of internalizing problems as well (school bullying: F(3,1001) = 30.38; p < .001; online bullying: (F(3,1003) = 18.65; p < .001). Post hoc test revealed that every school bullying role showed significantly higher level of externalizing problems than those who were not involved in school bullying, with the highest average score of bully-victims and bullies.School bullying roles differed significantly in the level of internalizing problems as well. Compared to those who were not involved in bullying, victims and bully-victims had significantly higher scores of internalizing problems, but bullies did not differ significantly. Victims and bully-victims scored significantly higher on internalizing symptoms compared to bullies, but there was no significant difference between victims and bully-victims. Online bullying roles differed significantly in the level of externalizing problems. Post hoc test revealed that online bullies and online bully-victims scored significantly higher on externalizing problems than those who were not involved in online bullying.

Online bullying roles differed significantly in the level of internalizing problems as well. Post hoc test revealed that online victims and online bully-victims scored significantly higher on internalizing problems than those who were not involved in online bullying; regarding bullies there was no difference compared to the reference group.

Mediation analysis

All standardized regression coefficients and standard errors of total, direct, and indirect effects related to each model are detailed in the Supplementary Materials Table S1 . While Table S2 in the Supplementary Materials contains odds ratios and confidence intervals.

In Model 1, explained variance of past NSSI was 14.8% (Table S1 , Table S2 , Fig. 7 ). Despite significant associations in the model, only two significant indirect effect size estimates were presented in this mediation model, suggesting significant mediated pathways: path 1.4. victim – internalizing problems – past NSSI (β = 0.052; SE = 0.02; p < .01); path 1.6. bully-victim – internalizing problems – past NSSI (β = 0.036; SE = 0.01; p < .01) (Table S1 , Table S2 ).

Final Model 1 of school bullying and No/Past NSSI showing standardized coefficients

Note: Significant paths are marked with bold numbers and arrows. Sch_victim = school bullying victim; Sch_bully = school bullying perpetrator/bully; Sch_b-v = school bullying bully-victim; *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

In Model 2, explained variance of current NSSI was 18.9% (Table S1 , Table S2 , Fig. 8 ). Five significant indirect effect size estimates were presented in this mediation model, suggesting significant mediated pathways: path 2.1. bully – externalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.022; SE = 0.01; p < .01); path 2.3. victim – externalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.014; SE = 0.01; p < .05); path 2.4. victim – internalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.072; SE = 0.01; p < .001); path 2.5. bully-victim – externalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.027; SE = 0.01; p < .01); path 2.6. bully-victim – internalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.050; SE = 0.01; p < .001) (Table S1 , Table S2 ).

Final Model 2 of school bullying and No/Current NSSI showing standardized coefficients and standard errors

In Model 3, explained variance of past NSSI was 13.6% (Table S1 , Table S2 , Fig. 9 ). Two significant indirect effect size estimates were presented in this mediation model, suggesting significant mediated pathways: path 3.4. victim – internalizing problems – past NSSI (β = 0.044; SE = 0.01; p < .01); 3.6. bully-victim – internalizing problems – past NSSI (β = 0.032; SE = 0.01; p < .01) (Table S1 , Table S2 ).

Final Model 3 of online bullying and No/Past NSSI showing standardized coefficients and standard errors

Note: Significant paths are marked with bold numbers and arrows. Onl_victim = online bullying victim; Onl_bully = online bullying perpetrator; Onl_b-v = online bullying bully-victim; *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

In model 4, explained variance of current NSSI was 19.0% (Table S1 , Table S2 , Fig. 10 ). Five significant indirect effect size estimates were presented in this mediation model, suggesting significant mediated pathways: path 4.1. bully – externalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.022; SE = 0.01; p < .01); path 4.3. victim – externalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.011; SE = 0.01; p < .05); path 4.4. victim – internalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.058; SE = 0.04; p < .001); path 4.5. bully-victim – externalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.028; SE = 0.01; p < .01); path 4.6. bully-victim – internalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.043; SE = 0.01; p < .001) (Table S1 , Table S2 ).

Final Model 4 of online bullying and No/Current NSSI showing standardized coefficients and standard errors

In Model 5, explained variance of past NSSI was 14.1% (Table S1 , Table S2 , Fig. 11 ). One significant indirect effect size estimate was presented in this mediation model, suggesting a significant mediated pathway: path 5.2. school victimization – internalizing problems – past NSSI (β = 0.062; SE = 0.02; p < .01) (Table S1 , Table S2 ).

Final Model 5 of school victimization and No/Past NSSI showing standardized coefficients and standard errors

Note: Significant paths are marked with bold numbers and arrows. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

In Model 6, explained variance of current NSSI was 18.7% (Fig. 12 ). Two significant indirect effect size estimates were presented in this mediation model, suggesting significant mediated pathways: path (6.1) school victimization – externalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.044; SE = 0.01; p < .001); path (6.2) school victimization – internalizing problems – current NSSI (β = 0.090; SE = 0.04; p < .001) (Table S1 , Table S2 ).

Final Model 6 of school victimization and No/Current NSSI showing standardized coefficients and standard errors

Our results indicate that mental health problems and NSSI are significantly more relevant for students who are involved in any form of bullying, either in school or online settings, although differences can be detected between various bullying roles. Internalizing and externalizing problems were significant mediators between different bullying roles and current NSSI, although not in the case of NSSI that occurred in the past. School and online bullying did not differ in significant mediation paths.

Our results show a high level of lifetime NSSI (41.17%) in a high-school student sample, which is similar to the latest NSSI research findings [ 12 ].

In our study, we found that more students were involved in traditional bullying than in cyberbullying (23.35% of the students were involved in traditional, school-based bullying, and 16.84% of children were involved in cyberbullying) which is in accordance with similar studies [ 86 ]. The greatest difference in the number of students involved in different roles occurs among online (3.05%) and school (7.98%) bullies. It might be because students do not consider their acts as harmful in the online space and the feedback of the victim is not as direct or visible as in a face-to face situation.

Gender differences we found were in line with previously reported results [ 20 , 22 ]: more girls were victims, more boys were bullies and bully-victims compared to girls, both in school and in online settings. Feijóo and her colleagues [ 87 ] – measuring school victim status in two ways – found that boys suffered more physical violence, were insulted, called names and were threatened, while girls were victims of more relational bullying behaviors (e.g., were excluded or ignored; had rumors spread about them).

Our results show that when measuring concrete types of school victimization, remarkably more students report being victims compared to when only the frequency of being a victim is measured without specific types of bullying listed. It raises attention on the possible phenomenon that high-school students might not be familiar with the terms of assault and victimization. It is also possible that they are not aware of the fact that certain behaviors towards them in school settings are considered as intentional harm doing or aggression. This result is a valuable information for teachers and scientists: it suggests that students might not be aware of the concept of bullying or that different harmful acts should be considered peer violence.

In accordance with meta-analytical findings [ 40 ], victims, bullies and bully-victims were more likely to engage in NSSI than their peers who were not involved in bullying. Students involved in NSSI report more frequent school victimization compared to peers not involved in bullying. Furthermore, those who were not involved in any role of bullying (neither at school or online) reported using significantly less NSSI methods compared to involved participants. This can be interpreted by using the interpersonal theory of NSSI [ 88 ], which considers NSSI as a negative coping strategy, aimed to reduce the stress caused by negative interpersonal events, such as bullying. Bullying is an adverse interpersonal event as a victim, but also as a perpetrator [ 40 ]. Furthermore, the General Strain Theory [ 89 ] suggests that bullying can be experienced as an unjust act that can be resolved with an aggressive behavior. From the victim’s perspective, aggression towards oneself might be the only available option, thus self-harm can be perceived as a temporarily effective way to manage one’s own stress [ 40 ].

Students who are involved in school or online bullying use more NSSI methods than not involved peers, and among them, bully-victims use the most. The number of NSSI episodes (e.g., how often it occurs) in our study did not differentiate between students who are involved and who are not involved in bullying. Although many articles use the frequency of NSSI episodes as an indicator of NSSI severity [ 57 ], it is suggested that the number of NSSI methods predict severity more significantly. NSSI frequency and the number of used methods can also interact, defining a subgroup of individuals seriously at risk [ 90 ]. Robinson and colleagues [ 91 ] found in a community adolescent sample that among adolescents with a lifetime history of NSSI, the number of NSSI methods was strongly associated with reporting suicidal thoughts and behaviors while the number of NSSI episodes was not.

Those who currently engage in NSSI seem to be vulnerable for both externalizing and internalizing problems. Bully-victims reported the highest level of externalizing symptoms in school and online settings, while victims’ level of internalizing problems was the highest both in school and online settings. Higher levels of internalizing problems were present in bully-victims as well. Internalizing symptoms are often conceptualized as significant negative longitudinal outcomes of bullying victimization [ 92 ], however this longitudinal association seem to be bidirectional [ 93 ]. Peer victimization – considered as a significant stressor – can result in internalizing symptoms in adolescents who tend to interpret stressful events in a self-critical manner [ 32 ]. Furthermore, internalizing problems might increase the risk of becoming a target of peer victimization due to individual vulnerabilities (e.g., social withdrawal, avoidance, fearfulness) [ 94 ]. A result that might raise attention on the possible differences of the nature of online and school bullying is that bullies and bully-victims reported higher level of externalizing problems in online settings than in school settings. Online bully-victims also reported significantly higher levels of externalizing symptoms than online victims, a difference, which was not present in school settings. A possible explanation of this might be the online disinhibition phenomenon [ 95 ], that suggests that in online settings users tend to lose their normal capacity of inhibition, partly or completely, as there is no fear of rejection or judgement [ 96 ]. Online bullying might also be a more impulsive act, as the perpetrator has no personal connection with the victim, no facial expression of the victim’s emotions is available and no acquaintance, previous personal contact or physical imbalance is needed [ 86 , 97 ].

In our study we found that, externalizing and internalizing symptoms are more present in students involved in any role of bullying compared to their not involved peers, but different roles seem to be associated differently to symptoms. The differences were not always significant between bullying roles: the results suggest that bully-victims are the most vulnerable group in school and online bullying regarding mental health problems, both in externalizing and internalizing problems. It might be because bully-victims are rejected and isolated by peers and at the same time they are influenced negatively (e.g., to engage in fights) by those adolescents they are friends with [ 29 ]. This suggests that contextual predictors (e.g., peer status and peer influence) can be essential to deal with the bully-victim status. In accordance with Cook’s [ 29 ] meta-analytical findings our results suggest that a bully is possibly an adolescent with significant externalizing behaviors, and also having internalizing symptoms. A victim is an adolescent showing major internalizing symptoms but also engaging in externalizing behaviors to some extent. A bully-victim possibly has comorbid externalizing and internalizing problems which can further worsen his or her mental health.

Models including current NSSI show slightly higher explained variances than those investigating past NSSI. Regarding the mediation models, our main question was whether externalizing and internalizing symptoms mediate the association between different school and online bullying roles and current and past NSSI. Based on indirect effects, results show diverse mediation patterns with specific paths identified regarding different bullying roles.

When NSSI occurred in the past but not currently, both online and school victim and bully-victim roles were significantly associated to NSSI via internalizing problems. The results also underline that school and online victim roles are more strongly associated to internalizing problems and suggest that bully-victims might have comorbid internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Only internalizing symptoms emerged as significant mediators due to the lack of association between externalizing symptoms and past NSSI that happened at least a month before data collection. Based on our mediation analysis and other results, internalizing symptoms are more strongly associated to NSSI (both past and current) than externalizing problems. Emotional and internalizing disorders show clear conceptual overlap with NSSI, as in emotional disorders, negative emotions are often experienced (e.g., fear, anxiety, sadness), which can possibly be maintained by a maladaptive avoidant or coping strategy, like NSSI [ 98 ]. Although, a systematic review suggests that externalizing pathology is also strongly associated to self-injurious behaviors [ 56 ], the study included a wide range of externalizing problems (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, intermittent explosive disorder) that our study did not, furthermore they included studies which did not differentiate between nonsuicidal and suicidal self-injury. Some studies found a link between externalizing pathology and NSSI happened in the previous year (e.g., [ 57 ], but in our study, past NSSI could occur any time earlier in life, therefore, developmental aspect might play a role in the association of NSSI and externalizing symptoms. Furthermore, the questionnaire asked about externalizing and internalizing symptoms in the previous 6 months, but past NSSI could have occurred earlier than that.

In models with current NSSI, externalizing and internalizing problems seem to be a considerable and significant mediator at most of the bullying roles both in school and online settings. Only bully role was not associated to current NSSI via internalizing problems, which is in accordance with the study’s previous findings, namely that bully role is strongly associated to externalizing problems. Victim and bully-victim status were both associated to current NSSI via externalizing and internalizing symptoms as well, which suggests that not only bully-victims might show comorbid internalizing and externalizing symptoms [ 29 ], but victims as well. Therefore, future research should put special attention on bully-victims and also on victims to specify which leading symptom(s) might be in direct association to the involvement in bullying. Longitudinal studies can reveal the dynamics of the development of being a bully-victim: whether bully-victims were victimized first (i.e., bullied by others) and then started to bully others, or in the opposite way, whether they were initially bullies who then became victims because others took revenge against them [ 44 , 99 ]. A study found that victims in a bullying episode might use aggressive strategies to cope with the situation that tend to perpetuate and escalate the bullying interaction [ 100 ] and therefore might make them a bully-victim. This might be especially true for victims with a relatively high level of externalization [ 86 ] which can also explain our findings that victim status was associated not only to internalizing but to externalizing symptoms as well. In the bully-victim role, guilt might have a special role as well due to the experiences both as a perpetrator who commits the same acts as were done to the person previously [ 101 ].

The results of the models containing school and online bullying, victim role was confirmed by the last two models, containing the frequency of different school victimization types; frequency of school victimization was associated to past NSSI only via internalizing symptoms, while to current NSSI both types of symptoms emerged as significant paths.

The mediation analysis, the settings of bullying (school or online) did not show differences regarding the significant paths via the mediators, which indicates that, in the association of bullying and NSSI, internalizing and externalizing symptoms do not differentiate between school and online settings. The results also suggest that internalizing and externalizing symptoms should be addressed when NSSI occurs currently in a student’s life. As externalizing and internalizing problems only partly mediate the association between different bullying roles and NSSI, to build a complex model, other factors should be considered as well. Some psychological features had been already identified as mediator variables, like social self-efficacy (an individual’s belief that he or she can effectively carry out social tasks) [ 47 , 102 ], negative emotions [ 45 ], depressive mood and depressive symptoms [ 22 , 37 ]. It is also essential to identify factors that can help to cope with stress due to bullying and therefore prevent NSSI as a possible maladaptive coping strategy. Hay and Meldrum [ 45 ] found that the relationship between bullying victimization and NSSI almost disappeared in those adolescents who experienced supportive parenting practices. The need for evidence-based guidelines to prevent and react to NSSI behaviors within schools had already been articulated [ 103 ] and the current study emphasizes its importance by highlighting that school-related factors, like bullying, is associated to NSSI.

Finally, limitations of this study are considered. A possible limitation of the study is its cross-sectional nature, which does not allow any assumptions, whether bullying or externalizing and internalizing problems are predicting NSSI or not. Another limitation might be the validity of the measurement of different bullying roles. In the current study, when asking the frequency of concrete school victimization types, participants reported a remarkably higher occurrence of school victimization than when asking only the frequency in general. As different bullying roles (victim, bully, bully-victim) were established based on the reported frequency (without asking concrete acts), it is possible that participants would have reported a higher and therefore more valid frequency of bully acts based on different types of bully acts given. This limitation however raises attention to the importance of making awareness of the concept and nature of bullying and peer violence in schools. A relatively high prevalence of bullying might be because one single act of bullying (perpetration, victimization, or both) was enough to fulfill a certain category of bullying role. Regarding bullying roles, another limitation should be the possible clustering effect of students from the same class (students from the same class know each other and spend a lot of time together), that was not controlled in the current study. Future studies using more robust analyses (e.g., multilevel structural equation modeling) are suggested to take care of this statistical issue. The unequal number of male and female participants in this study should be considered a limitation, as gender differences are remarkable in NSSI [ 104 ] and in bullying [ 24 ] as well.

In our study, we applied a traditional way of distinguishing different bullying roles (bully, victim, bully-victim) [ 19 , 20 ] however, according to other perspectives, children could fall along a bully-victim continuum and roles demonstrate a significant overlap [ 105 ]. The results should be interpreted with the approach that due to the possible overlap between different bullying roles that were not taken into consideration in the current study, it is possible that students involved in both online and school bullying but in different roles have different psychological needs and difficulties compared to students being involved in one form of bullying, in one single role. Therefore, in future studies, latent cluster or latent profile analyses should be applied to be able to distinguish these, often co-occurring bullying roles.

Although, the sample size of the current study is adequate to make complex statistical analyses, eight subgroups were formed (school victims, school bullies, school bully-victims, not involved participants in school bullying, online victims, online bullies, online bully-victims, not involved participants in online bullying) from which the group of online bullies contains only n = 31 participants.

Current NSSI seems to be more relevant regarding bullying in our study, but a limitation might be that past NSSI could have occurred any time during life, while bullying roles and psychological symptoms (externalizing and internalizing problems) were measured based on the occurrence during the previous few months, or previous six months, respectively. Finally, regarding that our study focused exclusively on the path through which bullying is linked to NSSI via externalizing and internalizing symptoms, future research should focus on other possible mediator and moderator variables.

Based on the results, students involved in bullying are more vulnerable to NSSI and to psychological symptoms compared to their peers who are not involved in bullying. Externalizing and internalizing problems do significantly mediate the association of different bullying roles and NSSI, but to different extent and through different paths. Psychological symptoms seem to play a significant role when NSSI occurs currently throughout the last month. Bully role seems to be associated firstly to externalizing symptoms, but internalizing problems can be present as well. Victim role seems to be slightly associated to externalizing problems, but internalizing symptoms should be addressed in the first place. At bully-victims, comorbid internalizing and externalizing symptoms might occur, however their engagement in NSSI does not seem to be more severe than victims’ or bully’s engagement. Bullying prevention is important because its connection to NSSI is significant. Inconsistencies regarding the self-report of victim role and different types of victimization raises attention on the importance of raising awareness on the phenomenon of bullying and empowering more vulnerable students to be conscious about being maltreated by peers.

Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Nonsuicidal self-injury

World Health Organization

Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study

Inventory of Statements About Self-Injury

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

Standard deviation

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Melinda Reinhardt was supported by the National Research, Development, and Innovation Office – NKFIH, Budapest, Hungary under grant number FK 138604. Gyöngyi Kökönyei was supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development, and Innovation Office (FK128614, K143764), the Hungarian Brain Research Program (Grants: 2017 − 1.2.1-NKP-2017-00002), and the Hungarian Brain Research Program 3.0 (NAP2022-I-4/2022).

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Drubina, B., Kökönyei, G., Várnai, D. et al. Online and school bullying roles: are bully-victims more vulnerable in nonsuicidal self-injury and in psychological symptoms than bullies and victims?. BMC Psychiatry 23 , 945 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-05341-3

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Indian government initiatives on cyberbullying: A case study on cyberbullying in Indian higher education institutions

Published: 04 July 2022
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In the digitally empowered society, increased internet utilization leads to potential harm to the youth through cyberbullying on various social networking platforms. The cyberbullying stats keep on rising each year, leading to detrimental consequences. In response to this online threat, the Indian Government launched different helplines, especially for the children and women who need assistance, various complaint boxes, cyber cells, and made strict legal provisions to curb online offenses. This research evaluates the relevant initiatives. Additionally, a survey is conducted to get insights into cyberbullying in higher education institutions, discussing multiple factors responsible for youth and adolescents being cyberbullied and a few measures to combat it in universities/colleges.

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1 Introduction

Cyberbullying is harassment done to the victim to cause harm via any electronic method, including social media resulting in defamation, public disclosure of private facts, and intentional emotional distress (Watts et al., 2017 ). It can be related to sending and posting cruel texts or images with the help of social media and other digital communication devices to harm a victim (Washington, 2015 ). It is a repeated behavior done by the individual with the help of social media, over the gaming, and messaging platforms that target mainly to lower the victims' self-esteem.

In the past decade, Cyberbullying has been an emerging phenomenon that has a socio-psychological impact on adolescents. With the advancement of digital technology, youth is more attached to social media, resulting in cyberbullying. With the increasing usage of techno-savvy gadgets, social media applications are highly prevalent among the youth, which can be advantageous and disadvantageous. It allows sharing posts, photos, and messages personally and privately among friends, while on the other hand, it involves an increase in cyberbullying by creating fake accounts on the apps (Ansary, 2020 ).

In July 2021, 4,80 billion people worldwide were on social media, that's almost 61% of the world's total population depicting an annual growth of 5.7% as 7 lac new users join per day (Digital Around the World, 2021 ). As the number of users increases, there is a surge in cyberbullying; according to a UNICEF poll, more than 33% of youngsters are reported as victims of online bullying in 30 countries worldwide (UNICEF, 2020 ). Moreover, it is seen that one in five has skipped school due to fear of cyberbullying and violence. According to NCRB, 50,035 cases of cybercrime were reported in India in the year 2020, among which 1614 cases of cyberstalking, 762 cases of cyber blackmailing, 84 cases of defamation, 247 cases of fake profiles, and 838 cases of fake news were investigated. NCRB data Footnote 1 reported that cybercrimes in India increased by 63.48% (27248 cases to 44548 cases) from 2018 to 2019, which upsurged by 12.32% in 2020 (44548 cases to 50035cases).

Multiple cases of cyberbullying were reported across the country. As per news reports, in November 2016, a 23-year-old Ooshmal Ullas, MBBS student of KMCT Medical College in Mukkam, Kerala, committed suicide by jumping due to being cyberbullied over a Facebook post and injured her spine, legs, and head. Footnote 2 One more incident was reported on 9 January 2018 where a 20 years old Hindu woman killed herself after facing harassment on WhatsApp over her friendship with a Muslim man in Karnataka. Footnote 3 Another case was witnessed, a 15-year-old boy connected with the 'Bois locker room', an Instagram group where they share photos of minor girls and exchange lewd comments, was arrested by Delhi police on 4 May 2020. Footnote 4 An incident occurred on 26 June 2014 a 17 years old girl committed suicide after Satish and Deepak, her friends, morphed her photos and posted them on Facebook along with her cell phone number. Footnote 5 Many such cases are reported every year, and this rising number of suicides due to cyberbullying is alarming and worrisome.

The primary cause of cyberbullying is anonymity, in which a bully can easily target anyone over the internet by hiding their original identity. The psychological features play an eminent role in determining whether a person is a victim or a bully. A pure bully has a high level of aggression and needs succorance, whereas the pure victim has high levels of interception, empathy, and nurturance (Watts et al., 2017 ). It has been found that various factors are responsible for becoming a cyberbully. According to Tanrikulu (Tanrikulu & Erdur-Baker, 2021 ), Personality traits are responsible for cyberbullying behavior. The primary cause is online inhibition, in which a person bullies others with the motives of harm, domination, revenge, or entertainment. Other causes are moral disengagement as the findings imply that, regardless of the contemporaneous victimization status, moral disengagement has an equal impact on bullying perpetration for those who are most engaged. Pure bullies have more moral disengagement than those bullies/victims who aren't as active in bullying (Runions et al., 2019 ). The next one is Narcissism , which means individuals consider social status and authority dominant over their human relations. The last is aggression, which refers to overcoming negativities and failures by force, triggering them to do cyberbullying for satisfaction. Similarly, there are some personality traits associated with cyberbullying participants as a study (Ngo et al., 2021 ) examined three groups of online users where the first one is the "Intervene" group which believes in uplifting the morale of victims by responding to cyberbullying acts while others are the "Ignore" group that doesn't involve in reacting to the cyberbullying acts and just ignores the victims or leave the cyberspace and the third one is "Join in" that either promote the bullying or just enjoy watching cyberbullying act without any participation. The adolescents belonging to intervene group may play a critical role in reducing cyberbullying behavior and its consequences.

Social acceptance also plays a vital role in reducing bullying. It has been observed that among students who lack socialization activity, an individual contributes a high incidence rate of bullying that leads to victimization. Yubero carried out a study that depicts individuals feeling more comfortable in online environments that are not accepted by their peers and hence are more exposed to cyberbullying victimization. Apart from this, the relationship between loneliness and cyberbullying is more prevalent because lonely youth devote quality of time to the internet hence facing cyberbullying (Yubero et al., 2017 ). In this situation, students could either defend themselves or rely on cyber bystander intervention. A cyber bystander is one offering assistance to the victim, either individually or socially, and they are more inclined to act if they feel more empathy (Wang, 2021 ). Since interfering publicly may have detrimental consequences, cyber bystanders are more worried about being retaliated against or being the next victim.

Parental support and monitoring also help to escape cyberbullying victimization. It has been observed that parents who employed autonomy-supportive measures, such as understanding the adolescent's viewpoint, providing alternatives, and giving justifications for prohibitions, had youngsters who reported lower cyberbullying than parents who used dominating measures (especially using guilt, shame, and conditional regard) (Legate et al., 2019 ).

Cyberbullying is one of the significant problems that need to be eradicated. Due to cyberbullying, youngsters face many issues related to their health like depression, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, and even it leads to low academic performance, etc. Several aspects are considered responsible for cyber victimization like social media, online hours, parental monitoring, awareness, social engagement, etc. The incidences of cyberbullying are elevating day by day even after the strict crime-fighting measures by state and central authorities. But the implementation of specific rules and regulations against cyberbullying crime may alter the future scenario. The Indian Government is quite aware of the issue of cyberbullying faced on social media, and the Government carries out many remedial interventions like women and child helpline numbers. Moreover, the Government provides legal implementations and acts that are trying to curb the issues of cyberbullying.

2 Aim and objective

This study aims to evaluate the initiatives taken by the Indian Government at the forefront of this noble battle to stop cyberbullying incidences and to find out various factors that make youth more vulnerable to cyberbullying. The following objectives were expected to be accomplished:

Enunciating the problem of Cyberbullying in higher education institutions.

Assessing the initiatives of the Indian Government, legal provisions for cyberbullying, and their amendments.

Evaluate the responses of higher education students to cyberbullying questionnaire.

To examine the factors responsible for cyber victimization and a few measures to combat cyberbullying.

This study is divided into two modules, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 , to achieve the aforementioned objectives. The first module focuses on explaining and exploring cyberbullying on various online platforms via digital devices, as well as preventative actions done by our Government and different cyberbullying legislation in India. In the second module, we conducted an online survey to access and examine the responses of University/College students.

Module 1- Outline of Research

Module 2-Case Study

3 Organization of paper

This paper is organized as follows, the Section 4 covers the review of research work on Cyberbullying in higher education institutions. The Section 5 highlights various merits and demerits associated with the internet, social media, and cyberbullying faced. Initiatives taken by the Indian Government in response to cyberbullying are elaborated in Section 6 . The Section 7 provides insight into the survey conducted on students of higher educational institutions. It comprises data collection, data pre-processing, methods, and algorithms employed in conducting and evaluating the responses of the participants. A detailed analysis of the results is mentioned in the "Discussion" section. In the later part of the study, measures to combat cyberbullying, major conclusions, and future recommendations are specified.

4 Related work

In the context of cyberbullying, several studies have been conducted in various countries at college and school levels, examining the different parameters responsible for cyberbullying victimization and the laws against cyberbullying. Different countries have their legal provisions to tackle the situation. A study by (Çevik et al., 2021 ) has discussed factors contributing to cyberbullying and victimization, which are problematic internet usage, school burnout, and parental monitoring. As the long hours of internet usage have resulted in the establishment of fake friendships, low academic profile, aggression, low self-esteem, and loneliness. School burnout includes students lacking interest in studies, exhaustion over studies has resulted in high usage of internet sources, increasing the risk of peer bullying. Parental monitoring plays a crucial role in the lives of adolescents, but a lack of coordination is witnessed between the adolescent and parents, leading to cyberbullying and victimization.

Yubero (Yubero et al., 2017 ) surveyed a sample of 243 Spanish university students in the social science stream, and the results confirmed Only 9.8% of higher education students experienced cyberbullying on the campus, which is much lower than reported by other studies, it may be due to the time frame selection of case study or its definition. Various parameters that may be considered a prime cause of being a victim have been examined. As a result, not much correlation was found between the loneliness of a student and cyberbullying victimization; self-esteem and cyberbullying victimization. But a negative correlation was seen between perceived acceptance by peers and cyberbullying victimization. So, it concludes that emphasis must not only be laid upon preventive measures but also on educating or training peers to help each other and building good relationships with people from whom they can seek advice. Whereas, in Ghana, 878 students took part in this study, where 83% of students have experienced cyberbullying at least once, which is much higher than the previous study result. It seems that cyberbullying is acceptable everyday behavior among Ghanaian youth, even don't feel about reporting it, and not much difference between the personality traits of victims and non-victim seen (Sam et al., 2019 ).

Students can also use a few precautionary measures to reduce cyberbullying by changing their profile settings, as blocking and deleting are considered highly used protective decisions to prevent inappropriate actions over a social networking site like Facebook. Chapin (Chapin, 2016 ), has used the precaution adoption process model to promote precautionary behavior to lower the risk associated with the health due to cyberbullying. According to Chapin, it is seen that many students are aware of the act of bullying but don't take any action.

Cyberbullying has long-term effects, and bullying behavior may continue much longer than expected. In a study, 638 Israeli undergraduate students participated, and various cyberbullying problems were evaluated. The study demonstrated that students experiencing cyberbullying face academic problems, anxiety, career problems, depression, family problems, interpersonal problems, self-esteem, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. 57.4% of participants reported that cyberbullying among the youth will enter the workplace, which will continue throughout their lifetime (Peled, 2019 ).

In educational institutions, social networking platforms are beneficial, as Alamri et al. (Alamri et al., 2020 ) surveyed 192 students of King Faisal, a Saudi Arabian University. This survey was based on the use of SMA's (Social Media Applications) for education sustainability in the higher education system. In their research, they proposed a Theory acceptance Model used in conjunction with constructivism theory. In this model, they developed 14 hypotheses for the adoption of SMA's in students' learning systems and analyzed positive assessment of students for the adoption of SMA's in their higher education. Al-Rahmi et al. also discussed the use of Social media for Collaborative learning and information sharing among the students of the higher education system, in which a survey was conducted among the 538 university students. Students gave positive outcomes towards using SM (social media) for collaboration and student learning, highlighting the perceived enjoyment and ease. But at the same time, it has been observed that it may be affected due to cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and social media addiction (Al-Rahmi et al., 2020 ).

Ho et al. depicted the relationships between social support, cyberbullying victimization, and depressive symptoms and specialized their results, particularly studying the behavior of Vietnamese students (Ho et al., 2020 ). This research revealed that those students who are cyberbullied develop a higher risk of depressive symptoms. Still, social support, for instance, parental, peer, and special person support, can be considered a significant factor that can protect learners from developing such symptoms of depression. Also, while analyzing the survey results on 606 Vietnamese University students, it was found that social support is negatively correlated with cyberbullying, and social support is the only factor that helped those students come out from depression caused by cyberbullying.

Based on a cohort study performed in Hue city, 648 students were called from different schools. Only 9% of students were reported to be cyberbullied, while 17.6% suffered school bullying (Nguyen et al., 2020 ). Parental support has shown a protective relationship promoting the well-being among youth, more understanding and accepting attitude of parents is associated with reducing the consequences of cyberbullying that are mental issues, self-harm, and suicidal behaviors, including suicidal ideation, suicidal planning, and suicidal attempts in adolescents.

To assess risk factors and their impact in Myanmar, Khine et al. (Khine et al., 2020 ) conducted a cross-sectional study at a Medical university in Myanmar. The survey included 412 students in it, and the survey was based on factors leading to cyberbullying victimization during the last 12 months. The results were analyzed based on multiple logistic regression analyses. During the research, it was found that non-resident students or students studying at university for less than three years had a greater risk of being cyberbullying victims. The work also discussed the antagonistic relation between cyberbullying and academic performance and the positive relationship between cyberbullying and substance abuse, such as smoking and drinking alcohol. The research aimed that counseling services, cyber safety educational programs, and awareness of cyberbullying are urgently needed for university students of Myanmar.

Discussing another social networking platform, Aizenkot and Kashy-Rosenbaum have done a crossectional study to detect cyberbullying victimization in WhatsApp classmate groups in which 4477 students participated to complete the questionnaire. Here they (Aizenkot & Kashy-Rosenbaum, 2020 ) concluded that 56.5% of the students reported being victimized at least once, and 30% experienced it more than twice, while 18% (approx.) were victimized due to verbal violence. Other forms of victimization observed were offensive responses, insults, group violence, selectivity, particularly forced removal, and denied entry to WhatsApp groups. It leads our attention toward social media applications that distress the students.

Even During the covid 19 pandemic, when people were very much relied on online platforms due to social distancing and strict quarantine, they were suffering from depression and behavioral and mental problems. At the same time, especially the residents of Hubei, China, were facing all these problems and excessive cyberbullying, agitation, stigma, and racism peaked due to the first case of covid being reported in the city. This online bullying has severe psychological effects, and people were opting for various coping strategies. So here, the efforts must be taken unitedly by the worldwide online media, the health care workers, and the Government to prevent the secondary disaster of the pandemic in which cyberbullying was one of the major issues of concern for China (Yang, 2021 ).

5 Social media and cyberbullying in higher education institutions

Web 2.0 has initiated social media users, especially youngsters, to inculcate their viewpoints and express their thought processes in a virtual environment. Social media is a crucial platform that has encouraged students to expand interaction and has leveled up their performance. Despite its indispensable assets, liabilities cannot be overlooked in any condition (Sarwar et al., 2019 ). Cyberbullying has expanded with the higher usage of techno-savvy gadgets. The present times have modified common bullying into the involvement of harm, cruel thinking, and blackmailing through networking sites to the victims, especially on college campuses resulting in an increasing number of dropouts and suicides (Washington, 2015 ).

Higher command of mobile phones by adolescents has resulted in easy access to social networking sites without any fear. It has been increasingly contributing to cyberbullying, which has long-term adverse effects. Very few believe that it has a positivity that students become tough and develop a tendency of resilience and self-advocacy. Furthermore, it has been visualized that students do not know whether their institutions have a cyberbullying policy, and most institutions are not even prepared for handling such situations (Luker & Curchack, 2017 ).

Nowadays as the graduates are highly active over the internet for knowledge sharing, collaborative learning, and research activities which is beneficial yet resulted in the high indulgence of youth in cyberbullying, leading to negative impacts like aggressiveness, depression, low self-esteem, and also suicidal thoughts (Rasheed et al., 2020 ). Although there have been a myriad number of profits availed by everyone in the status quo, many people still undergo the undesirable effects that may alter one's privacy, security, and emotional health status. From bygone days, it has been witnessed that Cyberbullying is an urgent issue on the social platform that can turn out either short-range, long-range, temporary, or permanent effects on one's life (Abaido, 2020 ). According to Yoshida (Yoshida, 2021 ), different kinds of online behaviors are shown by university students on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They form different communities based on their knowledge or depending upon fan following while swinging their interest from one topic to another. They share their viewpoints on these online platforms where different audiences are reading them. Also, they lack sociability skills and have less knowledge about these online communities. Consequently, this incapability may lead to cyber victimization.

Even the young social media users of color have faced a lot of racial discrimination over the online platforms leading to mental health risks resulting in depressive symptoms, anxiety, and illicit drug use (Tao & Fisher, 2022 ).

Online gaming among young adults is prevailing at a high level with time as a good source of entertainment, but it's being observed to be one of the leading causes of bullying. Hence, online games have resulted in more aggression, violence, conflicts, emotional distress, mental torture, and physical arousals where family and community can act as an inevitable source to reduce the addiction to the internet and strengthen their mental health (Huang et al., 2021 ).

Moreover, students being cyberbullied do not share such incidences with their parents because they fear losing internet access. So, parents could not be assumed as their support system. The other approach is complaining, where a shocking dimension has been observed: there are no policies or federal laws dealing with cyberbullying directly; a federal system covers only a few aspects of cyberbullying (Washington, 2015 ). Another study has also concluded that victims are unable to express any kind of violent cybercrime behavior faced them, presuming that it can result in limited access to internet sources and gadgets by their parents. The victims also perceive that adults cannot understand the issues faced by them. Hence, this depicts a huge gap between teachers, parents, and adolescents (Ngo, et al., 2021 ).

Due to Cyberbullying on-campus, students are experiencing various adverse effects, including feelings of sadness, embarrassment, humiliation, desire for vengeance, and physical and mental retaliation (Cassidy et al., 2017 ). Despite strict rules and awareness, students do not come forward to report cyberbullying. They are afraid, feel self-ashamed, cry, become depressed, suffer from anxiety, experience insomnia, or even miss school (Watts et al., 2017 ).

Cyberbullying is considered one of the potential risks of relying on online technologies and has been one of the significant technology abuse examples in the past decade due to its harmful and sometimes deadly impacts. Counseling acts as a tonic and curative approach that may aid the cyberbullying sufferers in overcoming their fears and issues faced by them. Initiating a hotline or a mobile application can also turn into a valuable perspective. To foster counseling, short seminars and discussion sessions must be taken out regularly among the scholars. Bystanders should also take some initiative to eradicate online bullying situations by breaking their silence at the very right time (Abaido, 2020 ).

6 Indian government initiatives and legal provisions

Various laws of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860 and the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) listed under legal provisions can be used to fight cyberbullies. A National Cybercrime reporting portal has been established for complaints, and a few more government initiatives are discussed.

6.1 Legal provisions

6.1.1 it act, 2000.

IT ACT, 2000 Footnote 6 came into power to provide legal identification regarding the exchange of data electronically. In computer-related offenses, up to 3 to 5 years imprisonment and rupees one lac fine or both can be charged and, in some cases, even more. Under IT Act, sections 66 A, 66 C, 66 D, and 66 E, punishment is given to the person involved in any crime of insulting or fraud or privacy violation, etc., utilizing the internet, social media, and other digital media devices. IT act, section 67, 67A, and section 67 B deal with publishing and transmitting material containing the sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form. All these sections of IT Acts are explained in Table 8 of the Appendix.

6.1.2 The Indian penal code 1860

The Indian Penal Code (IPC) Footnote 7 is the official criminal code of India that covers all substantive aspects of criminal law, which came into existence in the year 1862 in all British Presidencies. IPC Sections 292A, 354 A, 354 D, 499, 507, and 509 punish people who indulge in blackmailing, harassment, stalking, threatening, intruding, etc. (for details of IPC laws refer to Table 8 of Appendix).

6.1.3 POCSO ACT, 2012

Protection of children from sexual offenses (POCSO) is a complete law for protecting children below 18 years from the heinous acts of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography.

6.2 Government initiatives

6.2.1 the nirbhaya funds scheme.

It is an initiative of the Government of India under the Nirbhaya funds scheme for ensuring the safety of women and children. The ministry of Home affairs generated a single number (112) Footnote 8 which was under the Emergency response support system (ERSS), to cope with any emergencies where immediate assistance from police, fire, and rescue, or any other help is required. https://112.gov.in/

6.2.2 Cybercrime prevention against women and children scheme (CCPWC Scheme)

Under the CCPWA scheme, Footnote 9 for cybercrime prevention and setting up of Cyber forensic training labs grant of INR 87.12 Crore was released to states/UTs. Moreover, INR 6 crores were given to enhance police and prosecutors' training sessions. Under the CCPWA scheme, different units are established that are responsible for reporting online criminal acts and their investigations, analyzing cybercrime reports, and detecting any alarming cybercrime situation. Various components of the CCPWA scheme are given in Table 9 of the Appendix.

6.2.3 Indian cybercrime coordination centre (I4C) scheme

To prevent unnecessary use of social space, I4C acts as an essential tool to fight against cybercrime. Moreover, it is supported by fast pace technological advancements and international agencies to work on several activities. Its objective is to deal with different issues faced on online media, giving special attention to women and children victims and creating awareness among youth. Various components of the I4C scheme are mentioned in Table 10 of the Appendix .

6.3 Cybercrime reporting portals & helplines

6.3.1 national cyber crime reporting portal.

NCCR portal is an initiative of the Government of India that submits online complaints by the victims who have faced criticism, especially women and children. Footnote 10 They provide immediate action on the filed complaints with the help of local police. Since the technology has been overstepping every conventional method, it has also outrun the offline process of filing cybercrime complaints. The cybercrime complaints can be registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, which facilitates the nationwide cybercrime complaints and makes it feasible for the victims/complainants to have access to the cybercrime cells and all the information related to cybercrimes at their fingertips. The written complaint can also be filed by registering the crime-faced victim at a nearby cyber crime cell. Cyber Crime Portal State-wise, Nodal cyber cell officers and grievance officers' contact details and e-mail IDs are provided on the website https://cybercrime.gov.in/ . Footnote 11

6.3.2 Portal for women and children

Various helpline numbers and complaint portals for women and children are listed in Table 1 .

6.4 Anti-bullying or cyberbullying laws in India for schools and colleges

With the high increase in bullying in schools, especially in boarding schools in India, the HRD ministry has launched anti-ragging committees to reduce the rate of bullying. These committees work on punishing students who are indulged in the activities along with rustication in case of high involvement in bullying. The University Grants Commission comes forward with anti-ragging rules in universities and colleges with proper UGC regulations on pulling out the rate of ragging in higher institutions. Footnote 12

6.5 Other portals & awareness campaigns

The Ministry of Home Affairs has launched a centralized online cybercrime registration portal that has helped victims to register a complaint online rather than visiting the police station. Along with that Delhi and Indore police has a cyber cell to make people aware regarding filing a complaint online by the following link:

http://www.cybercelldelhi.in/

http://www.indorepolice.org/cyber-crime.php

https://ifflab.org/how-to-file-a-cyber-crime-complaint-in-india/

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal launched the cyber safety awareness campaign in Assam on the occasion of the foundation day of the Assam police, which joined with cyber security and formed a Cyber Peace Foundation (CPF).

Awareness Campaign on Cyber Security By DSEJ

Jammu has made an awareness campaign for up to 2 Lakh stakeholders of the School Education Department on cyber hygiene and security held on 15 January 2021 along with online as well as offline counseling sessions on a large scale covering cyber grooming, cyberbullying, phishing, safeguarding social media accounts, online banking frauds, lottery frauds, remote access scams, social media privacy policy, etc. Many such awareness campaigns are organized nationwide by the respective Governments.

7 A Case study based on a survey

In this section, to investigate the problem of Cyberbullying in higher educational institutions, a survey has been conducted among university/college-going students that provide clear insights into the data analysis and case study outcomes.

7.1 Data analysis methodology

It includes the manual about designing the questionnaire for the survey, the process of collecting data, pre-processing data, techniques used to conduct the survey, and finally, applying algorithms to the collected data for evaluating the outcomes.

7.1.1 Designing the questionnaire

An online survey was conducted to gain insights into the feedback given by students on the cyberbullying faced by students of higher education institutions in India. The survey contains a questionnaire designed to collect information on the cyberbullying experience, various issues faced by students related to cyberbullying, the dependence of cyberbullying victimization on other parameters, institutional support, and feedback from respondents to stop cyberbullying. According to Lesley Andres, while preparing for analysis, we should identify the research problem questions and locate ourselves in the research design and process for designing an effective survey questionnaire (Andres, 2012 ). The quality of data analysis through survey questions depends on various factors like topics covered in the questionnaire, wording, format, and organization (Singh et al., 2021 ), (Williams, 2003 ).

In this study, a total of 72 questions were classified into five sections: the first is about general information and computer knowledge, the second one is related to cyberbullying victimization, the third is for cyberbullying and cyber-bystander, fourth discusses the actions and effects of cyberbullying victimization, and the last one is about institutional support and suggestion. A google form was prepared, and the specific link was shared over the e-mails, and social media platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. The database was collected over three weeks, and due to the length of the questionnaire, 220 responses were received. 80% of respondents belong to the age group of 17 to 24. The general information about the participants, moreover their devices in use, and social networking sites being used most frequently are listed in Table 2 . 60% of our participants are hostellers, where most of the students are doing their bachelor's degrees. WhatsApp is the most popularly used application among the students, being used by 88% of users, and 60% (approx.) of users have observed cyberbullying at their campuses.

7.1.2 Data pre-processing

To remove the anomalies of the database collected in the survey few steps like data cleaning, filtration, removing duplicate responses, and the language translation are done (Maier et al., 2018 ). For statistically evaluating the responses, such as finding the correlation between various parameters, the Likert scale was used to convert responses to equivalent numerical values. Furthermore, the textual answers or the suggestions obtained from users are also pre-processed manually and with the help of algorithmic techniques of R package libraries for grammatical correction, removal of numbers, special characters, misleading information, and using google translator for conversion of regional language to English wherever required.

7.1.3 Outcomes of survey questions

In a survey question, it was asked to give their opinion on which gender is bullied more :

32.3% believe that females are bullied more than males, 10.5% believe that males are bullied more, 47.7% believe that both are bullied equally, and 9.5% prefer not to say. But the actual results of the survey go with the belief of the majority, where we find out that 54% of males are bullied, and approximately 51% of females are bullied. In fact not a significant difference between their bullying percentages.

Definition of cyberbullying: An understanding by respondents

To have an idea, according to the respondents' about what cyberbullying is? According to the responses received, more than 50% of the respondents were clear about it, and the majority believe that threatening someone, taking or sharing someone's embarrassing photographs, and posting something hurtful on social media are major cyberbullying acts. Table 3 depicts the rest of the percentage of the views about Cyberbullying definition.

Views on cyberbullying: Is it a normal part of the online world, and nothing could be done to stop it: Here, the views of male and female respondents do not deviate much. For both of them, it is unacceptable. 70% of the respondents disagree with the view that it is normal we can't stop it, and only 15% of the respondents take it as a normal activity, as shown in Fig. 3 .

Cyberbullying is a normal part of the online world

Actual percentage facing bullying classified under different categories and factors:

In Table 4 , the percentage distribution of bullied and non-bullied participants is mentioned depending on various factors like gender, social media usage hours, computer proficiency, area of residence, parent's talk, and their qualification. According to the number of hours of social media usage, on average, students use it for 4 h, and respondents using it for more than 4 h are bullied more than others. In addition, more than half of the participants have good computer knowledge, but not much dependency is seen between the computer proficiency and the percentage bullied by implementing the Chi-Square test using the Likert scale in Rstudio (Mircioiu & Atkinson, 2017 ). A p-value of 0.135 has been obtained, which is insignificant for showing a relation between computer proficiency and bullying percentage (Rana & Singhal, 2015 ). A weak relation is found between parents' talk and bullying; those whose parents frequently talk about cyberbullying are bullied a little bit less as compared to those whose parents never or very rarely talk about it. No correlation is found between the area of residence, and parental qualification of the students bullied.

When you were bullied, it was related to:

Of the respondents who have been cyberbullied due to multiple reasons, the majority of victims do not know the reason, and the most prevalent reason is their physical appearance and religion. Due to their sexual orientation and race, they have also faced bullying, and disability is also one of the reasons. The percentage of various reasons is given in Fig. 4 .

Reasons for cyberbullying

Questions related to CYBER VICTIMIZATION, CYBERBULLYING, and CYBER BYSTANDER:

Out of total female respondants, 51.30% of females faced bullying, 11.30% were unsure, and 37.39% were not bullied. In the case of males, 55.24% of males faced bullying, 14.24% were unsure, and 30.48% were not bullied at all. Among the persons with disabilities, 83% of males and 75% of females having any type of disability faced cyberbullying.

Out of the total bullies, 64.40% of bullies are male, and 35.60% of bullies are female. 18.26% of all the female participants accepted that they had bullied someone, and approximately twice the women's percentage, i.e., 36.19% of male participants have bullied someone. But in the case of the cyber bystanders, there is not much difference in their percentages. 44.34% of the female participants and 56.19% of male participants were cyber bystanders, respectively. Various questions and their response percentages related to cyber victimization, cyberbullying, and cyber bystanders are listed in Table 5 .

Actions are taken after being Cyberbullied & Effects on victims:

In the survey conducted, more than half of the students (51.8%) are not aware of cyberbullying laws, and 58.2% have no clue where to report or what action should be taken against the bully. It has been seen that among the cyber victims, 65.15% of students know the bully.

Various persons can experience cyberbullying, and according to the responses, among the students bullied, 40.20% of cyberbullying was done by their friends, 9.28% by their relatives or cousins, 31.95% was done by their peer group, 25.77% by any senior, 14.43% by a junior and 53.60% by unknown. As mentioned in Table 6 , most cyberbullying victims feel comfortable discussing the matter with their friends or with nobody, only one-quarter of the percentage discuss it with their parents.

In Table 6 , various questions related to cyberbullying victims, their reaction toward a bully, their parent's reaction, how the cyberbullying affected studies and work, and the victim's feelings are mentioned with percentages. Most of the victims felt angry and depressed, and around half of the victims asked the bully to stop this behavior.

As shown in Fig. 5 , the R studio corrplot function is used to find correlations among various parameters, and it is observed that both the work and health of the cyberbullying victim are greatly affected.

Correlation graph

In further detailed questioning, it is observed that 62% of cyberbullying victims ignore the messages of bullies so that he/they would lose interest, whereas 25% have sent threatening messages to bullies about doing such acts. Approximately 27% seek online advice on being bullied. Due to lack of awareness, only 40% of the victims save the cyberbullying messages or images as evidence. 32.4% of victims changed their contact details like phone number, e-mail address, chat name, or profile information visibility on social networking sites. 79% of the victims have blocked the bully so that he/she could not contact more.

Institutional support

It has been observed that higher education institutions do not provide much support to the students and make them aware of this online behavior, as 68.2% of the colleges and universities are not taking any initiative to make students aware by conducting any awareness tutorial or campaign. Only 42.8% of students who were bullied have taken guidance from university. Furthermore, 68.6% of the students have no idea where to report or to find the anti-bullying policy in their institution. Approximately 69.5% think their institutions are not doing enough to tackle the problem.

7.1.4 Topic modeling to extract relevant topics

For analysis of the feedback given by students to stop cyberbullying in institutions, using the R framework, LDA has been used. To extract the optimum number of topics in the feedback database, we used Griffith's 2004 (Griffiths & Steyvers, 2004 ) and Cau Juan's 2009 (Cao et al., 2009 ) metrics for our study in the R framework. Griffith represents an approach where the number of topics is optimal when the log-likelihood for data becomes maximum, whereas Cau Juan is used for measuring the stability of the topic and the minimum value on the graph represents the optimal number of topics. As from Fig. 6 number of topics lies between 4 to 9; in the upper graph minimum value is to be selected and from the lower one maximum value is to find the range of an optimal number of topics.

Determining the optimal number of topics

The latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is a statistical model that enables unidentified groups to explain why some sections of the data are related (Blei et al., 2003 ). If observations are words gathered into documents, it is assumed that each document is a mix of a small number of subjects and that each word's occurrence is due to one of the document's themes called topics. The time complexity of LDA is O(mnt + t 3 ) and memory requirements of O(mn + mt + nt) , where m is the number of samples, n is the number of features, and t = min (m,n). It is impossible to use LDA when both m and n are big (Cai et al., 2008 ). The working of LDA is shown in the Algorithm . As there does not exist any prior information on the number of topics in our corpus, we used LDAvis, which generates interactive charts where each bubble represents the topic, and topic per word distribution is represented in the bar graph plot, selection of a bubble highlights the words and bars accordingly. The prevalence of topics depends upon the bubble size. For these graphs, the "optimum" value of λ was about 0.6, which resulted in a 70% likelihood of right identification (values of λ around 0 and 1 resulted in estimated proportions of correct replies closer to 53 and 63 percent, respectively). This is evidence that ordering words according to relevance (rather than strictly in decreasing order of probability) can increase subject interpretability (Sievert & Shirley, 2014 ).

LDA has extracted the discussion topics from the set of views database submitted by students to tackle this problem, explore all the main keywords, and highlight areas that need improvement. The findings indicate the formation of five clusters, the most frequent and interdependent keywords with other clusters or topics as depicted in Fig. 7 . The number of clusters lies in the predicted range of optimal number of topics. From the topic modeling analysis, "Awareness" is the most frequent term and critical factor in curbing cyberbullying. The classification of most frequently used words and the keywords grouped according to LDA are given in Table 7 .

LDAvis topic extraction graph

8 Discussion: Analysis of conducted survey

With the advancement of technology, social media has become a vital part of students' lives, either for their studies or entertainment. The major challenge is protecting the students from cyberbullying that can significantly affect their work and studies. Our focus is on examining cyberbullying among college/university students. For this, we divided our research into two modules. In the first one, we analyzed the Indian Government initiatives. While exploring legal provisions, it is found that so many laws, online portals and helplines are available. Strict laws implemented against cyberbullying are covered under IT Act 2000, IT Act Section 66A, IT Act Section 66 B, IT Act Section 66C, IT Act Section 66D, IT Act Section 66E, IT Act Sect. 67, IT Act Section 67A, IT Act Section 67B; under Indian Penal Code 1860, IPC Section 292 A, IPC Section 354A, IPC Section 354D, IPC Section 499, IPC Section 507, and POCSO Act 2012. Under various schemes like the Nirbhaya fund scheme, the Government launches a women and helpline number 112 for emergency response. Under CCPW Scheme, multiple labs and units have been established for cybercrime online reporting, the investigation by professional teams, and research and development. I4C scheme has also established many units for creating awareness, reporting, and inspection. MHA has established National Cybercrime reporting portals both online and offline. Moreover, the Ministry of Women and Child Development has generated a women's helpline number 118 and also a dedicated e-mail address to redress their grievances. Separate Childline 1098, NCW helpline, Mahila bol helpline, and many state government portals are available. Various awareness campaigns are launched at the state as well as international levels. In second module, a case study was performed on cyberbullying in higher education institutions.

Section-wise analyses of the conducted survey

General information: 97% of the higher education institutional students (respondents) have electronic gadgets, except the few either do not have internet connectivity or a personal device. Even in the UNICEF case study, it was found that 99 percent of both urban and rural internet users aged 12 + years used mobile phones to access the internet. Footnote 14 WhatsApp and Instagram are the most widely used social networking sites that make them more vulnerable to experience cyberbullying. The responses of the participants depict that they are not much aware of the cyberbullying term, the legal provisions, and other governmental policies against cyberbullying. At the same time, it is observed that the majority of students reacted strongly to stop this behavior.

Cyberbullying victimization and dependency of Cyberbullying on various demographic parameters: According to the survey results, more than half of the respondents have experienced cyberbullying, which is similar to the percentage obtained in a study by Aizenkot and Kashy-Rosenbaum (Aizenkot & Kashy-Rosenbaum, 2020 ). It is concluded that males are cyberbullied more than females. Moreover, the person with a disability is the most affected as 80% of them face cyberbullying. Higher hours spent on social networking sites also lead to cyberbullying victimization. This case study found that Parental awareness and discussing online issues with youngsters have played a vital role in preventing them from being bullied, which resembles the conclusion of a study conducted in Vietnam by Ho et al. (Ho et al., 2020 ). The majority of the participants are not aware of the reason for being bullied but based on physical appearance and religion, cyberbullying is most prevalent among students. Approximately half of the participants have experienced cyber defaming.

Cyberbullying and Cyber Bystander: 18.26% of the female participants accepted that they had bullied someone, and 36% of males accepted it. The survey results depict that half of the participants are cyber bystanders. The most prevalent type of cyberbullying in this survey is leaving someone without friends by either blocking or eliminating them from social groups, and similar victimization was observed in a study by Aizenkot and Kashy-Rosenbaum (Aizenkot & Kashy-Rosenbaum, 2020 ). Cyber-by-standing is more common in male students, as one-third of the students have witnessed someone posting something wrong on social media to embarrass a classmate or use abusive language. Peer bullying is commonly seen among university students.

Actions taken and the affect of cyberbullying on the victim: Only 42% of the victims report to the police, and 36% of the students get back to the bully either personally or virtually. Cyberbullying has affected both the physical and mental health of the victim, and they experience aggressiveness and depression at most times. It also affects their relationship with friends and family and their work and studies. Also, the participants said that they have stopped using various social networking sites, restricted their privacy settings, and adopted other necessary measures to avoid bullying.

Institutional support and suggestions : Cyberbullying Awareness is the need of the hour, various institutions have cyberbullying policies, but the students are not aware of that. Students need guidance, and awareness sessions and campaigns should be organized at the college/ university level. As per students' suggestive measures, there should be proper counseling sessions, teacher support, guidance to tackle online issues, a complaint portal, strict laws, and concrete action against the bully. Institutions should also teach the ethics of social media usage.

9 How to combat cyberbullying

Cyberbullying can be significantly reduced with effective interpersonal communication among the peer group, and also bystanders can play a vital role in preventing cyberbullying if they intervene immediately on behalf of victims (Rafferty & Vander Ven, 2014 ). From the case study, it has been seen that the majority of students were cyber bystanders; they should come forward and encourage reporting such issues. The students are not much aware of the cyberbulling policies, so as suggested by Watts (Watts et al., 2017 ) anonymous reporting should be introduced, and internet etiquette should be studied.

It has been analyzed that colleges/universities are not doing enough to deal with this problem. In educational institutions, policy development is a pressing need that may be addressed using focus groups to identify effective remedies for cyberbullying. In addition, institutional leaders should consider a cyberbullying policy in terms of circumstances, and aside from that, leaders may improve their workers' knowledge abilities by conducting surveys and investigative sessions on cyberbullying (Luker & Curchack, 2017 ). The study depicted that approximately 70% of the respondents feel that institutions are not doing enough to curb cyberbullying so there is a need for university professionals to effectively analyze and mitigate unfavorable internet interactions on their campuses. All students and faculty members require assistance and counseling (Cassidy et al., 2017 ).

Creating awareness is the primary need as per students' feedback. The government has launched various portals, helplines for helping women and children, cyber cells, and reporting portals for online issues but students are not much aware of these initiatives and legal provisions. There is a need to raise awareness. Insulting someone or defaming or making fun over social media are the most prevalent among educational institutions. The study findings by (Ngo et al., 2021 ) and (Hutson et al., 2018 ) have suggested several measures to curb cyberbullying. To begin, educational campaigns should be conducted to boost awareness and attitudes against cyberbullying across youth, parents, and teachers, inspiring them to become proactive in mediating and combating cyberbullying practices. Knowledge and practices on cyberbullying, communication and internet usage skills, education on digital citizenship, prosocial behaviors, empathy, and coping techniques with cyberbullying should all be included in these programs. From the case study it is observed that 70% victims feel angry, 43% depressed and one-third feel lonely and helpless. So, regular training sessions should be held to assist teenagers in developing the skills and talents necessary to actively cope with cyberbullying, assist other victims, and prevent them from being involved in cyberbullying themselves. Furthermore, institutions, healthcare providers, and leaders should promote parents' participation in suspecting and addressing cyberbullying and its implications among youngsters. This positive parent–child interaction may inspire them to seek help when confronted with adversity. In addition, Parents must exercise restraint and active mediation to raise awareness, as teenagers lack understanding of online threats and the ability to self-regulate their internet activities owing to a lack of experience (Steinfeld, 2021 ).

Also, the student Services at universities should design interventions where they concentrate not just on prophylactic work with techniques to eliminate cyberbullying but also on fostering relationships with individuals from whom victims may seek assistance with their online concerns (Yubero et al., 2017 ). Cyberbullying can be significantly reduced with effective interpersonal communication among the peer group, and also bystanders can play a vital role in preventing cyberbullying if they intervene immediately on behalf of victims (Rafferty & Vander Ven, 2014 ). As observed in cyber victimization questionnaire, cyberbullying faced by the majority is insulting someone, saying something untrue about a person or making fun of others over social media, or excluding others from online groups. Peer assistance initiatives appear to be successful in this regard where with proper training, students assist in educating their peers about using technology responsibly and cyberbullying by relating their experiences and strategies to avoid and address it.

A convenient, user-friendly, and cost-effective conversation bots (chatbots) can be used in anti-bullying programs to raise awareness regarding bullying and help change students' attitudes toward bullying problems (Oh et al., 2020 ). Moreover, to avoid consolidation and limit the impact on victims, all colleges should broaden their harassment policies, including cyberbullying; these protocols must include precise steps to be taken if such episodes are discovered. In the future, therapeutic assistance and victim protection should be included in protocols.

10 Conclusion and recommendation

With the technical advancement, and adoption of blended learning as a new paradigm in higher education, social media users are also increasing day by day, and the most significant impact is seen on the youngsters. Lack of knowledge about the ethics of using social media and the easy availability of the internet lead to cyberbullying. While the social networking sites act as a boon to the students, providing them an environment of collaborative learning even in the pandemics like covid19, at the same time, it may lead to cyberbullying victimization by exposing them to the hate and aggressive behavior on online platforms. Students have misused social media to humiliate or harass other students. So, regardless of the convenience offered by social media, the constant exposure to and communication with online technologies make the users susceptible to certain online interactions that may be beneficial at some point but put their safety and emotional and psychological well-being at risk. Over time, the Indian Government has launched various schemes (Nirbhaya Scheme, CCPW Scheme, I4C Scheme), online reporting portals (National cybercrime reporting portal), helpline numbers for women and children, and amended the required legal provisions of the IT Act and Indian Penal Code 1860 against the cyberbullying. State governments have also launched various awareness campaigns. As per UGC regulation, educational institutions have also stricken their anti-bullying policies. But the success of these initiatives depends upon the responses of the participants of the survey. It has been seen that the students are not much aware of all these laws against cyberbullying. More than half of the participants have faced cyberbullying, and many of them admitted that they had bullied others also. Cyberbullying victimization is dependent upon various factors like parents' guidance, the number of hours of social media usage, etc. Parental advice and lesser usage of social media may prevent the students from being bullied. Peer bullying is the most prevalent among college/university male students, and Cyberbullying has affected the students psychologically as well as physically; moreover, it degraded their performance at work/studies. Anger and depression are the major problems experienced by the victims. Two-thirds of the students are unaware of the cyberbullying policies and laws. After analyzing the results, it is suggested that the institutions and authorities organize seminars and counseling sessions to create awareness. They should follow strict measures to tackle cyberbullying, take appropriate actions, and establish complaint portals at the college/university level. The study covers a lot about the initiatives, provides insights into the current cyberbullying situation at higher education institutions in India, and concludes that more campaigns and seminars should be conducted to make students aware of all these legal provisions. At the same time, the study has a few limitations also: Firstly, based on popularity, only a few government initiatives and legal provisions have been listed, only national-level portals and helplines are mentioned, and State-wise programs and campaigns are not discussed. Secondly, the sample chosen may have many constraints due to the length of the survey; only limited responses are received, and the respondents may belong to the same environment and face similar problems. In the future, we will try to overcome these limitations.

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Kaur, M., Saini, M. Indian government initiatives on cyberbullying: A case study on cyberbullying in Indian higher education institutions. Educ Inf Technol 28 , 581–615 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11168-4

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Online bullying remains prevalent in the philippines, other countries, cyberviolence affects almost half of filipino children aged 13-17.

A girl wearing a school uniform, her face not visible, uses a smartphone

MANILA, 6 September 2019 ⁠—One in three young people in 30 countries said they have been a victim of online bullying, with one in five saying they skipped school due to cyberbullying and violence, according to a new poll released today by UNICEF, the United Nations organization working for children’s rights.

In the Philippines, latest national data show that cyberviolence affects almost half of children aged 13-17 1 . The prevalence of cyberviolence for males (44 per cent) is almost the same for females (43 per cent).

One-third of cyberviolence experienced by Filipino children are in the form of verbal abuse over the internet or cellphone, while a fourth are through sexual messages. More females received messages of sexual nature or content than males. However, twice as many males than females reported having their nude body or sexual activities, whether real or falsified, shown on the internet or cellphone.

Violence against children, in all forms including online bullying or cyberbullying, has devastating effects on the physical and emotional wellbeing of young people. This can create lasting emotional and psychological scars, even physical harm. It is particularly challenging to address since children are vulnerable and have easy access to the internet, making them easy targets of online violence.

In the UNICEF U-Report poll conducted in June 2019, almost three-quarters of young people from 30 countries said that social networks including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter are the most common platforms for online bullying. Being connected online means that school no longer ends once a student leaves class, and neither does bullying.

The U-Report further revealed that 32 per cent believe that the government is mainly responsible in addressing online bullying, 31 per cent said that young people are responsible, while 29 per cent said internet companies. These show that opinions are equally divided on who should be responsible for ending online bullying – highlighting the need to involve children and young people in the shared responsibility.

UNICEF is calling for urgent action to implement policies that will protect children and young people from bullying – both online and offline. Addressing the problem requires action from all of us.

Establishing and equipping national helplines to support children and young people in reporting violence is a concrete step. Training teachers and parents to respond to and prevent bullying will ensure the safety of children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable ones.

Gathering better data about the online behavior of children and young people, and how criminals are using the internet, will guide policies and action plans.

UNICEF is also urging social media and social networking service companies to improve ethical standards and practices in collecting and managing information of children.

1 National Baseline Survey on Violence Against Children (NBS-VAC), 2016

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U-Report is a free social messaging tool that allows anyone from anywhere in the world to speak out on the issues they care about. UNICEF and partners developed the platform to capture a range of voices on critical development issues. U-Report encourages citizen-led development, facilitates responses to humanitarian emergencies and magnifies local voices globally to create positive change.

Adolescent and young people can join the platform by SMS or on social media (Facebook, Whatsapp or Viber) allowing them to respond to polls, report concerns, support child rights and work to improve their communities. Currently, there are more than 7 million U-Reporters are present in over 60 countries.

This poll was made possible by the many thousands of children and young people around the world who actively engaged with UNICEF as U-Reporters and participated in the poll. The poll was conducted in June 2019 and answered by more than 170,000 respondents in 30 countries. The poll results represent the information shared by the poll’s respondents.

For more information, visit www.ureport.in .

For more information about U-Report in the Philippines, visit https://philippines.ureport.in .

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UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

For more information about UNICEF and its work for children in the Philippines, visit www.unicef.ph .

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Cyberbullying: scenarios

Instructions on how to use these scenarios .

These scenarios are designed to be used with students to start skill-building conversations or with teachers for professional learning.

Using these scenarios in professional learning situations

Cut the individual cards out and discuss the scenarios using the questions as a basis for discussion.
Work in groups and identify where in the curriculum students can be taught skills to protect them from this risk.
Use the scenarios for parent information evenings to build parent skills and knowledge.

Using these scenarios with students

Give students scenarios to read, either in groups or individually.
Students look at the scenario from the character's perspective and answer the questions provided.
Once the students have read the scenario ask them to reflect on their own skills in managing this type of risk online.

Scenario 1: That’s mean

Name: thanh.

Thanh has been sharing videos of his cake creations on his parents’ YouTube account. He and his parents decided it would be safe because YouTube doesn’t allow comments on videos featuring kids under the age of 13. However, some children in his class posted links to his videos in a Google doc and are making mean comments on it.

What should Thanh do?

Possible responses:

Thanh should report the content to his teacher or an ‘askable or trusted adult’.
Thanh could talk to someone he feels safe with and discuss what to do next.
Thanh could ask his parents to remove the videos from YouTube.
Thanh could ask the students in his class to remove the mean comments.

Teachers can help Thanh and other students be prepared for this online risk by:

teaching strategies that students can use when they feel uncomfortable or need help with a situation
explicitly including online safety in lessons on friendship and relationships
teaching technical skills to take screenshots of bullying comments
ensuring all students understand how to report and manage cyberbullying incidents
communicating information about how to access counselling to discuss strategies for self-care e.g. Kids Helpline, Parentline.

Scenario 2: WhatsApp

A group of students in Kobe’s class have been invited to join the same WhatsApp group. At first, it was to chat about a soccer game, but the students enjoyed using WhatsApp. Soon it seemed like everyone was in the chat. Kobe wasn't asked, and a friend showed him a message posted in the group which said 'Kobe is a cry baby. No one let him in the chat.'

How could Kobe’s friends help him?

Suggested responses:

His friends could send Kobe an encouraging direct message.
His friends could encourage the group to include Kobe for example they could say: ‘Kobe comes up with great ideas for projects. Let’s include him.’

Teachers can help Kobe and other students be prepared for this online risk by:

discussing social media age restrictions and the benefits and risks of using social media
explicitly including online safety in lessons on relationships and wellbeing
working with students in the class to include other students online and offline
discussing how students can access support if they don’t feel comfortable talking to their teacher e.g. Kids Helpline , a school counsellor.

Scenario 3: Image-based abuse or cyberbullying

Amy broke up with Joe (16 years old) a few months ago. Joe says he is really upset and can't get over her. Even though Amy has asked him to give her some space, he sends her direct messages on social all the time. Amy is shocked when Joe sends her some nude images taken of her when they were in a relationship. He doesn't include a message with the photos. (Source: YeS project)

How can Amy and Joe get support?

Amy could use Youth Law Australia to get information about sexting laws in their state.
Amy could talk to a trusted adult or teacher about the situation and problem solve how to get support.
Amy could report any issues to the social media company first, if she feels she needs help - she can use The eSafety guide to find out how. See eSafety's reporting pages for advice, support and FAQs.
Amy might ask a teacher/counsellor to help her report the issue. eSafety’s guide to explicit images in schools provides specific guidance for schools on how to do this safely.
Amy could contact the eSafety image-based abuse team (for complaints about sharing nude images without consent ) or the cyberbullying team (for complaints about posts that seriously harass, threaten, humiliate or intimidate). The teams work together closely, so if Amy is unsure about the category they will help her work it out. They can assist with liaising with social media companies, as well as providing advice and referrals to support services.
Joe could explore eSafety young people to get strategies to help him take action to turn the situation around.

Teachers can help Amy, Joe and other students be prepared for this online risk by:

including online examples in lessons on respectful relationships, consent and wellbeing
ensuring all students understand social media standards and the consequence for misuse even in private communications
ensuring all students understand how to report an online safety issue to the social media company and when to escalate to the eSafety Commissioner. See eSafety's reporting pages for advice, support and FAQs.
helping all students know where to go for help if they have been called a bully or shared an intimate image without someone's consent
promoting appropriate counselling and support services to all students.

Cyberbullying scenarios

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One in five children in England and Wales experienced online bullying in 2019

Survey of 10- to 15-year-olds prompts warnings lockdown may have exacerbated issue

Nearly one in five children experienced some form of online bullying last year, figures show, amid warnings that the problem has worsened during lockdown.

More than half (52%) of the children who were bullied online went on to say that they would not describe the behaviour involved as bullying, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) , while one in four did not tell anyone.

While the data was based on a survey of 10- to 15-year-olds in England and Wales last year, the National Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) expressed concern about the consequences of more children spending time online in recent months.

There was no significant difference in the proportion of girls (20%) and boys (17%) who had experienced an online bullying behaviour but the prevalence was significantly higher for children with a long-term illness or disability (26%) than those without (18%).

Asian or Asian British children were also significantly less likely to have experienced an online bullying behaviour (6%) than white children (21%), black or black British children (18%) and children from a mixed ethnic group children (19%), the ONS found.

Overall, 19% of children aged 10 to 15 years old in England and Wales experienced at least one type of online bullying behaviour in the year ending March 2020 – the equivalent of 764,000 children.

There is no legal definition of bullying, which is often described as behaviour that hurts someone else, physically or emotionally. Because there is no single definition, the ONS report stated, bullying could be perceived differently by individuals, particularly between adults and children, and this can depend on the context.

Dr Peter Macaulay, a lecturer at Staffordshire University who has researched cyberbullying and online safety issues relating to young people and children, said that cyberbullying had been on the rise before lockdown but some reports now suggested that just 20% of bullying took place at school now.

“The strain placed on mental health caused by being confined to the home for weeks at a time could be making matters worse,” he added.

“These unusual circumstances means that some kids may be venting their frustration online – and their classmates become the targets. I did a study early this year which found that some children may think that they know how to stay safe online but lack – or at least are unable to articulate – objective knowledge that could actually keep them safe. If children are feeling complacent online, this may make them more vulnerable.”

An NSPCC spokesperson said: “These findings are deeply concerning and echo what our ChildLine counsellors hear on a daily basis. We know online bullying is incredibly traumatic for young people and that it can feel impossible to escape.

“Lockdown has exacerbated these feelings and from April to October our trained counsellors held more than a thousand counselling sessions with young people about online bullying.”

Bullying and negative online experiences

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2021) Bullying and negative online experiences , AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 03 April 2024.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2021). Bullying and negative online experiences. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/negative-online-experiences

Bullying and negative online experiences. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 25 June 2021, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/negative-online-experiences

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Bullying and negative online experiences [Internet]. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2021 [cited 2024 Apr. 3]. Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/negative-online-experiences

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2021, Bullying and negative online experiences , viewed 3 April 2024, https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/negative-online-experiences

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Key findings

How many young people experience bullying, where do young people experience bullying, what helped young people to deal with bullying, are some young people bullied more than others, cyberbullying and negative online experiences, how many young people have experience with sexting, what actions did young people take in response to unwanted (nearly) nude images or videos, how do young people feel about sexting, what are young people’s general attitudes towards sexting, are negative online experiences and sexting the same for everyone, how does australia compare internationally on bullying, where do i find more information.

Technical notes
In 2019, just over 1 in 5 (21%) young people aged 15–19 reported experiencing bullying in the previous 12 months.
In 2020, just over 4 in 10 (44%) young people aged 12–17 had at least 1 negative online experience in the 6 months prior to September.
In 2017, experience with sexting (either consensual or non-consensual) among young people aged 14–17 was more common among females than males (35% and 22%).

Bullying is the repeated and intentional use of words or actions against someone or a group of people to cause distress and risk to their wellbeing. It usually occurs when the perpetrator has more influence or power over someone else or wants to make someone else feel less powerful or helpless (AHRC 2012).

Bullying comes in various forms:

physical (including hitting or otherwise hurting someone)
verbal (including name calling or insulting someone)
social (such as constantly excluding someone or sharing information or images that will have a harmful effect on the other person).

Bullying can be overt or covert and can happen face to face or online (cyberbullying) (Australian Education Authorities 2020).

Cyberbullying has been defined as ‘the use of technology to bully a person or group with the intent to hurt them socially, psychologically or even physically’ (eSafety Commissioner 2018b). Cyberbullying shares many features of traditional bullying but has some key differences. It can:

be done anonymously
make harmful material continuously accessible, easily copied and distributed widely, and difficult to remove (AHRC 2012; eSafety Commissioner 2018a; United Nations Children’s Fund 2014).

The digital environment has also given rise to sexting: the sending, receiving, requesting or being asked for mostly, but not always, self-generated nude or nearly nude images or video through digital tools and/or platforms (SWGFL/UK Safer Internet Centre et al. 2017). Sexting is a complex issue, as it can be consensual or non-consensual. Reasons for sexting vary and include flirting, relationship building, or sexual self-exploitation, as well as coercion or extortion, intimidation and other abuse (SWGFL/UK Safer Internet Centre et al. 2017). The online sharing of intimate or sexual photos or videos without consent is image‑based abuse (eSafety Commissioner 2017).

Bullying can cause physical or psychological harm (Australian Education Authorities 2020). It can also have a wide range of negative long-term outcomes on both victims and perpetrators, which can be severe and persist into adulthood (United Nations Children’s Fund 2014). Research has found a relationship between bullying and depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, low life satisfaction, greater risk of eating disorders, social and relationship difficulties and academic difficulties (United Nations Children’s Fund 2014).

Bullying as a public health concern has been recognised through its inclusion as a risk factor in the Global Burden of Disease 2017, and in the forthcoming Australian Burden of Disease study, due for release in 2021. Results from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 study showed that, for Australian young people aged 10–24, 12% of the total disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for anxiety disorders, and 9.7% of total DALYs for depressive disorders were attributable to bullying victimisation (Stanaway et al. 2018 in Jadambaa et al. 2019). (For information on DALYs see Technical notes ).

High rates of bullying across late childhood and early adolescence have been found for both boys and girls, but with greater persistence among girls. This may be a contributing factor to emerging sex difference in depression and anxiety across early adolescence (Fujikawa et al. 2021).

Survey findings have also shown a strong relationship between experiencing bullying or experiencing negative online behaviours and being a perpetrator (Lawrence et al. 2015; eSafety Commissioner 2018a).

Box 1: Data sources on bullying and negative online behaviours

National data on bullying are available from a number of sources. However, differences in reference periods, age groups and definitions of bullying mean that they are not comparable. Experiences across a range of settings are currently limited and data are not available about bullying in the workplace.

Data on bullying for this section are sourced from the annual Mission Australia Youth Survey , the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (also known as, and hereafter referred to as the Young Minds Matter survey ), and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Mission Australia Youth Survey

The Mission Australia Youth Survey , is an opt-in survey that has been conducted annually since 2002. It asks young people aged 15–19 what concerns them; what they value; and their views of work, study and the future. In 2019, 25,100 young people took part, the majority doing so online (93%) and the rest (7.0%) on paper.

Young people were engaged via schools, community organisations, through Mission Australia services and at youth events.

In 2019, the survey included the question: ‘Have you experienced bullying in the past 12 months’? Respondents could select 1 or more from the following options:

cyberbullying (for example, hurtful messages, pictures or comments)
physical bullying (for example, hitting, punching)
social bullying (for example, rumours, being embarrassed or excluded)
verbal bullying (for example, name calling, teasing)
other (please specify) (Mission Australia Youth Survey questionnaire, 2019)

These data do not differentiate between repeated and one-off bullying.

Young Minds Matter survey

The Young Minds Matter survey is a household survey of young people aged 4 to 17 conducted in 2013–14 by the Telethon Kids Institute at the University of Western Australia, in partnership with Roy Morgan Research. The survey collected data from randomly sampled families across Australia except in Very remote areas. A total of 6,310 parents and carers, and 2,967 young people aged 11–17 responded.

The survey was designed to provide information about the mental health and wellbeing of Australian children and adolescents, and their use of health and educational services to obtain help. Data were collected on bullying that occurred during the 12 months before the survey and included frequency of bullying. Reported data differentiate between bullying that occurred over 12 months before the survey, every few months or less often, and every few weeks or more often (Lawrence et al. 2015).

Programme for International Student Assessment

Data on international comparisons of bullying are sourced from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) . PISA is a triennial survey of 15 year old students around the world.

It focuses on the core school subjects of science, reading and mathematics. Additional questionnaires are provided to students to gather contextual information, such as on their socioeconomic background and their attitudes towards school (such as sense of belonging).

PISA measures 3 types of bullying: physical, relational (also known as social) and verbal. Statements that students were asked to respond to include:

Other students left me out of things on purpose (relational bullying)
Other students made fun of me (verbal bullying)
I was threatened by other students (verbal/physical bullying)
Other students took away or destroyed things that belong to me (physical bullying)
I got hit or pushed around by other students (physical bullying)
Other students spread nasty rumours about me (relational bullying).

These statements are combined into a single indicator, ‘any type of bullying act’.

Reported data differentiate between bullying that occurred over 12 months before PISA testing, based on the following categories: Never or almost never, A few times a year, A few times a month, Once a week or more.

Digital lives of Aussie teens

Data on negative online behaviours are sourced from the eSafety Commissioner’s report Digital lives of Aussie teens . The data are based on an omnibus survey undertaken by Omnipoll, using the non-probability-based Lightspeed consumer panel. Survey data were collected between 17 and 28 September 2020, with 627 in‑scope teenagers responding via mobile phone.

Negative online behaviours are defined as:

being contacted by a stranger
being sent inappropriate content
being deliberately excluded from events/social groups
suffering damage to reputation
receiving online threats or abuse
having online personal information/photos misused in a mean way
having other negative experiences.

Youth Digital Participation Survey 2017

Data on sexting are from the eSafety Commissioner’s Youth Digital Participation Survey 2017. The survey comprised a random sample of more than 3,000 young Australians aged 8–17; these young people were asked about their experiences and behaviours related to safety online in the 12 months to June 2017.

Data in this section are sourced from the report Young people and sexting: attitudes and behaviours , supplemented with unpublished data.

Sexting behaviours reported in the survey relate to the transmission of (nearly) nude images or videos such as:

sending one
being asked for one
asking others for one
sharing one of someone else
receiving an unsolicited one.

The Mission Australia Youth Survey 2019 included, for the first time, a question on whether survey respondents have experienced bullying in the past 12 months (see Box 1 ). In 2019, among survey respondents aged 15–19:

just over 1 in 5 (21%) reported that they had experienced bullying in the past 12 months
the proportion was slightly higher among females than males (22% and 19%).

The survey collected data on 4 main types of bullying: verbal, social, cyber and physical (see Box 1 ).

The most common type of bullying experienced in the 12 months before the survey was verbal (71%), followed by social (61%) and cyberbullying (37%). Physical bullying was the least common of the 4 types (22%).
Social bullying or cyberbullying were more common among females (68% and 40%, respectively) than males (50% and 30%, respectively) (Figure 1).
Physical bullying was more common among males than females (30% and 15%).

Note that respondents could choose multiple forms of bullying in the survey questionnaire.

Figure 1: Type of bullying experienced in the previous 12 months by 15–19 year olds, by sex, 2019

The column chart shows that in the 12 months prior to 2019, among young aged 15–19, social bullying or cyberbullying were more common among females (68%25 and 40%25, respectively) than males (50%25 and 30%25, respectively). Physical bullying was more common among males than females (30%25 and 15%25). Proportions for verbal bullying were slightly higher for males (75%25) than females (69%25).

Chart: AIHW. Source: Carlisle et al. 2019a.

Based on the Young Minds Matter survey, in 2013–14, among young people aged 16–17, more than 1 in 4 (28%) had been bullied in the previous 12 months:

1 in 4 (21%) had been bullied every few months or less often
7.1% had been bullied every few weeks or more often (Lawrence et al. 2015).

Differences between the methodologies and age ranges in scope of the Young Minds Matter survey and the Mission Australia Youth Survey are likely to account for differences in rates of bullying (see Box 1 ).

Based on the Mission Australia Youth Survey, of those who had experienced bullying in the 12 months before the survey:

4 in 5 (80%) reported that the bullying took place at school/TAFE/university, with similar proportions for males (82%) and females (79%)
1 in 3 (34%) reported they had experienced bullying online/on social media. The proportion was higher among females (37%) than males (27%).

Young people used a range of methods to deal with bullying:

almost half (46%) ignored it
more than 1 in 3 (37%) removed themselves from the situation
just over 1 in 3 (34%) talked to close friends or family
1 in 3 (33%) distracted themselves through other activities
1 in 5 (20%) confronted the bully/ies
18% talked to a support person.

For 13% of young people, nothing helped to deal with the bullying.

A higher proportion of females than males reported that talking to close friends or family helped (42% and 24%).

A higher proportion of males reported that confronting the bully/ies helped them to deal with bullying (24% compared with 18% of females).

Based on data from the Mission Australia Youth Survey, in 2019, among young people aged 15–19 who experienced bullying in the previous 12 months, the proportion was:

twice as high among those with disability compared with those without disability (43% compared with 19%) (Hall et al. 2020) (Figure 2)
higher among those living in regional areas than among those living in major cities (25% compared with 19%) (Carlisle et al. 2019b).

Figure 2: Bullying experienced in the previous 12 months by 15–19 year olds, by population group, 2019

The bar chart shows that in the 12 months prior to 2019, the proportion of young people aged 15–19 who experienced bullying in the previous 12 months was higher among those with disability compared with those without disability (43%25 and 19%25, respectively). The proportion was also higher among those living in regional areas than among those living in Major cities (25%25 compared with 19%25).

Chart: AIHW. Source: Carlisle et al. 2019a, 2019b, Hall et al. 2020.

Based on self-reported data from the Young Minds Matter survey, in 2013–14, the proportion of young people aged 16–17 with a major depressive disorder who were bullied:

in the previous 12 months was 2.5 times as high as for those with no mental disorder (56% compared with 22%)
every few weeks or more often was 5.5 times as high as for those with no mental disorder (22% compared with 4.1%).

The proportion of those young people who felt either ‘a lot’ or ‘extremely’ upset as a result of bullying in the previous 12 months was 5 times as high for those with major depressive disorders (31%) as for those with no disorder (6.2%). However, it is not possible to determine if the depression was caused by or contributed to the bullying (Lawrence et al. 2015).

Based on the eSafety Commissioner’s report The digital lives of Aussie teens (see Box 1 for survey methodology), in the 6 months prior to September 2020 among young people aged 12–17:

4 in 10 (44%) had at least 1 negative online experience
negative online experiences were more common among girls than boys (47% and 41%)
negative online experiences were more common among 14–17 year olds than among 12–13 year olds (51% and 32%).

The top 3 negative experiences for young people aged 12–17 were:

being contacted by a stranger or someone they did not know (30%)
being sent unwanted inappropriate content, such as pornography or violent content (20%)
being deliberately excluded from events/social groups (16%) (eSafety Commissioner 2021).

Girls were more likely than boys to be contacted by a stranger or someone they did not know (35% and 26%). Boys were slightly more likely than girls to receive online threats or abuse (18% compared with 11%) (eSafety Commissioner 2021).

In 2020, more than 80% of young people took some form of action after a negative online experience. While a full comparison cannot be made with data from the 2017 Youth Digital Participation Survey, some comparisons are possible.

Among young people aged 12–17:

54% blocked the person responsible for their negative online experience (compared with 43% in 2017)
43% spoke to family/friends about it (compared with 64% in 2017)
36% unfriended the offending person (no comparative data from 2017)
21% to the social media company (compared with 13% in 2017)
21% to their school
10% to someone else.

As multiple formal networks could be reported, individual proportions do not sum to the total formally reporting their experiences.

The data indicate a possible shift between 2017 and 2020 in how young people deal with negative online experiences – from informal approaches, such as talking to family and friends to more self-help (for example, blocking, unfriending) and formal reporting (eSafety Commissioner 2021).

Young people are also acting to build a safer and more inclusive online environment, with most (89%) reporting that they have done at least 1 positive thing online:

75% had posted positive/nice comments about others
71% had supported or listened to a friend who had had a bad experience
70% made sure that peers were not excluded online (eSafety Commissioner 2021).

The e-Safety Commissioner’s 2017 Youth Digital Participation Survey collected data on a range of sexting behaviours (see Box 1 ).

Among young people aged 14–17 in the 12 months to June 2017:

around 1 in 3 had some experience with sexting (either consensual or non‑consensual)
the most common forms of sexting were being asked for a (nearly) nude image or video of themselves or receiving an unsolicited (nearly) nude image or video of someone (15%)
around 5% of young people said they have sent a (nearly) nude image or video of themselves to someone else
around 5% of all young people either shared an image of someone else online or had shown it to others on their device during the 12 months to June 2017
3% of respondents reported that they had asked for a nude or nearly nude image or video (SWGFL/UK Safer Internet Centre et al. 2017).

Overall, sexting behaviour was more common among females (35%) than males (22%) (SWGFL/UK Safer Internet Centre et al.2017). In relation to specific sexting behaviours, being asked for a (nearly) nude image or video of themselves, receiving an unsolicited (nearly) nude image or video or sending a (nearly) nude image or video of themselves were more common among females than males (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Sexting behaviours experienced in the previous 12 months by 14–17 year olds, by sex, 2017

The bar chart shows that in the 12 months prior to 2017, the following sexting behaviours were more common among females than males: being asked for a (nearly) nude image or video of themselves (22%25 compared with 8%25), receiving an unsolicited (nearly) nude image or video (19%25 compared with 12%25), or sending a (nearly) nude image or video of themselves (7%25 compared with 4%25).

Chart: AIHW. Source: eSafety Commissioner, unpublished data.

Among young people aged 14–17 who received requests for a (nearly) nude image or video of themselves:

over half (52%) received a request from someone they knew. This was more common among females (54%) than males (36%) (SWGFL/UK Safer Internet Centre et al. 2017)
1 in 3 young people received a request from either friends (33%) or boyfriends/girlfriends (31%) (SWGFL/UK Safer Internet Centre et al. 2017)
5% of young people had received a request from someone else (eSafety Commissioner, unpublished data).

Nearly three-quarters of young people who received unwanted nude or nearly nude images or videos took at least 1 action:

almost half (49%) blocked the sender’s account; this response was more common among females than males (64% and 27%)
almost 1 in 3 (31%) told their friends
almost 1 in 5 (19%) communicated or wrote something to the person who sent the images or videos (not face to face)
17% told their parents
13% reported what happened to the website or social media company (eSafety Commissioner, unpublished data).

Close to 1 in 4 (23%) took no action. It was more common for males to take no action than females (33% and 16%) (eSafety Commissioner, unpublished data).

more than half (58%) of young people felt uncomfortable about sexting while 2 in 5 (43%) felt disgusted about being asked for nearly (nude) images or video. The proportion of females who felt disgusted was higher than that for males (47% and 32%)
over 1 in 4 (26%) young people felt pressured or nervous, while over 1 in 5 felt mad/angry (21%)
a minority either felt flattered (18%) or excited (10%) (eSafety Commissioner, unpublished data).
almost three-quarters (74%) disagreed with the statement that sexting is not a problem
7 in 10 (70%) agreed that spreading a nude picture or video of someone without their consent was illegal and that people should not do it
almost 1 in 3 (32%) agreed that adults overreact about this sort of thing, with the proportion slightly higher among males than females (34% and 29%)
over 1 in 4 (28%) agreed that it was someone’s own fault if their images were shared without consent (eSafety Commissioner, unpublished data).

In 2017, negative online experiences and sexting behaviour varied depending on disability status and, to some degree, birthplace. Among 13–17 year olds:

a higher proportion of young people with disability experienced most types of negative online experience than those without disability (Figure 4). The greatest differences were for unwanted contact and content, and threats and abuse.
the proportion of overseas-born young people who experienced threats and abuse was lower than that for Australian-born young people (20% compared with 27%) (eSafety Commissioner 2018a, unpublished data).

Figure 4: Negative online experiences among 13–17 year olds, by disability status, 2017

The column chart shows that in 2017, a higher proportion of young people with disability experienced most types of negative online experience than those without disability. The greatest differences were for unwanted contact and content (56%25 and 40%25, respectively), and threats and abuse (39%25 and 25%25, respectively).

Chart: AIHW. Source: eSafety Commissioner, 2018a, unpublished data.

A higher proportion of young people with disability sent a (nearly) nude image or video of themselves than did young people without disability (11% compared with 5%). Note these results should be treated with some caution as the relative standard error for the young people with disability was relatively high (26%).

Based on data from the PISA 2018, the proportion of Australian students aged 15 who were bullied (any act of bullying) at least a few times a month was higher than the OECD average (30% compared with 23%) (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Bullying among 15 year olds across selected OECD countries, 2018

The bar chart shows that the proportion of Australian students aged 15 who were bullied (any act of bullying) at least a few times a month was higher than the OECD average (30%25 compared with 23%25).

Chart: AIHW. Source: OECD 2019.

For information on topics related to young people and relationships, see:

Peer relationships and social networks
Intimate relationships

For more information on Indigenous young people and being treated unfairly, see:

Section 5.7, Being treated unfairly in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescent and youth health and wellbeing 2018

For information on children and bullying, see:

Bullying in Australia’s children .

For more information on youth and bullying, see:

Youth Survey Report 2019
Youth Survey Report 2019: Comparing major cities and regional areas
Young willing and able: Youth Survey Disability Report 2019 .

For more information on youth mental health and bullying, see:

The mental health of children and adolescents. Report on the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (also known as Young Minds Matter).

For more information on negative online behaviours and sexting, see:

State of play—youth, kids and digital dangers
Young people and sexting: attitudes and behaviours .

AHRC (Australian Human Rights Commission) 2012. What is bullying?: violence, harassment and bullying fact sheet . Viewed 3 September 2020

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2020. Burden of disease . Canberra: AIHW. Viewed 29 April 2021.

Australian Education Authorities 2020. Types of bullying Viewed 19 March 2021.

Carlisle E, Fildes J, Hall S, Perrens B, Perdriau A & Plummer J 2019a. Youth Survey Report 2019. Sydney: Mission Australia.

Carlisle E, Fildes J, Hall S, Perrens B, Perdriau A & Plummer J 2019b. Youth Survey Report 2019: from city to country: comparing major cities and regional areas Sydney: Mission Australia.

eSafety Commissioner 2018b. What does cyberbullying look like ? Viewed 3 September 2020.

eSafety Commissioner 2021. The digital lives of Aussie teens . Viewed 26 March 2021.

Fujikawa S, Mundy S, Canterford L, Moreno-Bentancur M, Patton G 2021. Bullying across late childhood and early adolescence: a prospective cohort of students assessed annually from Grades 3 to 8 . Academic Pediatrics 2021 March, 21(2): 344–351.

Hall S, Fildes J, Liyanarachchi D, Plummer J & Reynolds M 2020b. Young, willing and able—Youth Survey Disability Report 2019 . Sydney: Mission Australia.

Jadambaa A, Thomas HJ, Scott JG, Graves N, Brain D & Pacella R 2019. The contribution of bullying victimisation to the burden of anxiety and depressive disorders in Australia . Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences 1–23.

Lawrence D, Johnson S, Hafekost J, Boterhoven de Haan K, Sawyer M, Ainley J et al. 2015. The mental health of children and adolescents. Report on the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing . Department of Health, Canberra. Viewed 15 July 2019.

OECD 2019. PISA 2018 Results (Volume III): What school life means for students’ lives . Paris: OECD Publishing, Paris.

SWGFL/UK Safer Internet Centre, University of Plymouth, Netsafe, Office of the eSafety Commissioner 2017. Young people and sexting: attitudes and behaviours . Plymouth, UK: University of Plymouth, Netsafe, Office of the eSafety Commissioner.

Disability-adjusted life year (DALY): A year of healthy life lost, either through premature death or, equivalently, through living with ill health due to illness or injury. It is the basic unit used in burden of disease and injury estimates.
Burden of disease analysis measures the impact of different diseases or injuries on a population. It combines the years of healthy life lost due to living with ill health (non-fatal burden) with the years of life lost due to dying prematurely (fatal burden). Fatal and non-fatal burden combined are referred to as the total burden, reported using the DALYs measure (AIHW 2020).

For general technical notes relating to this report, see also Methods .

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19 Cases of Bullying among Real and Overwhelming Youth

Table of Contents

Last Updated on April 13, 2023 by Mike Robinson

We present 19 cases of real bullying and cyberbullying characterized by their fatal outcomes and the lack of training of education professionals. The cases and stories of bullying in schools and outside them with cyberbullying have multiplied in recent years.

Effects of Bullying in Adults and Children’s

Bullying can cause severe mental distress. The cases of adolescents and minors who take their own lives due to the different types of bullying should be alarming to educational professionals. Schools must implement immediate and decisive actions to curtail this unacceptable behavior trend.

1-Miriam, eight years old

Miriam is an eight-year-old girl who goes to elementary school. She loves animals, so she always has pictures of them in her books. She even has a backpack shaped like a puppy.

Her companions laugh and make fun of her, comparing her with the animals on the stickers on her backpack because she is overweight. Also, since she is “fat,” they take her money and snacks at recess.

Although she has told the teachers repeatedly, they have not done much to change the situation. To try to improve the situation, Miriam stopped eating and is in the hospital for anorexia.

2-Tania: Fourteen years old.

Tania, a 14-year-old teenager, has tried to commit suicide due to her high school classmates’ continuous threats, robberies, and aggressions. The situation has not changed despite filing 20 complaints against 19 of her classmates.

In January 2014, she was admitted to the hospital for 15 days due to an overdose of Valium pills. Despite her attempted suicide, the threats are still ongoing.

3-Diego: Eleven years old

It is a recent case of school bullying in Spain; Diego, an eleven-year-old boy, was a victim of this practice in a school in Madrid.

His mother remembers that her son told her he did not want to go to school, so his mood was always very sad; once, he lost his voice because of a blow he had suffered at school from his classmates.

The day he committed suicide, his mother went to pick him up at school, and he ran frantically to the car to get out safely. Later that evening, he killed himself.

4-Jokin Z: Fourteen years old

It was one of the first cases of bullying that came to light in Spain. After being bullied for months, he decided to commit suicide. The parents felt helpless. They tried for two years to prevent this tragedy and remove the suffering of their teenage son.

As a result of his suicide, eight students had charges brought against them. The parents were also arrested. However, only one individual was convicted.

5-Jairo: Sixteen years old

Jairo is a 16-year-old boy from a town in Seville who faced severe bullying because of his physical disability. He has a prosthetic leg due to a wrong operation. His classmates continually make fun of him and his disability.

Not only did they trip him, but they also tried to take it off in the gymnastics class. On the other hand, in the social networks, there were photos of him manipulated with computer programs with bad words that made Jairo not want to go to school.

Due to the suffering caused by this type of behavior, Jairo asked to change schools and is currently at another institute.

6-Yaiza: Seven years old

At seven years old, Yaiza suffered bullying from her classmates. They insulted her continuously, to the point that Yaiza had difficulty convincing herself that what her classmates told her was false. Not only did they insult her, but they also stole her breakfast and even once threw a table at her.

She was fortunate to have a teacher who was involved in the issue of bullying and helped make changes at the school. The teacher brought attention to bullying to better understand why these practices occur in schools.

7-Alan: Seventeen years old

This seventeen-year-old teenager was bullied by his classmates because he was a transsexual. He took his life on December 30, 2015, after taking pills mixed with alcohol.

It was not the first time he tried since he had been receiving therapy numerous times because he had suffered for years. As in other cases, Alan was no longer in school, but that was not enough.

8-Ryan: Fourteen years old

After years of psychological aggression, in 2003, Ryan, then fourteen years old, decided to commit suicide. He did so because he was supposedly gay. It all started because a friend of his published online that he was homosexual.

Because of this, he did not stop receiving jokes, ridicule, and humiliation from his classmates. This case helped to approve the Harassment Prevention Act in Vermont of the US States months after his death.

9-Arancha: Sixteen years old

This 16-year-old girl decided to throw herself from the sixth floor. The reason was the bullying she suffered from classmates in Madrid.

Arancha suffered from motor and intellectual disabilities, which was more than enough for her class to bully her. Although her parents reported this fact to the police, it was not enough to prevent the fatal outcome.

Minutes before launching herself from the building, she said goodbye to the people closest to her by sending them a message through WhatsApp, saying, “I was tired of living.”

10-Lolita: Fifteen years old

Lolita is currently under medical treatment due to the depression she suffers, which has paralyzed her face. This young woman from Maip, Chile, was bullied by four classmates at her school.

Her classmates mocked and humiliated her in class, which seriously affected her. According to the mother, the school knew about her daughter’s mistreatment and did nothing to prevent it.

11-Rebecca: Fifteen years

The case of Rebecca from the state of Florida is an example of cyberbullying. She decided to take her own life in 2013 due to the continuous threats and humiliations suffered by colleagues on social networks.

She and her mother had informed the teachers at school of this situation. Unfortunately, they did not work to stop the attacks on her. She posted on her profile days before her death, “I’m dead. “I cannot stand it anymore.”

12-Phoebe Prince: Fifteen years old

This 15-year-old Irish immigrant girl was harassed by nine teenagers who had criminal charges brought up in 2010. She was bullied physically and psychologically, and there was cyberbullying through cell phones and the internet.

Phoebe was humiliated and assaulted for three months in high school until she ended up hanging herself. The people who harassed her continued to do so even after her death.

13-Rehtaeh: Fifteen years old

This girl from Halifax, Nova Scotia, decided to hang herself in her bathroom after suffering cyber bullying. Her schoolmates and strangers took part in the bullying. Rehtaeh got drunk at a party, where, apart from raping her, they photographed her while it happened.

This photo began circulating everywhere, so even kids she did not know asked her to sleep with them on social networks. Her classmates also insulted her and made fun of her.

14-Oscar: Thirteen years old

This minor, who is 13 years old and in the first year of secondary school, decided to ingest liquid drain cleaner for pipes for the sole purpose of not going to school. Oscar was harassed not only by his classmates but also by one of his teachers.

Oscar could not contain the urge to go to the bathroom due to a urinary problem. His teacher never let him go, so he once urinated on himself. From that moment on, he had to deal with the treatment he received from his teacher and his classmates, who made fun of him and insulted him repeatedly.

15-Monica: Sixteen years old

Mónica lived in Ciudad Real (Spain) and was 16 years old when she decided to commit suicide because of the treatment she received at school from her classmates. They would insult her on the bus, threaten her, and publish photos and nasty comments on social networks.

She decided to commit suicide to end all the hell that her classmates made her go through. Even though her father, one day before he took his own life, complained to the head of studies about what was happening to his daughter.

16-María: Eleven years old

This girl from Madrid (Spain) suffered harassment from her classmates at a religious school. Her classmates not only made fun of her but even physically mistreated her.

Teachers disputed these claims and did not defend her or take measures to stop them from happening. Because of this, she tried to overdose on pills without success.

17-Amanda: Fifteen years old

Amanda, a Canadian-born minor, committed suicide after posting a video on social media reporting that she was suffering bullying.

It all started when he sent a topless photo of herself to a stranger on the webcam; from that moment, insults and harassment began on the internet.

This bullying lasted three years. Amanda even changed schools to rebuild her life, but it did not help. The abuse caused anxiety and acute depression that led her to consume drugs.

18-Zaira: Fifteen years old

Here is another victim of bullying from classmates. In the case of Zaira, it all started when they recorded her with a cell phone while she was in the bathroom. These girls spread the video among all the school’s classmates and others outside her school.

Because of these recordings, Zaira had to take the continuous teasing of her classmates and even physical abuse. Thanks to a lower-class classmate, she faced bullying, and this story had a happy ending.

19-Marco: Eleven years

This child had spent five years enduring the harassment he suffered from his classmates. They made fun of him because he was supposedly overweight, although, in reality, he was not.

They humiliated him on many occasions, and once, they even took off his clothes in gym class. A teacher knew what was happening to him and did not take action. Marco is currently in another school after telling him everything that happened to his parents.

Conclusions About Bullying

These 19 cases are only 19 of many in our schools. These examples show the flaws that exist in education systems worldwide. The education system professionals are not doing enough to address these abuses.

Despite all we know about bullying, there still needs to be more information about its prevention and action. The schools are not prepared to face this type of situation, leading them to ignore this behavior in their students and leave the families alone with this problem.

Also Read: 11 Human Body Games for Children

To reduce the number of suicides due to school bullying in children, we must educate everyone involved. By providing adequate training, people will know what guidelines to follow in these situations to prevent adolescent suicide.