In the real world, bullying sadly happens in all walks of life. But new research published by the Cogent Social Sciences journal has outlined who exactly is most likely to be the victim of cyber bullying.
While studying bullying and internet usage in Belfast, the researchers surveyed young people about their habits online, how often the use the web and their experiences of bullying both in the cyber sphere and outside of it.
For obvious reasons such as the internet allowing a degree of anonymously, there is a rise of verbal abuse happening online, and the group that suffers the most appears to be young females.
The researchers stated:
“While young men were more likely to be the victims of bullying in the real world, young women reported higher levels of cyber-bullying.”
They also explained that behaviour exhibited online also reflected what was happening in real life, ever stressing the importance to be aware of what's happening when you're child logs on.
They said:
“Bullying took the form of harassment, threats of violence, sectarianism and vulgar messages, with much online bullying seemingly a continuation of offline behaviours.”
Surprisingly however, they reported that those who only go online a moderate amount (as oppose to those who log on regularly) were also more likely to be be exposed to online bullying. It’s not just your wife-password obsessed teen you need to monitor!
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