While young people may seem content chatting away on WhatsApp and posting their latest pictures on Instagram, social media has a dark side. As well as experiencing bullying in the schoolyard, today's children and teenagers also have to deal with the problem online. Considering the ubiquity of smartphones and social media, particularly among teenagers, just how prevalent is cyberbullying today? A recent study from Ipsos polled parents in 28 countries to determine cyberbullying rates in 2018.
It found that nearly one in five parents worldwide say their child has experienced cyberbullying at least once. The problem is particularly bad in India which had the highest rate of parents confirming instances of cyberbullying. A total of 37% of parents across India said their child was bullied online, with 14% of that total saying the bullying occurred on a regular basis. In the United States, over a quarter of parents said their child had also experienced the problem and that's up from just 15% in 2011.
Cyberbullying rates are much more mixed in Europe with 17% of parents in the UK confirming it along with 14% in Italy and 9% in both Spain and France. Interestingly, the phenomenon seems to be virtually non-existent in Russia with no parents citing instances of cyberbullying. In the 2016 study, it did exist in Russia but the rate was quite low at just 9%.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
