One In Six Teenagers Experiences Cyberbullying, Says WHO (Photo by Marjan Grabowski on Unsplash)
According to World Health Organization (WHO), nearly one in six adolescents have experienced cyberbullying. Surveying more than 279,000 young people from 0ver 44 countries and regions, WHO said more school-aged children reported about being cyberbullied than before the pandemic.
The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey suggests that the proportion of adolescents who reported about being cyberbullied has increased from 12% to 15% in boys and 13% to 16% in girls since 2018.
Over 4,200 young people surveyed in England, nearly one in five, which is 19 % of the people surveyed, reported about being cyberbullied at least once or twice in the past couple of months. Another 11% reported about cyberbullying others. Out of the total 4,300 young people surveyed in Scotland, 18% said that they experienced cyberbullying others and other 11% reported cyberbullying others.
The WHO report suggests that there is an “urgent need” to educate youngsters, families and schools about cyberbullying and its implications. The regional director of WHO, Dr Hans P. Kluge said that young people’s social engagement switched to the virtual world during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, paving way to the increased cyberbullying.
Kluge said focusing on virtual type of peer violence has become an urgent priority to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the adolescent population and youngsters, and added that cyberbullying must be viewed as a major issue for societies.
The WHO regional director said as the young people spend nearly six hours online and even the small changes in the rates of bullying can have huge impact on health and wellbeing of thousands. “This is both a health and a human rights issue, and we must step up to protect our children from violence and harm, both offline and online”.
Earlier this week, the Florida governor signed a bill preventing children younger than 14-years-old from using social media platforms and those who are 14 or above need parents’ consent in opening an account. The bill also asked social media companies to delete the existing accounts of those under 14.
Companies that are failing to delete the account will be sued on behalf of the child, who creates an account on the platform. According to the bill, teenagers under 14 will be awarded up to $10,000, and companies that are not complying would be liable $50,000 per violation, without including the attorney’s fees and court costs.
