Myths and Facts about Cyberbullying?

Myths:

• Most harassment occurs on social networking sites. ⁶
  30% of young people who have been harassed say it’s happened on a social networking site.  But, 40% say it’s happened while on Instant Messaging and 29% say it’s happened while playing a game online.  This means harassment can occur in many different places online.  You need to be aware of the way you talk to others no matter where you are.

• Most youth are harassed at least once at some point when they are online. It depends on how you measure Internet harassment, but in most studies, more youth report not being targeted in the last year.  For example, 91% of youth in the Youth Internet Safety Survey -2 were not harassed ¹.  76% of youth in the Growing up with Media survey report not being harassed ³.  So, it shouldn’t be seen as ‘inevitable’ or ‘normal teen behavior’.

Facts:

• Internet harassment happens most frequently by peers. ²
  63% of harassers are reportedly under the age of 18 years of age as compared to 14% who are 18 years of age and older.  23% of targeted youth said they didn’t know how old their harasser was.
• Everyone has a responsibility to reduce Internet harassment.
  Internet harassment is not ‘normal’ or ‘okay’.  It is a hurtful way of communicating.  There are more healthy ways to share your thoughts and feelings. 
  
  If you see someone harassing others, try to stop it if you can.  Let your friends know that you don’t like them doing those kinds of things to other people.
  
  The Internet is a public space.  We are all responsible for what happens online and we all have the ability to make a difference.