Cyberbullying is harassment or bullying that takes place through digital services. Cyberbullying comprises offensive, hateful, degrading, and mean content, text, and messages shared to embarrass an individual. At times, the content or text shared by a bully can make someone feel threatened. Most of the cyberbullying instances take place on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Over the years there has been a massive increase in cyberbullying cases across the world. 64% of young adults in the US have faced cyberbullying and have received nasty, intimidating, and threatening messages online. In this article, we are going to take a look at Cyberbullying statistics to understand its true impact, how crucial cyberbullying issues are, and how it impacts the life of an individual.
Top Cyberbullying Statistics
- On Average 64% of young adults (people between the ages of 18 to 29) in America have faced cyberbullying.
- 36.5% of people have been bullied in their lifetime.
- 41% of United States adults have experienced some form of online harassment.
- Young people who have faced cyberbullying are at a higher risk for self-harm and suicidal behavior in comparison to people who haven’t faced cyberbullying.
- 70% of students have reported that someone has tried to spread rumors about them online.
- Instagram is one of the top social media platforms where the majority of young people have reported to have witnessed cyberbullying.
- 87% of young people have witnessed cyberbullying occurring online.
- Half of the LGBTQIA+ students have faced online harassment.
- 54% of LGBTQ+ middle school students have faced cyberbullying and 39% of high school students.
- 23% of students have admitted to being rude or mean to another person online. 27% reported they faced the same from other people.
- Only 1 out of 10 teens experiencing cyberbullying has informed their parents or trusted adults about the harassment.
General Cyberbullying Statistics
Today, cyberbullying is one of the major issues faced by people across the world. However, in some areas around the world, the knowledge and awareness regarding cyberbullying and online harassment are massively low.
- In the past 30 days, 1 out of 4 middle school and high school students have been cyberbullied
There has been a massive increase in the percentage of students who have reported being a target of cyberbullying by 55% since 2015. Around 45.5% of students in middle school and high school have reported being cyberbullied at least once in their lifetime.
- 41% of the United States adults have faced some form of online harassment
31% of US adults have reported to have witnessed offensive and inappropriate name-calling by people. While 26% of people have reported to have experienced purposeful embarrassment. Other severe harassment includes sustained harassment (11%), Stalking (11%), sexual harassment (11%), and threats (14%).
- 92% of Americans believe that cyberbullying is a concern
While there is no debate that cyberbullying is a concern in society it can impact an individual’s life both mentally and physically. According to research by Pew, 55% of people look at cyberbullying as a “major concern” while only 37% believe it’s a “minor issue.” Also, 7% of Americans think that cyberbullying isn’t an issue at all.
- 3 out of 4 cyberbullying targets have encountered harassment on Facebook
Facebook is one of the top social media platforms where cyberbullying is highly common. By contrast, 25% or less of the targets of cyberbullying have said they have been bullied on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and other platforms.
- A quarter of adults worldwide have no clue what cyberbullying is.
According to a poll by Ipsos with 20,000+ adults across 28 nations that shared an insight regarding the awareness among people about cyberbullying. This poll stated that 25% of the respondents haven’t heard about cyberbullying in their lifetime. Saudi Arabia was named the country with the least amount of awareness regarding cyberbullying with about 63% of people claiming they haven’t seen, read, or ever heard about cyberbullying.
Distribution of platforms where people have faced bullying
Today Majority of cyberbullying and online harassment take place on social media platforms. A large section of online bullying takes place in the form of text messages and comments passed on to a user’s account. Facebook is the leading platform with 39% of cyberbullying instances taking place on this social media platform followed by YouTube with 29%. Below we have mentioned a table showcasing online platforms where users are likely to face cyberbullying:
| Online Platform | Percentage of cyberbullying |
| 39% | |
| YouTube | 29% |
| 22% | |
| 22% |
School Cyberbullying Statistics
- Middle school students who have been victims of cyberbullying are 2x likely to attempt suicide compared to non-victims
According to a survey by the Journal of School Violence, it was found cyberbullying and online harassment victims are more likely to have tried to attempt suicide in comparison to non-victims of online bullying. Apparently, online harassment perpetrators also have 1.5 times more chances of attempting suicide.
- 25% of LGBTQ+ students studying in high school were bullied and have tried to attempt suicide in the past year at least once
LGBTQ+ students are often one of the biggest targets of online bullies and according to Trevor Project, 29% of LGBTQ middle schoolers have tried to attempt suicide at least once as a result of excessive bullying.
- The majority of cyberbullying instances that happen to school students are done by their classmates
According to a report by Ipsos, 51% of online harassment is done by classmates of the victim. According to a 2018 poll with more than 20,000 parents involved it was reported that 30% were children that the victim didn’t know.
- Female students or teenagers are 3x more likely to face cyberbullying in comparison to male students
Female teenagers are at greater risk when it comes to online harassment and cyberbullying. About 22.4% of females between the ages of 12 to 18 have been a victim of cyberbullying which took place through texts or online. Meanwhile, 7.6% of male students in the same age group have reported to face cyberbullying.
- 23% of high school and middle school students have been cyberbullied by bullies in the past 30 days
According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, there has been a massive increase in cyberbullying cases since 2015 by 55% which has tripled since 2007. A total of 45.5% of high school and middle school students have reported being a target of cyberbullying or online harassment at least once in their lives.
Cyberbullying Prevention Statistics
Cyberbullying and online harassment cases are increasing day by day. Due to this, there are various prevention methods taken by the government and social media platforms to stop cyberbullying. Below we have mentioned some of the statistics regarding cyberbullying prevention globally.
- 3 out of 4 adults across the world believe anti-cyberbullying efforts are ineffective
A large number of adults across the world believe that more efforts need to be taken in order to counter cyberbullying. The majority of sentiment is from Japan, where around 89% of adults believe that not enough measures are taken by anti-cyberbullying to stop and end cyberbullying among people.
- 41% of the people claim no response or action was taken by the platform regarding physical threats on the social media platform
In a survey done by ADL’s Online Hate and Harassment, it was stated that more than 4 in 10 respondents had claimed that many social media platforms had failed to take any crucial actions against online hate and physical threats. 14% claimed in 2021 the platform removed threatening content, down from 22% in 2020.
- Two-thirds of the cyberbullying content was found by Facebook before being reported by the users themselves (Facebook)
Facebook has taken essential measures against cyberbullying on the platform. In Quarter 1 of 2022, Facebook found and flagged 67% of the content under bullying and harassment. This is a massive jump by Facebook when it comes to taking action against offensive content as the platform found only 14% of content offending in 2020 before users did.
- 79% of US adults believe that online platforms are not doing a good job regarding cyber bullying
47% of US adults say that companions are doing a fair job in addressing cyberbullying. Meanwhile, 32% of the audience says online platforms are doing a “poor” job in addressing online bullying and harassment. On being asked what essential methods should be taken against cyberbullying, 51% of people claimed placing a permanent ban on online harassment is an effective method to address users.
- 48 US States have laws that comprise the terms “Electronic Harassment” or “Cyberbullying”
There are only two states in the US Alaska and Wisconsin that don’t include any form of cyberbullying laws. 49 states contain laws requiring school districts to have formal policies and guidelines addressing the behavior, identification, and disciplinary responses of cyberbullying. 44 states in the US include criminal sanctions specifically for electronic harassment and cyberbullying.
- Four in Five Americans are keen on more laws to be added for cyberbullying and online harassment (ADL)
81% of Americans believe that more laws and regulations should be added to hold cyberbullies accountable for their behavior towards a victim. Around 80% of the audience feel that police need to focus more on helping the cyberbullied victims. 76% of people feel that social media platforms should be held accountable for harmful and inappropriate actions against users.
Wrapping Up
Cyberbullying is currently one of the major issues faced by students and young adults around the world. With the growth of the internet and social media platforms, the risks of online harassment have also taken a huge rise among people. Even though there are a variety of anti-cyberbullying measures available, the risks of online harassment haven’t taken a drastic change. Therefore, it’s important for companies and other platforms to take essential measures against cyberbullying to ensure a safe platform use for everyone.
