Important facts to know:

  • 37% of middle and high school students report having been cyberbullied during their lifetime. (1)
  • The most common type of harassment youth encounter online is name-calling. Some 42% of teens say they have been called offensive names online or via their cellphone. Additionally, about a third (32%) of teens say someone has spread false rumors about them on the internet, while smaller shares have had someone other than a parent constantly ask where they are, who they’re with or what they’re doing (21%) or have been the target of physical threats online (16%).One-quarter of teens say they have been sent explicit images they didn’t ask for, while 7% say someone has shared explicit images of them without their consent. (2)
  • By 24 years-of-age, 60 percent of bullies have criminal records. In comparison to other children, bullies grow up to have more arrests for drunk driving, domestic violence and child abuse. (3)
  • 42% percent of students who reported being bullied at school indicated that the bullying was related to at least one of the following characteristics: physical appearance (30%), race (10%), gender (8%), disability (7%), ethnicity (7%), religion (5%), and sexual orientation (4%).

Sources

  1. https://cyberbullying.org/2019-cyberbullying-data
  2. Pew Research Center, September 2018, “A Majority of Teens Have Experienced Some Form of Cyberbullying” By Monica Anderson: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/09/27/a-majority-of-teens-have-experienced-some-form-of-cyberbullying/
  3. Why Do Some Children Bully Others? Bullies and Their Victims: https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/6/3363/files/2013/07/NH-Why-Do-Some-Children-Bully-26s07gn.pdf (accessed April 2021)
  4. National Center for Education Statistics. “Indicator 10: Bullying at School and Electronic Bullying.” Indicators of School Crime and Safety. Accessed August 21, 2019. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/ind_10.asp