
Online bullying has been increasingly enabled by wider access to the internet and greater use of smartphones, social media and networking applications. This equates to approximately 764,000 children. In the year ending March 2020, an estimated one out of five children aged 10 to 15 years in England and Wales experienced at least one type of online bullying behaviour (19%). Percentages may not sum to 100 as respondents may have given more than one answer.ĭownload this chart Figure 1: Almost one in five children experienced at least one type of online bullying behaviour in the previous 12 months Image.Children were later separately asked whether or not they would describe their experiences mentioned as "bullying".
In the survey, children were first asked to identify any nasty things that had happened to them or been done to them from a list of behaviours commonly recognised as bullying. The NSPCC helpline on 08 or by emailing on 0800 1111 If the child is not in immediate danger but you are still concerned, or you or someone you know is experiencing bullying, you can contact: If you believe a child is in immediate danger, contact the police on 999 or 112. Sophie Sanders from the Office for National Statistics Centre for Crime and Justice. "This compares with 2 in 5 children who experienced bullying in person, and whilst these data were collected before the coronavirus pandemic, children’s isolation at home and increased time spent on the internet is likely to have had a substantial impact on the split between real world and cyber bullying." Using new data from the crime survey we can see that around 1 in 5 children between the ages of 10 to 15 had experienced some form of online bullying in the previous 12 months. "Greater use of smartphones, social media and networking applications means online bullying can follow a child anywhere they go. Nearly three out of four children (72%) who had experienced an online bullying behaviour experienced at least some of it at school or during school time. More than half (52%) of those children who experienced online bullying behaviours 1 said they would not describe these behaviours as bullying, and one in four (26%) did not report their experiences to anyone.īeing called names, sworn at or insulted and having nasty messages about them sent to them were the two most common online bullying behaviour types, experienced by 10% of all children aged 10 to 15 years. There is no legal definition of bullying, but it is often described as behaviour that hurts someone else, physically or emotionally, and can happen anywhere - at school, at home or online.Īround one in five children aged 10 to 15 years in England and Wales (19%) experienced at least one type of online bullying behaviour in the year ending March 2020, equivalent to 764,000 children.