Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology.

Electronic
technology includes devices and equipment such as cell phones, computers, and tablets as
well as communication tools including social media sites, text messages, chat, and
websites.
Examples of cyberbullying include mean text messages or emails, rumors sent by email
or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or fake
profiles.

Why Cyberbullying is Different

Effects of Cyberbullying
Frequency of Cyberbullying

Why Cyberbullying is Different

Kids who are being cyberbullied are often bullied in person as well. Additionally, kids
who are cyberbullied have a harder time getting away from the behavior.

Cyberbullying can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and reach a kid even when he
or she is alone. It can happen any time of the day or night.
Cyberbullying messages and images can be posted anonymously and distributed quickly
to a very wide audience. It can be difficult and sometimes impossible to trace the source.
Deleting inappropriate or harassing messages, texts, and pictures is extremely difficult
after they have been posted or sent.
Back to top

Effects of Cyberbullying
Cell phones and computers
themselves are not to blame for
cyberbullying. Social media sites
can be used for positive
activities, like connecting kids
with friends and family, helping
students with school, and for
entertainment. But these tools
can also be used to hurt other people. Whether done in person or through technology, the
effects of bullying are similar.
Kids who are cyberbullied are more likely to:

Use alcohol and drugs

Skip school
Experience in-person bullying
Be unwilling to attend school
Receive poor grades

Have lower self-esteem

Have more health problems
Back to top

Frequency of Cyberbullying
The 2010-2011 School Crime Supplement (National Center for Education Statistics and
Bureau of Justice Statistics) indicates that 9% of students in grades 612 experienced
cyberbullying.
The 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey finds that 15% of high school
students (grades 9-12) were electronically bullied in the past year.
Research on cyberbullying is growing. However, because kids technology use changes
rapidly, it is difficult to design surveys that accurately capture trends.
Researchers at the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New
Hampshire (UNH) just published a paper in the journalPsychology of Violencethat
explores the question of whether technology amplifies the harm for youth who are
harassed. Anecdotally, we have heard this to be the case from many youth over the years:
that the bullying they experienced online was as bad, and in some cases much worse, than
the bullying that they experienced at school. Adolescent targets, for example, often
reported feeling less equipped to stop cyberbullying. They confronted more barriers when
confiding in adults about these behaviors. Educators have policies and are trained to deal
with the bullying that occurs on school grounds, but up until very recently this wasnt the
case for online bullying that occurred away from school. Moreover, sometimes the
aggressors are anonymous, and the hurtful content is posted in a public place for all to
see. So in many ways it seems that online bullying has the potential to be much worse for
some who experience it.
But one particular finding in the UNH paper has called this conventional wisdom into
question. Specifically, students who experienced cyberbullying by itself (with no
accompanying in-person bullying) were less emotionally impacted than those who
experienced face-to-face bullying. The media has interpreted this as cyberbullying is not
as bad as in-person bullying. This is part of the story, but not the whole story.
Different Methodology
Kimberly Mitchell and her colleagues took a somewhat different approach to studying
youth harassment. Instead of simply asking students to report whether they had been
bullied (online or off), and how many times they experienced various forms of bullying
during the previous year, they drilled down on particular incidents and detailed questions
about the bullying they experienced in a singular incident. This is different from most
other research in that the unit of analysis in this study is the incident, not the student.
They interviewed 791 students, and 230 of them (29%) had been bullied at least once in
the previous year. If students had been bullied more than once, researchers asked about

the most recent and the most serious incident (only focusing on a maximum of two
unique incidents). This led to 311 independent incidents of bullying (about a third of the
students were bullied more than once). Of those incidents, 44% involved in-person
bullying, 19% involved cyberbullying, and 38% involved both.
This last group, those who were bullied both online and offin the same incidentwere
the most distressed by their experience: Mixed incidents had the most emotional impact,
possibly because they occurred across multiple environments and because perpetrators
tended to be more socially connected to victims. Indeed, if we review many of the high
profile incidents where teens took their own lives after experiencing cyberbullying, we
see that in addition to the online bullying, the teens also struggled with other family and
social problems, including being bullied at school.
In our research, we find that youth who are bullied online are also very often bullied at
school. For example, in a recent survey we found that 12.4% of students had been
cyberbullied within the previous 30 days. Over 80% of those were also bullied at school
during that same time period. So it is very likely that students who are being bullied
online are also being bullied at school. The UNH study doesnt necessarily account for
these kinds of crossover experiences, if they are viewed by the student as separate
incidents.
Other Interesting Findings
Also of note, even though most researchers define bullying in a way that requires
repetition and a power differential, 12% of the students who said they were harassed in
the UNH study reported that there was no power differential and only 41% said it
happened repeatedly. This of course calls into question our definitions of bullying (see
also, this paper). Sameer and I have a paper forthcoming in the journal Aggression and
Violent Behavior that discusses these issues in much more detail. Mitchell and her
colleagues have always used the term peer harassment instead of bullying because they
recognize the important differences between the two types of behaviors. So, to be precise,
this isnt a study of bullying, but of the broader experiences of peer harassment (some of
the differences between harassment and bullying are discussed here).
Finally, the UNH study also reaffirmed that more students experience peer harassment at
school than online (see my earlier post about this).
Conclusion
So, does technology amplify harm for youth? Even though most reports based on this
article conclude that the answer to this question is no, that clearly does not follow from
the results. For just about every emotional outcome explored (upset, embarrassed,
worried, angry, sad, unsafe, lack of trust), the percent of students who reported
experiencing each outcome increased when technology was a factor in the bullying. For
example, among the 136 incidents where students were only bullied in-person, 13%
resulted in embarrassment. For the 117 incidents where students were bullied in-

personand online, 30% were embarrassed. Similarly, 22% of the in-person incidents left
students worried, while 34% of the mixed incidents left students worried. Also, 15% of
students who experienced an in-person only incident felt like they couldnt trust people,
compared to 42% of the students who experienced bullying in-person and online. Finally,
the average total emotional impact score was 19.1 for in-person only incidents,
compared to 23.1 for mixed incidents. So it sure seems like technology amplifies some of
the emotional harm.
Focusing only on the singular finding that those who were just cyberbullied felt less
harmed than those bullied only in-person misses a lot of important insights we can learn
from this study. I dont believe that the take-away message is that cyberbullying is not as
bad as in-person bullying (even though that seems to be the focus in the media). It is just
as accurate to conclude that Technology Increases the Emotional Harms Associated with
Bullying. But I havent yet seen that headline.
As always, more research is necessary.