Cyberbullying of teens between the ages of 14 and 17 might be linked to high use of social networking sites in these teens and not only a result of having a social network profile, claims a new study published in the journal BMC Public Health, which analysed data from diffrent European countries claims that.
Research teams at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece saw that teenage children in Romania, Germany and Poland who spent more than two hours a day on social media networks, were at a higher risk of experiencing cyberbullying- which includes seemingly violent and threatening messages, social exclusion, spreading rumors and sharing private information.
Professor Artemis Tsitsika, who is the co-author of the study said, “This is an important finding which challenges past research suggesting that simply having, rather than excessive use of, a social network site profile increases the risk of becoming a victim of cyberbullying.”
Scientists found out that a significantly large number of teenage students in Romania (37.3%), Greece (26.8%), Germany (24.3%) experienced cyberbullying as compared to the relatively smaller group of teenage students who were bullied online in the Netherlands (15.5%), Iceland (13.5%) and Spain (13.3%)
“We found multiple factors, in addition to the time spent on social media, which may impact cyberbullying frequency and explain the differences between countries. In Greece and Romania higher cyberbullying may be due to a lack of digital literacy and relevant legislation, as well as sudden rise of social media use and a large technological gap between parents and the younger generation”, added Tsitsika.
“Promotion of internet safety strategies and teaching digital skills in education may contribute to lower rates of cyberbullying in the Netherlands. In all cases higher daily use with no monitoring and digital literacy background may lead to teenagers posting private information and meeting strangers online”, continued Tsitsika.
Researches think that the next step should be the integration of ICT education in the curriculum- especially in the countries where the Internet use abruptly rose to a high percentage.
The authors of the study analysed a school-based study that was done across Germany, Greece, Iceland, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain- in which about 12,372 students ages 14-17 filled out anonymous questionnaires about how much time they spent on the internet, social factors and cyberbullying.
The research team stresses that the “observational nature” of the study restricts the conclusions on the direct causes of cyberbullying since the information used in the study was collected five years ago and it may not be reflective of current cyberbullying trends.