Almost 50% of minors have been bullied online shows a survey carried out by Save the Children Romania, the organization's executive president, Gabriela Alexandrescu, told a press conference on Tuesday.
The percentage of children victims of cyberbullying has risen sharply from 40% two years ago, as another study conducted by Save the Children shows.
In his turn, sociologist Ciprian Gradinaru pointed out that in terms of offline bullying, which takes place at school, in a child's peer group or in a group of friends, almost 50% of minors say they have been verbally abused.
"As far as the gender structure is concerned, we see that it is relatively similar - girls say to a slightly higher extent, the same, younger children, under 12 years of age, again, a fairly high percentage, 33% of children say that they have been physically assaulted by different methods, from hair pulling, to tripping, hitting with the palm of the hand, but we are talking about repeated aggression, in the sense of bullying," said Ciprian Gradinaru.
He mentioned that the main types of cyberbullying are: exclusion or spreading rumors, gossip, bad words repeatedly said a child, followed by exclusion from the group of friends or threatening messages being sent on various social media platforms, but in very high percentages there are also actions with a much harsher impact on the child, such as spreading intimate images, identity theft, followed by other negative effects, putting the child in an unpleasant situation in front of his peers.
He added that the study was conducted online, at the end of last year, the method of data collection was anonymous self-completed questionnaires from children aged between 7 and 17, and in total there were 6,311 valid questionnaires.
According to a press release from Save the Children Romania, almost 10% of children have been publicly exposed by intimate images or private messages having been shared, something can have "devastating consequences" in the long term.
Approximately 50% of child victims of cyberbullying expect the bullying to recur in the near future.
Six out of ten children say they are affected by negative online experiences.
Some 26% of children say they have had trouble falling asleep after an online incident, with 6% saying this happens frequently.
Eight out of ten children have felt at least once that they were wasting time online instead of focusing on more productive activities, with three out of ten feeling this was happening very frequently.
Children who have been victims of at least one type of cyberbullying have had significantly more difficulty concentrating, are anxious when they have to go to school or think about missing school, feel hopeless, say they have nightmares or have thought about harming themselves, the survey also shows.
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