1. 6 updates

'69% of young' cyberbullied

At least 69% of young people have been cyberbullied, and 20% of those have felt the bullying had been "very extreme", a survey has found. Anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label found Facebook to be the website where the most bullying took place.

Live updates

Facebook dismisses accusations of cyberbullying

Facebook has hit back at a report which claims more online intimidation takes place on its website than any other social networking forum.

A spokesman for Facebook said with 34 million UK members, it had far more users than Twitter and Ask.fm, and it would be wrong to suggest that, proportionally, Facebook accounts for more cyberbullying than other social media platforms.

We don't tolerate bullying on Facebook and that's why we provide the best tools and support in the industry for people to report bullying to us or to someone else who can help them...

We work with safety experts from Childnet, the Diana Award and our Safety Advisory Board to ensure young people know what to do if they come across bullying or feel threatened themselves.

– Facebook spokesman

Advertisement

'More investment' needed to prevent cyberbullying

An anti-bullying charity has called on social media sites to do more to prevent cyberbullying, which they claim is "much worse" than originally thought.

Research by Ditch the Label found 69% of young people had experienced cyberbullying at some point and called on social networks to put "more investment" into "the resources of moderation".

The charity also called on the Government to work closer with social networking sites.

Social media outlets have a massive duty of care to teen users. They are already doing a lot but more investment needs to be put into the resources of moderation.

There also needs to be stronger integration between the Government and social networks.

What we believe social networks should have to do is produce an annual external audit which would measure cyberbullying activity on a network, how many people are reporting cyberbullying and what happened as a result, and we believe that those reports should be made public.

– Founder of Ditch the Label Liam Hackett

Read more: '69% of young' cyberbullied

'69% of young people' experience cyberbullying

An overwhelming number of youngsters will experience cyberbullying research has shown.

Liam Hackett, founder of Ditch the Label, said 69% of young people had experienced online intimidation and over 30,000 young people were visiting their bullying support centre on the Habbo website every week.

We found that cyberbullying was a growing trend within the sphere of bullying and we were naturally inclined to investigate further.

We found that 69% of young people had experienced cyberbullying and that 20% of those said it had been very extreme.

We asked people to rate the impact cyberbullying had on their lives on a scale of one to 10, with one being not severe and 10 being incredibly severe.

On average, the effect on their self-esteem was 7.5 out of 10, which can go on to affect their social lives and their optimism for the future. It's having a massive impact on young people.

– Founder of Ditch the Label Liam Hackett

Young 'targeted by cyberbullies on social media sites'

More young people than ever before are being targeted by cyberbullies via social media, research has found.

The number of young people who are the victims of cyberbullying are "much worse" than originally thought, an anti-bullying charity has said. Credit: PA

A report into cyberbullying by the Brighton-based charity Ditch the Label, quizzed 10,008 young adults between the ages of 13 and 22 and found levels of online intimidation were much higher than originally thought.

The Annual Cyber Bullying Survey showed seven in 10 young people had been victims of cyberbullying and 37% of those were frequently victims of it.

Facebook emerged as the site young people were most likely to be bullied on.

Read more: Bullied girl's dad backs Ask.fm

Advertisement

Back to top