A lot of has been said about cyberbullying becoming one of the major concerns among kids and youth who frequently access the Internet. Even as there are many awareness campaigns to combat it, a survey commissioned by Microsoft shows cyberbullying is troubling a more than half of children around the world. India ranks third among countries having their children bullied online.
According to Microsoft’s Global Youth Online Behavior Survey, 53 percent of the Indian children aged between 8-17 acknowledged being bullied online, just behind China (70 percent) and Singapore (58 percent).
According to Wikipedia, cyberbullying is defined as use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass or target another person.
The survey covers more than 7,600 children aged 8 to 17 years across 25 countries such as the U.K, U.S., Australia, Germany, Pakistan and Japan. The Global Youth Online Behavior Survey mainly focusses on how children are treating each other on the Internet and whether parents are monitoring their online activities.
In the survey, kids were asked whether somebody had been unfriendly or mean toward them on the Internet or if any other kid had made fun or teased them. In India, the survey says, more than five in 10 children surveyed confessed of being subjected to a range of online acitivities which some considered to be online bullying.
“Protecting children from online bullying is a shared responsibility. Everyone plays a role: parents, educators, school counsellors, coaches, online safety advocates, industry, law enforcement, government and children themselves,” says Microsoft Director (Trustworthy Computing) Jacqueline Beauchere.
Overall, the survey suggests children are wanting to discuss the issue with their parents, but then only 29 percent of them have ever spoken about it. The survey further stresses that parents and school should collectively take the responsibility of discussing the issue with the children and ensure adequate guidance on how to address the menace of cyberbullying. To read the full survey, click here.