Alarming increase in secondary school cyberbullying

Now that youngsters have easy access to a number of social media sites, they are more exposed to cyberbullying than ever before. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that cyberbullying in post-primary schools has gone up by a third.

 

A new report from the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), showed that cyberbullying in secondary schools has gone up by a third in the last 12 months.

 

Carried out by Amárach Research, the study of 1,000 parents and children found that 16% of students have experienced online bullying and nearly one in ten admitted to bullying another student online.

 

After the findings from this nationwide study, the NAPD plans to call on the Government to develop a policy that will tackle the problem.

 

The director of the principals’ organisation, Clive Byrne, said the “disturbing” findings are proof that it is an ongoing issue that needs to be resolved:

 

 “The findings are quite disturbing because despite ongoing media attention around the problem, there has been a 33 per cent increase in students reporting to being victims of cyberbullying compared to last year.” he said.

 

Since many children fear that they might not be able to use the internet anymore, they will hold back on telling their mum or dad about cyberbullying so parents should try their best to monitor their children’s online activity in a way that doesn’t invade their privacy.