Norton tackles Cyberbullying in new Survey

Photo from Get Safe Online (http://k9webprotection.net/)Norton Canada released the results of its cyberbullying survey today highlighting that girls are more often involved in cyberbullying incidents than boys are (86 percent compared to 55 percent) and that cyberbullying is happening most frequently through social media channels. For the purpose of this survey, cyberbullying is described as wilful and abusive e-mails, photos, instant messages, cell phone calls or other electronic channels that result in personal humiliation, violation of privacy, stress or physical injury.

“The connectivity and immediacy of social networking sites has adults and children alike tethered to the online world as a means of communicating,” said Lynn Hargrove, director of consumer solutions for Norton Canada. “Words said online have a different impact than words exchanged on a playground, because online messages and posts have the potential to live on for an indefinite amount of time.” 

The Norton Cyberbullying survey polled parents from across the country about their children’s online experiences. One quarter of parents polled (26 percent), said their child had been involved in a cyberbullying incident.  Of these, nearly three out of four (66 percent) parents said their child was the victim of the incident, 16 percent admitted that their child was the actual bully, and 18 percent said their child was a witness to a cyberbullying incident. A staggering 32 percent of parents stated they don’t completely know what their child does on the internet, but fear their child’s behaviour online could involve coming into contact with an online predator (44 percent).

Cyberbullying takes place in a virtual world, but it’s 100% real

Though the survey found girls to be the most bullied, surprisingly parents reported that it was boys that were not playing nice in the cyber sandbox (22 percent of boys were identified as bullies, compared to only three percent of girls). However, Canadian survey participant Jason C. suggested that boys are equally as cyberbullied as girls are. When asked about his child’s cyberbullying experience, Jason stated "someone on my son's social network started spreading rumours on the site. He was devastated.”

The survey also revealed that cyberbullying incidents are slightly more prevalent with tweens (8 to 12 years old). Seventy-three percent of tweens were affected by cyberbullying, compared to 71 percent of high schoolers (15-18), and 64 percent of middle schoolers (13-14).  Parents reported that these incidents of cyberbullying happened on social networks (63 percent), over email (25 percent), and over the phone (19 percent). 

“The online world is a great asset for kids to stay connected with friends, family and do their homework, but we must have ongoing conversations with our children about acceptable behaviour while online,” said Hargrove. “It’s important that your family’s PC is in an open area and you are consistently monitoring your child’s online habits. You wouldn’t let your ten-year-old out by themselves in a new city, so why are you comfortable with them being online behind closed doors – where there is potential for exposure?”

Are Canadian parents protecting their children?

More than half of parents polled said they try to maintain a tight grip on their children’s online activities. In fact, 60 percent of parents stated they keep their family computer in the living room or other public area, so they can monitor what their child is doing online. Just under half of the respondents noted they have an open dialogue with their children about proper online behaviour.

For more tips on how to protect children online, visit Norton Online Family.

Additional Results

Ø  Mobile access:  Cell phones were another vehicle for cyberbullying, with 22% of girls experiencing it more than boys (14%); cyberbullying via cell phone was also most common with middle schoolers (ages 13-14) (52%)

Ø  Social Networking: 43% of parents said they were OK with tweens (ages 8-12) having an account, so long as they're supervised by parents. (You have to be at least 13-years-old to access most social networking sites legally)

Ø  Lines of communication: 49% of parents claim to have a very open dialogue with their children about their online behaviour, but 32% of all parents feel that there are environments they can’t control (i.e. friend’s homes, what children do at school or Internet activity on his/her phone)

Ø  Controlling the situation: More than 50% of parents claim to use online parenting software to monitor their children’s internet use. While 42% of parents said they check their child’s browser history to get a sense of what they’re looking up online.

Norton Cyberbullying Survey

The survey was conducted online with a random sample of 507 men and women in 5 Canadian cities who have a child between the ages of 8-18, all members of the Impulse Research proprietary online panel. The 5 cities, each with 100 respondents, are: Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

The Impulse Research proprietary online panel has been carefully selected to closely match Canadian population demographics and the respondents are representative of Canadian men and women who live in those cities. Research was conducted in February 2011. The overall sampling error rate for this survey is +/-3% at the 95% level of confidence