Abstract
The harmful effects of bullying and harassment on children have long been of concern to parents, educators, and policy makers. The online world presents a new environment in which vulnerable children can be victimized and a space where perpetrators find new ways to perform acts of harassment. While online bullying is often considered to be an extension of persistent offline behavior, according to EU Kids Online (2011), the most common form of bullying is in person, face-to-face. With the rise in use of mobile Internet technologies, this balance is changing. Increased levels of use and more time spent online accessed through a variety of devices has increased children’s exposure to a range of online risks, including cyberbullying. This article presents the findings of the Net Children Go Mobile project, a cross-national study of children aged 9–16 in seven European countries. The research builds on the work of EU Kids Online and supports the identification of new trends in children’s online experiences of risk and safety. The study finds that while overall levels of bullying have remained relatively static, levels of online bullying have increased, particularly among younger teens. The relationship between cyberbullying and the use of mobile Internet technologies is examined and factors contributing to increased levels of cyberbullying are highlighted.
Highlights
The rapidity with which the Internet has been embraced by young people and the speed at which it has impacted on the environment for young people’s informational, educational, and entertainment needs is remarkable
Gender differences are marked in each of the dominant forms of cyberbullying: three times as many girls than boys report being bullied by SMS (6% vs. 2%), and girls report more than twice the amount of bullying on social networking sites (14% vs. 5%)
In the Net Children Go Mobile project, children were asked: if they were to experience something on the Internet or when they were online that bothered them or made them upset, how likely or unlikely is it that they would talk to a parent, a sibling, friends, or others (Table 4)
Summary
The rapidity with which the Internet has been embraced by young people and the speed at which it has impacted on the environment for young people’s informational, educational, and entertainment needs is remarkable. The extent to which use of the Internet by young people has contributed to experiences of being bullied remains a challenging research question Multinational studies such as EU Kids Online and Net. Children Go Mobile have sought to enhance knowledge of European children’s online opportunities, risks, and safety through the development of a robust evidence base towards understanding the online landscape that increasingly frames children and young people’s experience. The aim of the Net Children Go Mobile project, which followed EU Kids Online, is to study children’s and young people’s use of mobile Internet technologies and to examine consequences they may have for children’s online well-being Employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the research focuses on how new mobile conditions of Internet access and use (smartphones, tablets, other portable devices and use of Wi-Fi) bring greater or lesser risks to children’s online safety. “always-on” connectivity, the locations, time spent, and ways of using the Internet are likely to intensify, creating new challenges for parents, educators, and policy makers [7]
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