The good news: kids are not being bullied as much online.
The bad news: bullying by text messages is on the rise.
That's the takeaway from a study whose lead author is Michele Ybarra, president and
research director of the nonprofit Internet Solutions for Kids in San Clemente.
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She found the frequency and intensity of bullying, harassment and unwanted sexual experiences toward children has decreased online, although her study did not measure access to websites via smartphones.
Researchers used online surveys to reach 1,600 adolescents ages 10 to 15 starting in 2006, with annual follow-ups in 2007 and '08. The results are printed in the December issue of Pediatrics.
“Unwanted
sexual solicitation” by text messaging was 1.9 times higher in 2008
than in 2006, a significant increase. The study looked at perpetrating as well as being victimized, and found that adolescents “sexting”–sending unwanted text messages or pictures of a
sexual nature–increased slightly from 2007 to 2008. Harassment
via text rose significantly as time went on.
The results are cause for concern, according to Dr. Jorge Srabstein, medical
director of the Clinic for Health Problems Related to Bullying, at the
Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He's testified before Congress about bullying.
“This
excellent study raises awareness that young people's exposure and
experience of mistreatment or victimization on the Internet has remained
unabated for several years and that 25 percent of youth reported
feeling very distressed by this experience,” Srabstein reportedly told USA Today. “People
who are bullied and or those who bully others, as well as those who are
bystanders, are at a significant high risk of suffering from frequent
physical and emotional symptoms, including depression, irritability,
sleeping difficulties, headaches, stomachaches, anxiety and above all,
suicidal attempts.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.