Cyberbullying: Youngsters' Experiences and Parental Perception

This paper describes a survey on the prevalence and nature of cyberbullying of and by youngsters and the parental perceptions. Two questionnaires, one for youngsters and one for their parents, were sent to 1,211 final-year pupils of primary schools and first-year pupils of all levels of secondary schools and their parents. Pupils completed the questionnaires in their classroom, and parents completed them at home. The results show that about 16% of the youngsters had engaged in bullying via the Internet and text messages, while about 23% of the youngsters had been victims of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying seems to be a rather anonymous, individualistic activity, which primarily takes place at home. The most…