Girls more likely to be victims of cyberbullying

Survey results which may come as no surprise to veteran Internet users indicate that Canadian girls are more likely to be victims of cyberbullying than Canadian boys, with 63% of cyberbullying happening through social networks.

The Norton Cyberbullying Survey found that 86% of parents said their daughters were victims of cyberbullies, while 55% of sons were said to be bullied.

Norton offered the following tips for protecting your family online. Users new to the often hostile environment of the Internet may benefit by taking heed.

• Use Internet security software on all computers
• Don’t open suspicious e-mails or click unknown links
• Keep the computer and cell phones visible whenever possible
• Avoid using file sharing software programs [Ed: without understanding the risks]
• Be vigilant on public computers or WiFi networks
• Establish rules for using the Internet
• Understand social networking — join and use privacy and security settings
• Help your children keep their personal information protected
• Create complex and unique passwords and keep them private
• Use parental control software and frequently check your online computer’s Internet history
• Spend time with your children online and have “The Talk” regularly
• Teach your children to tell a parent, teacher, or trusted adult if they feel uncomfortable about anything they’ve seen on a computer

The full press release is below.

Social networking sites have become a popular platform for youth to stay connected. Although these sites have many positive benefits, some tweens and teens are using these channels as weapons to facilitate cyberbullying.

A new study from Norton Canada called 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. In addition, 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).

The Norton Cyberbullying Survey also found that girls are more often involved in cyberbullying incidents than boys. In fact, 86 percent of parents revealed their daughters were victims of cyberbullies, compared to 55 percent of sons.

Additional Survey Results

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

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

Top vehicles driving cyberbullying:  According to the survey, the top three channels children are using to cyberbully are social media (63 percent), email (25 percent), and phone (19 per cent) – boys are more likely than girls to become victims of cyberbullying through social networks.

Lines of communication: 49 percent of parents claim to have a very open dialogue with their children about their online behaviour, but 32 percent 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)

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

Survey data

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

Tips for Protecting Your Family Online

Norton offered the following online safety tips, written by Marian Merrit, a tech-savvy mom of three and author of Norton’s Family Online Safety Guide.

• Use Internet security software on all computers
• Don’t open suspicious emails or click unknown links
• Keep the computer and cell phones visible whenever possible
• Avoid using file sharing software programs
• Be vigilant on public computers or WiFi networks
• Backup your computer, go online with Norton™ Online Backup
• Establish rules for using the Internet
• Understand social networking — join and use privacy and security settings
• Help your children keep their personal information protected
• Create complex and unique passwords and keep them private
• Use parental control software and frequently check your online computer’s Internet history
• Spend time with your children online and have “The Talk” regularly
• Teach your children to tell a parent, teacher, or trusted adult if they feel uncomfortable about anything they’ve seen on a computer