One-third of teens claim to experience "cyberbullying"

When asked why these things happen online, the teens seemed to believe that it was the indirect nature of the Internet that helped their bullies gain the courage to do nasty things and then hide behind the computer screen

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About six percent of teens said that others had publicly posted embarrassing photos of them without their consent as well

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One middle-schooler told a story about how an IM conversation she had participated in got changed in her disfavor, printed out, and passed around at school so that she "looked like a terrible person." Apparently this kind of online/offline bullying mix is preferred by ego-starved bullies everywhere.

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Roughly a third of all teenagers who use the Internet have been subject to some form of cyberbullying, according to a new report by Pew Internet.

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Roughly a third of all teenagers who use the Internet have been subject to some form of cyberbullying, according to a new report by Pew Internet. The telephone survey was conducted on a representative sample of 935 teens in the US between the ages of 12 and 17 and revealed a number of observations about manipulative and bullying activity online. However, despite the fact that so many teens had experienced some level of cyberbullying, two-thirds of the group said that they believed more bullying occurred offline than on.

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The level to which teens have been bullied online varies from "slightly annoying" to death threats. One in six (about 15 percent) told Pew that private communications—IM logs, e-mails, or text messages—had been posted publicly by someone else or forwarded around. One middle-schooler told a story about how an IM conversation she had participated in got changed in her disfavor, printed out, and passed around at school so that she "looked like a terrible person." Apparently this kind of online/offline bullying mix is preferred by ego-starved bullies everywhere.

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About six percent of teens said that others had publicly posted embarrassing photos of them without their consent as well, with the users of popular social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook suffering from this phenomenon more than others (9 percent of social network users had photos posted of them, versus 2 percent of non-social networkers). Those who post photos of themselves are also more likely to have unauthorized photos of them posted, according to the survey.

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Another 13 percent reported that they had been the recipient of a threatening or aggressive e-mail, IM, or text message, and girls are more likely than boys to receive them (15 percent versus 10 percent). Older teens, those 15-17, were also more likely to receive threats than younger teens, with only 9 percent of younger teens receiving threats compared to 16 percent of the older crowd. The older group of girls received the most threats, at 19 percent.

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a large majority of survey respondents still said that more bullying occurred offline. Unsurprisingly, though, those who had not experienced cyberbullying were more likely to say that bullying was more common offline than online (71 percent) than those who had experienced some form of cyberbullying (57 percent).

"Bullying has entered the digital age," writes Pew senior research analyst Amanda Lenhart. "The impulses behind it are the same, but the effect is magnified. In the past, the materials of bullying would have been whispered, shouted, or passed around. Now, with a few clicks, a photo, video, or a conversation can be shared with hundreds via e-mail or millions through a web site, online profile, or blog posting."

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