Online bullying affects Australia’s children and teens as much as any other country globally. Have you ever wondered just how many people get cyberbullied every day?
We’ve gathered gut-wrenching cyberbullying statistics to spread awareness of this brutal phenomenon that ruins people’s lives. Now let’s dive into the details!
Fascinating Cyberbullying Facts
- 53% of young Aussies reported being cyberbullied
- 79% of children aged 10-18 have been bullied on YouTube
- Only 21% of Australian teenagers reported online harassment to an educational institution
- Less than half of Aussie teens that were bullied online spoke to their family or friends about it
- Nearly half of the female victims of cyberbullying are younger women aged 18 to 24
- 37% of women felt physically threatened on the internet
- 17.9% of cyberbullying cases in Australia were racially motivated
- Facebook disabled more than 1.3 billion fake accounts in 2020 alone
- 30% of cyberbullying victims had experienced harassment in their school
- In 2019, 42.4% of Aussie teens reported that they had witnessed cyberbullying
General Cyberbullying Statistics
1. One in three young people stated they have been a victim of online bullying.
(UNICEF)
More than 170,000 young people from 30 countries reported they had tolerated a bully on the internet. That rounds up to a third of all participants in this UNICEF study. Bullying doesn’t just stay inside the computer screen, it can quickly spread all over people’s daily lives.
Moreover, it takes on a heavy mental toll on teens, as one in five students skip school to avoid another traumatic experience because of online trolling.
2. The prevalence rates of cyberbullying victims range from 13.99 to 57.5%.
(Frontiers in Public Health)
A section of twenty studies focused on the prevalence of online bullying victimization, with 11 national reports unveiling that the internet harassment victims rates ranged from 14.6 to 52.2% while cyberbullying perpetration rates were between 6.3 to 32%.
However, when adding regional and community-level results, the victim rates jumped to a scary amount that fluctuated between 13.99 to 57.5%, while internet bullying execution numbers ranged from 6.0 to 46.3%.
3. 53% of young Aussies reported being cyberbullied.
(Headspace)
The latest National Mental Health Foundation report on bullying in Australia reveals that more than half of the young Australian population has experienced harassment on the internet.
Cyberbullying has a severe impact on mental health, as 70% of young Aussies with psychological distress said they had been bullied online at some point in their lives.
In fact, cyberbullying is so prevalent that the NSW State Government, the state with the highest crime rate in Australia, can legally prosecute offenders if they are using the internet in a menacing, harassing or offensive way.
4. More than one in three Aussies experienced online trolling.
(SBS News)
How many people get cyberbullied in Australia? A survey was conducted on 1,557 Australian workers, and almost two in three people reported they had been harassed on the internet. Based on these findings, approximately 8.8 million Australians are cyberbullying targets.
5. 79% of children aged 10-18 have been bullied on YouTube.
YouTube is one of the most popular social media sites in the country and as such attracts the most trolls on the internet. Snapchat isn’t falling short behind either, with 69% of child users reporting online harassment.
However, new social media platforms are slowly creeping up and gaining a worrying amount of online bullies. Such is the case with TikTok – 64% voted ‘yes’ when asked if they experienced bullying on the platform.
Teenage Cyberbullying Statistics
6. 44% of Aussie teens had at least one negative online experience.
(eSafety)
In the six months leading to September of 2020, a worrying 30% of teens participating in the eSafety survey had a stranger contact them on the internet. Girls had a 9% higher chance of being texted by an unknown person than boys, while males were more likely to be threatened and abused.
Gender had no say in receiving unwanted explicit content since 20% of both sexes had inappropriate and unwanted content sent to them.
7. 21% of Australian teenagers reported online harassment to an educational institution.
Statistics on cyberbullying show that children don’t believe in institutional help when dealing with online attacks. Instead, they would rather leave it in their own hands, as victims who reported bullying to a school or a social media network take up 21% each.
8. In 2019, 42.4% of Aussie teens reported they had witnessed cyberbullying.
(Mission Australia)
Almost 47.7% of teens stated they had seen bullying happen to someone they know, and most of the time, it happened in school. The online harassment numbers were also very high, as nearly half of the participants had witnessed bullying on the internet.
9. 30% of cyberbullying victims had experienced harassment in their school.
(eSafety) (UNICEF)
Online bullying directly influences the treatment students get from their classmates, sometimes even being the other way around. For example, a third of Aussie teens reported that their negative online experience was directly related to mistreatment between classes.
However, the numbers decreased with age, tweens being the most prominent group bullied in real life with 36%. On a global scale, 20% of children avoid school because of online harassment and its negative effect on their daily lives.
10. In 2020, Aussie teens spent an average of 14.4 hours weekly on the internet.
Australian teenagers spend over two hours on the internet daily, mostly researching topics of interest and watching videos. On average, younger people in Australia spend two full days a month (48 hours) watching online videos. More than half of teens posted photos and videos on social media, and 72% commented on posts. Communication is the main reason behind the popularity of social media platforms among young people in Australia, as 93% use the internet to chat with their friends.
11. 11% of Australian teens have sent a picture of themselves to a stranger online.
(eSafety) (Reset)
Teens have become more aware of the potential threats the internet holds. Only 8% of children have sent their personal information weekly to people they haven’t met in real life, and a tiny portion of 12% met those strangers face to face.
Furthermore, 58% of teens feel they are not informed enough about their personal data being shared, and 77% would feel more comfortable if social media accounts were automatically set to the most private options for people under the age of 18.
Reactions to Cyberbullying
12. 17.9% of cyberbullying cases in Australia were racially motivated.
(Parliament of New South Wales)
Gender-based hate stays on top of the internet troll popularity scale with, followed by racially motivated cyberbullying cases. LGBTQ+ population didn’t fall behind either, receiving degrading and offensive comments based on sexuality.
- Gender-based offensive content 19.5%
- Race-based offensive content 17.9%
- Sexuality-based offensive content 16.4%
13. 30% of Australian women have been harassed online.
(New South Wales Teachers Federation)
Trolls target the female audience to a noticeably greater extent than men, as three in 10 women report having a negative online experience. Nearly half of the female victims of cyberbullying are younger women aged 18 to 24, and 37% even felt physically threatened.
Women are also more likely to be bullied at work as well as online—a recent report states that 23% of women were harassed at work compared to just 16% of men.
A significant portion of Aussie women find that sexism is the core of the problem, with 42% of women telling of their experiences with misogynistic comments.
14. Less than half of Aussie teens that were bullied online spoke to their family or friends about it.
The latest cyberbullying stats show that teens usually keep to themselves when experiencing harassment, either out of embarrassment (13%) or because they don’t consider it to be a very important deal (34%). Some even stated that they don’t believe they have enough power to promote change (21%).
Consequently, they opt for blocking or unfriending as a more effective solution. Only 43% said that they have spoken with friends or family on the subject, while 54% blocked the troll as a form of self-help. A smaller portion of teens took a softer approach, with 36% only unfriending the bully.
Social Media Cyberbullying Statistics
15. Facebook is the social networking site where most women (39%) are subject to cyberbullying.
(The Guardian)
Women face body shaming, sexual threats, and abusive comments all over the internet, and yet social media platforms don’t do much to prevent that from happening. Below are the rankings on which social media sites have the most cyberbullying attacks on the female population:
- Facebook – 39%
- Instagram – 23%
- WhatsApp – 14%
- Snapchat – 10%
- Twitter- 9%
- TikTok – 6%
The last one is particularly concerning. Even though less instances of harassment are noted on TikTok, this platform has the highest percentage of female users (61%), most of which are aged between 18 and 24.
16. In 2020, 46% of kids in Australia used a smartphone.
(ACMA)
Australian children are obsessed with technology and almost every year there’s been an increase in the number of people who use mobile phones from a very early age. In 2015 41% of Aussie kids between the age of 6 and 13 had been using a smartphone, which then extended to 47% in both 2018 and 2019.
The following year the number insignificantly decreased to 46%. More than half of children that possessed their own phone were scrolling through social media, which is 36% higher than the number of kids who use social media on their parents’ smartphones.
17. Facebook disabled more than 1.3 billion fake accounts in 2020 alone.
(Meta) (Data Reportal)
If you are curious to find out how to lock certain apps on mobile phones to prevent children from accessing dangerous content, take a look at this guide.
It’s not really news that almost everyone has had a Facebook profile in their lives. With 2.912 billion users in January 2022, it’s safe to say that it still is the most active social media platform worldwide.
Sadly, not everyone makes an account to contact friends or post content. Facebook suggests that one in ten profiles is fake, explicitly made to deceive or bully people, so the company doubled up their employees to 35,000 to quickly catch and delete fake accounts.
Victims of Cyberbullying Statistics
18. LGBTQ+ children are almost three times more likely to be bullied online.
(The Conversation)
Cyberbullying facts unveil that queer youth is another target for online trolls, which results in depression in more than half of the LGBTQ+ people. In addition, an alarming rate of queer teens had suicidal thoughts, with 35% stating they have thought of unaliving themselves because of constant mistreatment.
19. In 2019, more than 40% of cyberbullied Australians had a disability.
(Australian Institute of Health and Welfare)
Teenage cyberbullying affects mentally and physically disabled people to a much larger extent. In Australia, 10% of school students have some form of disability, and they were subjected to a lot of harassment since they made up 43% of victims. Teenagers from regional areas were also more likely to be harassed on the internet, with a number that was 6% higher compared to the 19% of bullied teens from major cities.
20. 38% of bullied teens developed self-esteem issues.
A significant amount started doubting their self-worth, felt isolated (33%) and helpless (20%). Online abuse can indeed strongly affect children’s mental health, with 17% stating their mental well-being had deteriorated after experiencing online abuse.
Cyberbullying Awareness Statistics
21. 80% of Australians showed awareness of cyberbullying.
(Statista) (Statista)
Although not the best, Australia does a great job of sharing awareness of the negative impacts of online harassment on children and adults. The majority of Aussies (77%) agree that online bullying is a serious problem that affects a lot of people, primarily children. The country ranks somewhere in the middle on the global awareness scale, which shows that cyberbullying on social media has become a very important topic of discussion.
Here are the top 5 countries that have shown the most initiative in promoting change and cyber safety:
- Italy – 91%
- Sweden – 91%
- Chile – 89%
- South Africa – 88%
- Mexico – 87%
Bottom Line
Cyberbullying statistics show that cruel mistreatment can easily lead to depression, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts, destroying one’s mental well being. So, the next time someone acts harmfully towards you on the web, remember that you can always report it and search for support to put an end to your abuse.
- ACMA
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
- Data Reportal
- Enough
- eSafety
- eSafety
- Frontiers in Public Health
- Meta
- Mission Australia
- New South Wales Teachers Federation
- Parliament of New South Wales
- Reset
- SBS News
- Statista
- Statista
- The Conversation
- The Guardian
- UNICEF
