One in 5 students in Sardinia are victims of school cyberbullying. But the phenomenon "is worrying and growing, and requires an ever greater and more frequent intervention of adults, be they parents or teachers".
This is what emerges from a study conducted by Eurispes with the contribution of the Regional Department for Planning and Budget and thanks to the collaboration of the Regional Department for Public Education.
The research involved 97 schools on the island (48 lower secondary schools and 49 upper secondary schools) for a total of 3,586 children, 1,361 parents and 837 teachers, who were subjected to anonymous questionnaires.
What emerged from the answers of the interviewees? First of all, almost 20 out of 100 young people (precisely 19.6%) declared that they had been subjected to acts of cyberbullying.
Who are the cyberbullies? - The research has also drawn the identikit of cyberbullies: they are between 13 and 19 years old and are, to the same extent, girls or boys. In fact, the research showed that 50.3% of the perpetrators of digital harassment are male and 49.7% female.
As for the "means" used to bully peers, group chats and individual messages stand out (on WhatsApp, Telegram and similar applications). The most reported acts are silent phone calls, telephone jokes or exclusion from Whatsapp groups.
The victims - And then the victims, who are mainly girls between the ages of 15 and 19 who end up in the crosshairs of "keyboard bullies". But what do cyberbullying cause in boys? feeling lonely, having felt anxiety and anger and there have been cases of real depression.
The "spectators" - An ad hoc chapter is dedicated to the "spectators", or peers who happened to witness the harassment. They are the same age as the victims - so they are mostly girls between 15 and 19 years old - and faced with the abuses they felt "pain and anger", but they often said they were unable to take a position.
Parents - Parents chapter: the interviewees - reads the research - ”stated that they are giving their children between 6 and 11 years of age a cell phone for the first time, often checking its contents. In addition, they have provided them with a computer connected to the Internet in a common area of the house; in this case, the device was also monitored through the “Parental Control”, ie the tool that allows you to monitor or block access to certain online activities.
