One in 10 Australian teenagers experience cyberbullying, involving nasty messages or photos posted online or sent on mobile phones, every few weeks, according to new research.
However, most of those being cyberbullied are also being bullied face-to-face, research by the Child Health Promotion Research Centre at Edith Cowan University in
Western Australia shows.
Professor Donna Cross, head of the centre, told the National Centre Against Bullying Conference in Melbourne on Saturday that strategies to tackle cyberbullying could not be isolated and must address other forms of bullying.
"About 10 per cent of young people report that they're being cyberbullied in Australia at the moment every few weeks or more often," she said.
"I think what's really important here is that 92 per cent of young people ... reported that they were being both cyberbullied and face-to-face bullied.
"We're looking at a very similar phenomenon here ... when we think about cyberbullying we must think about face-to-face bullying.
"We can't isolate this behaviour and make this behaviour the fad of the month ... we need to keep it in perspective.
"We're looking at very similar behaviour just being delivered through a different mode: same wine, just different bottle."
Professor Cross said the incidence of cyberbullying leaped when students began high school.
Most cyberbullying began on mobile phones and graduated to the use of the internet as students got older, she said.
"But the access to the internet seems to be getting younger each time we study it," she said.
"Bullying through social networking sites is more common as students get older, and cyberbullying's very much related to age."
The research also found young women were more likely to ask adults for help than young males, but adult intervention didn't always resolve the situation.
Being cyberbullied also affects the victim's life at school, with the victim six times more likely to feel disconnected to school and seven times more likely to never feel safe at school.
Prof Cross and her team had started a three-year trial of ways to prevent and deal with cyberbullying.
The Cyberfriendly Schools Project involves 40 high schools in Western Australia, 3500 students and their parents, school staff, a web-based resource and training.
It is hoped the outcome of the project will provide schools with proven interventions to deal with cyberbullying.
- AAP
