Research by Vodafone has shown that one in five young people has been a victim of cyberbullying. This is a research conducted on about 5 children aged between 5000 and 13 in Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Greece, South Africa, the United States, Ireland and the Czech Republic.
The even more worrying fact that emerges from the Vodafone research is that a fifth of young people targeted by cyberbullying have had suicidal tendencies. Furthermore, it emerges that more than half of adolescents think that cyberbullying is worse than face-to-face bullying and 43% believe that it is a more serious problem for young people than substance abuse.
Vodafone research commissioned by YouGov revealed that an average of about one in five teenagers (18%) in the countries where the research was carried out has experienced cyberbullying and, consequently:
- 41% said that cyberbullying made them feel depressed or helpless (again 41%);
- 26% felt completely alone and 18% have considered committing suicide;
- the 21% he didn't go to school and 25% closed their social media accounts;
- 38% said they had not told their parents or guardians about it because they were ashamed (32%), feared their parents would be involved (40%), or afraid of what their parents might do ( 36%).
- 43% of the sample would find it difficult to support a friend who has been bullied on social media because they would not be able to to find the right words to show your support. 72% of teens said they were likely to use an emoji to express sympathy or support for friends who are being cyberbullied.
In the wake of these results, Vodafone has thus launched the #BeStrong campaign, an initiative against bullying that includes emojis to raise the level of awareness of the importance of making one's compassion, sympathy and support felt when a friend is the victim of acts of online bullying.
From today the images will be available on Vodafone and the Vodafone Foundation social media platforms as part of a fundraising campaign. The Vodafone Foundation announces it will help raise money for anti-bullying NGOs by donating 14p for every public Twitter retweet or Facebook 'like' similar to Vodafone's image of the #BeStrong emoji. In addition, the Vodafone Foundation will make a total donation of €137.000 to anti-bullying NGOs.
