Teen Cyberbullying: Forms and Impacts

Updated: Dec 17, 2023

For this blog post I wanted to focus on a topic that showed that youth injuries don’t just occur physically but also emotionally and mentally. Cyberbullying is using technology to threaten and target another person and is meant to hurt them.

Why do people participate in cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying can be hard to detect for some people because people have different types of humor and different ways of expressing their humor; however, cyberbullying is the consistent attack and threats that someone sends to someone else. Teens might want to participate in cyberbullying because there is a lack of adult supervision and they also might find it as a different and fun way to cause harm to someone they don’t like.

What are the impacts on the victims of teen cyberbullying?

In today's world, many teens are using a device whereas before it was considered something” extra” to have, and with more device usage comes more cyberbullying. Those who are cyberbullying victims are more likely to experience depression than those who aren’t exposed. Not only this, but the PubMed Central Library stated that in one of their studies, they asked adolescents about the negative effects of cyberbullying and 93% of the cyberbullying victims reported negative effects. Some of these effects included: sadness, powerlessness, etc…

In other studies, cyberbullying can be shown to be attached to adolescent suicidal behavior and disruptions in adolescent relationships.

What are the impacts on the perpetrators of teen cyberbullying?

The perpetrators of cyberbullying have also been studied, and they are more likely to engage in illegal behaviors, cause property damage, substance use, etc… Cyberbullying is likely caused by relational aggression, smoking, etc… Cyberbullies sometimes don’t understand the consequences of their actions because they never actually see the face of who they are hurting which could be a leading cause to some of their actions. A study done by PubMed used adolescents in Australia and it showed that youth who cyberbullied others had more stress, depression, and other symptoms compared to their peers.

What type of cyberbullying has been seen the most in teens recently?

In this study cyberbullying almost half (46%) of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 reported feeling at least one of the 6 categories above. The chart shows that the most popular form of cyberbullying teens have faced is offensive name-calling followed by the spreading of false rumors. The lowest percentage is having explicit images of them shared without their consent. Overall from this study, 28% of teens have experienced multiple types of cyberbullying.

Which gender, specific teenage group, and race/ethnicity does cyberbullying affect more?

The amount of cyberbullying teens face is partly due to gender as well as race/ethnicity. This study below shows differences in levels of cyberbullying throughout races, ages, and age groups.

In this chart, it can be noticed that 54% of girls 15-17 have experienced some type of cyberbullying in their lives which is the highest percentage on the chart. It can also be seen that the white race experiences the most offensive name-calling at 35% as well as the most spreading false rumors at 24%. Physical threats for all ethnicities and genders are very similar.

How can you prevent getting into trouble with cyberbullies (and coming out of it hurt and in trouble)?

These are a few methods of trying to avoid the negative effects of cyberbullying and how to help yourself if you are a victim or perpetrator of cyberbullying; however, more strategies need to be found in order to help fix this problem.

Walk away- ignoring a bully is the best way to try and solve the problem, however, this is sometimes not easy to do
Resist the temptation to respond- If you resist the temptation then you can have some time to think about a good way to respond to the cyberbully
Report bully/block the bully
Be safe online (manage privacy)
Ask a friend for help
Cognitive empathy -can be used to show victims' experiences and trigger emotions in adolescents
Contact law enforcement (if the situation gets out of control)

How does this theme tie into youth injury prevention?

Youth injury prevention encompasses a wide variety of topics ranging from physical to emotional to social. The theme of cyberbullying ties into social and emotional injury prevention. The goal of this post was to inform and find ways to protect teens and give them useful tactics to try to avoid and prevent themselves from getting cyberbullied. The injury that is being prevented with the methods listed above is hurt feelings and reduced self-confidence caused by cyberbullying.

Other resources (available 24/7):

Stop Bullying Now Hotline (USA)