According to the research GrowingUpOnline - ConnectedKids, which was carried out by Kaspersky Lab and the "iconKids&Youth" institute, cyberbullying is a much more dangerous threat to children than many parents think. For the majority of young victims of cyberbullying, the consequences include serious health and socialization problems.
The concept of cyberbullying includes intentional intimidation, harassment and / or abuse that children and adolescents may experience on the Internet.
An interesting feature of the research is that children aged 8-16 years appear to be much more cautious with regard to this threat from their parents.
According to the survey, 13% of children and 21% of parents consider cyberbullying to be a harmless threat. At the same time, 16% of children said they were more afraid of cyberbullying than offline, while 50% said they were equally afraid of intimidation in real and digital life.
Parents should not underestimate the dangers of cyberbullying. Although the survey showed that as soon as 4% of children admitted to being bullied on the Internet (compared to 12% in real life), in 7 from 10 cases, the consequences were traumatic.
Cyberbullying has seriously affected children's emotional health, research shows. The parents of 37% of the victims commented that the childand they had lower self-esteem. Also, in 30% of cases there was a deterioration in school performance, while in 28% of cyberbullying victims symptoms of depression were observed. In addition, 25% of parents said that cyberbullying had disturbed their children's sleep, even causing nightmares, as observed by 21%. Furthermore, 26% of parents noticed that their child had started to avoid contact with other children, while 20% discovered that their child had symptoms of anorexia.
Equally disturbing are the statistics showing that 20% of children have witnessed internet-threatening attacks on other people, while 7% of these cases even participated in the same. Also, research shows that children often hide incidents of Internet bullying from their parents, making their protection work even more complicated, but not impossible, thankfully.
Andrei Mochola, Head of Consumer Business, Kaspersky Lab, commented: "In an effort to protect our children from the dangers, we must always remember that children live their lives, not only in the real, but also in the virtual world, which is equally real to them. On the Internet, children are socializing, learning new things, having fun, and - unfortunately - they can face unpleasant situations. The cyberbullying is one of the most dangerous things a child can face on the Internet because it can have a negative impact on his psychology and cause problems for the rest of his life. The best solution in this case is to talk to your child and use parental control software, which can alert you to any suspicious changes to its pages on social networks. "
More information and advice on protecting children online is available at kids.kaspersky.com. Information about a technique solution for these problems are available on his page KasperskySafeKids.
