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Tue, 05 Sep, 2023 - 12:03

Jess Casey, Education Correspondent

Cyberbullied children as young as eight years old are suffering in silence with almost half of primary age children not telling their parents and almost a third of them telling no one.

As the Government looks for ways to help schools that are trying to ban smartphones, a major survey published on Tuesday outlines just how prevalent cyberbullying is amongst children and how dangerous it can be.

The latest ‘Trends and Usage Report’ from national charity CyberSafeKids charts more than 5,000 children and young people’s usage of smart devices and access to the online world through apps and gaming.

It finds that 25% of primary school pupils experienced cyberbullying during the last school year alone, with this figure rising to 40% for secondary school students.

More than a quarter (26%) of the young children surveyed saw or experienced something online in the last year that upset or scared them or made them wish they had never seen it.

However, almost a third of them chose to keep it to themselves and did not tell an adult, sibling or friend about what they saw.

Forwarding on upsetting content was more common among older children, with almost one in 10 saying they sent content that bothered them to someone else or a group.

The report also found:

Girls are more likely to be victimised online than boys but boys are less likely to come forward;
Almost two-thirds (62%) of teachers dealt with online safety incidents during the last school year;
Almost a third of 8- to 12-year-olds and three-quarters of 12- to 16-year-olds are allowed online whenever they want;
More than 60% of children had been contacted by a stranger in an online game.

The report comes as Education Minister Norma Foley has secured strong backing from her Cabinet colleagues over plans to support schools trying to ditch smartphones.

While the Government is not expected to legislate on the matter, the minister is working closely with principals and parents’ organisations with a view to rolling out new initiatives to support the schools looking to roll out bans.

Last week, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly also called for a voluntary nationwide ban and spoke of his concern about the harmful impacts to children of inappropriate exposure to online content and social media.

Now in its eighth year, the CyberSafeKids annual ‘Trends and Usage Report’ found that the vast majority (93%) of 8- to 12-year-olds owned a smart device.

Of this, almost half (47%) owned a smartphone. Other popular devices included a tablet or a gaming console.

In one case reported to the national charity by a primary school principal, a group set up by 15 boys in sixth class on a popular app began to share porn, as well as images and video of a toddler being abused by an adult.

The charity was also contacted by a family where an imposter account featuring photos and inappropriate posts had been set up in their child’s name on a popular video-sharing platform.

Despite reporting it multiple times, the family received no response at all for three weeks.

Within four minutes of the case being reported by CyberSafeKids, it received an email confirming that the account violated community guidelines and was removed.

Online safety for children remains a critical issue that is not being sufficiently addressed in Ireland’s education system or by the social media companies, according to CyberSafeKids chief executive Alex Cooney.

“Our data shows children are extremely active on social media, often unsupervised, leaving them highly vulnerable to bullying, grooming, and exposure to violent or sexual content,” said Ms Cooney.

“We urge the Government to invest heavily in more resources and campaigns to support both parents and educators. While organisations like CyberSafeKids barely have the funding to survive, many online service providers report annual profits in the billions.”

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