More than half (57%) of Quebecers aged 10 to 18 have already experienced cyberbullying, according to a study commissioned by the online protection company McAfee.
Posted at 12:10 p.m.
However, only 22% of young Quebecers have sought help. Another 22% say they have on the contrary concealed the situation from their parents.
“That’s why it’s important ― and that’s what we recommend to parents ― to try to maintain an open environment so that the child can really report these types of events and allow the parents to react against these types of actions,” said McAfee spokesman Lam Son Nguyen. And this, “from the age of 10”, or the age at which they receive their first connected devices.
78% of Quebec parents said they took concrete measures to protect their child, compared to 85% worldwide. These measures include discussion (66%), monitoring of electronic devices (53%), meeting with the school administration (28%), therapy (11%) and changing schools (8%). .
The Wild West of social networks
The Quebec numbers may seem high, but the rate of kids being bullied online is lower than the Canadian (60%) and global (63%) averages.
In Canada, children mainly report incidents where they have received insults (46%), experienced a form of exclusion on social media (34%) or been the subject of false rumors (20%). They are also 25% to have suffered racially motivated bullying. These instances, however, may have been experienced only once.
In terms of more serious forms, young Canadians are 11% to say they have suffered harassment or physical threats. An even larger proportion say they have experienced sexual harassment (14%).
Other forms of bullying identified by the study are “trolling” (intentionally instigating a conflict for one’s own amusement), “doxing” (publicly revealing information allowing one to find someone, such as their name, address or his school) and the disclosure of his sexual orientation or identity.
In total, 24% of young Canadians say they have already deleted a social media account in order to escape cyberbullying.
In Canada, Facebook is the platform where the most children experience (59%) or witness (48%) cyberbullying. It is closely followed by Instagram, which also belongs to the Meta company, then by YouTube, TikTok and Twitter.
Lack of awareness
“The majority of the time, the cyberbullying comes from the child’s entourage,” said Mr. Nguyen. It starts in the schoolyard and it spreads on the internet. »
In fact, 52% of young Canadians say they know their tormentor personally. But that percentage could actually be even higher, as some hide behind fake accounts to attack their acquaintances.
While only 14% of young Canadians admit to having ever been bullied online, a majority (53%) admit to having taken certain actions ― such as insults or exclusion ― when the word “bullying” is not used in the question.
“It’s true that a derogatory remark is quickly made, especially when dealing with teenagers,” recalled Mr. Nguyen. The problem is that when it’s spread on social networks, it has a snowball effect. One person will make this remark, which will be taken up by another, which will be taken up by another person, and immediately things start to spiral. »
The study was conducted by the firm MSI-ACI in July 2022 among 11,687 respondents living in ten countries, namely Canada, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Japan and India. The online questionnaire was first completed by the parents alone, then their children were asked to complete the second part.