Not sticks and stones but tweets and texts: findings from a national cyberbullying project

This paper presents key findings from a project commissioned by a group of young people to explore issues related to cyberbullying with 12–18-year olds. In particular, the paper focuses on those findings related to impact and support needs. The project collected data through a web-based Survey Monkey questionnaire and focus groups. A total of 473 young people aged 11–19 years in England responded to the questionnaire and 17 young people aged 10–18 took part in the focus groups: 19.7% (n = 87) admitted that they had been cyberbullied, just under half the young people in this study knew someone who had been cyberbullied and a similar proportion of girls and boys admitted having cyberbullied others. Most of the young people thought cyberbullying was as harmful as traditional face to face bullying. But while a few thought it could be more serious, others thought it less serious or even non-existent. Over a quarter of those who had been cyberbullied stayed away from school and over a third stopped socialising outside school. However, just over half the total sample said they did not worry about cyberbullying. The finding that 78% of those that sought support did so by talking to their parents contrasts starkly with previous research. Further research is needed to explore what makes some young people more resilient than others to cyberbullying; the role of the school and parents in dealing with cyberbullying.