Indian Children Most Cyber Bullied

Bangalore: India has the highest amount of cyber bullying among children, a new survey suggests. The survey was conducted by global research company Ispos and the poll surveyed 18,000 adults in 24 countries, 6,500 of whom were parents. In India 3 out of 10 parents said their children have been victims of cyber bullying and a majority of them through social networking sites like Facebook.

The survey revealed that 77 percent of parents in India are aware of cyber bullying. 32 percent of parents say their child has experienced cyber bullying, the number being the highest in comparison to the countries. It was also noted that 45 percent of the surveyed know of a child in their community who has experienced cyber bullying.

Cyber bullying can best be explained as - a child or group of children  under the age of 18 who intentionally intimidate, offend, threaten or embarrass another child or group of kids specifically through the use of information technology, such as a website or chat room on internet, a cellular telephone or another mobile device.

It was seen that most widely reported vehicle for cyber bullying was social networking sites like Facebook, with 60 percent polls. Mobile devices and online chat rooms were on the second and third position respectively with each around 40 percent. In India, this percentage was evenly split between social networking sites with 55 percent and online chat rooms with 54 percent.