Four hundred young people aged 11 and 17 participated in an online survey as part of Safer Internet Day (SID) 2022 activities in Austria. From the responses, it was found that 17 per cent had been victims of cyberbullying, 10 per cent had participated in a cyberbullying incident in some way, and 42 per cent were bystanders. The older the young people were, the more experience they had with cases of cyberbullying. 

Aside from cyberbullying, many young people had also experienced unpleasant situations online: 48 per cent reported feeling insulted or offended in an online interaction, 46 per cent reported being ghosted, and 41 per cent had experienced lies and false rumours about themselves. Girls reported experiencing these unpleasant situations more than boys. 

Austrian’s young people have the impression that instances of cyberbullying have increased during the pandemic, and reported seeing various examples of this in distance learning situations. For example, they reported being deliberately distracted from classroom activities (30 per cent), being excluded from relevant school-related information (23 per cent), and being mocked in online classes (22 per cent). 

From the responses to the survey, it was evident that cases of cyberbullying among young people are not anonymous. The affected person either knows – or has a reasonable suspicion –who is behind such attacks, and this is typically someone known in the school context. 

While school is reported as the setting where most cyberbullying occurs, it is also the area where it can best be tackled. Young people reported “getting help from friends, teachers, parents” and see this as a much more helpful response in such situations than “doing nothing” or “bullying back”. 

Competent teachers and parents are crucial for fulfilling these expectations. It is up to adults to be helpful and react to disclosures of cyberbullying in a skilled and reliable way. If this is not the case, young people become frustrated by adults’ wrong reactions. In brief, everyone is responsible for fighting cyberbullying; it is in our hands. 

See a summary of the survey results in the infographic below. You can also download the infographic here.

About the study

The study on the topic of cyberbullying was carried out by the Institute for Youth Culture Research and Cultural Mediation on behalf of Saferinternet.at and ISPA - Internet Service Providers Austria. For the online survey, 400 young people aged 11 to 17 were interviewed in a representative manner according to age, gender and educational background. The study was supplemented with practical experiences from workshops conducted by the Austrian Safer Internet Centre. The study (in German) can be downloaded at www.saferinternet.at/presse-detail/studie-cyber-mobbing.

Find out more about the work of the Austrian Safer Internet Centre, including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services – or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe. 

Find out more about the annual global celebration of Safer Internet Day more generally here.