Girls Report More Harassment Amid Rise In U.S. Cyberbullying

SEATTLE (AP) – There’s a rise in cyberbullying nationwide, with three times as many girls reporting being harassed online or by text message than boys.  That comes from the latest survey released this month by the National Center for Education Statistics. It shows an uptick in online abuse, though the overall number of students who report being bullied stayed the same.  The survey says about one in five students reported being bullied, ranging from rumors or being excluded to threats and physical attacks in the 2016-17 school year. That’s unchanged from the previous survey, done in 2014-15.  In that two-year span, cyberbullying increased from 11.5% to 15.3%, with 21% of girls reporting being bullied online or by text, compared with less than 7% of boys.
In the earlier survey, about 16% of girls said they were bullied online.