New research by an anti-bulling charity, Ditch The Label, has found that Instagram is the worst social media website for cyber-bulling among children and young adults.
More than 10,000 people between the ages of 12 and 20 participated in a survey that found nearly half (42%) of young people who experience cyber-bullying are targeted on Instagram. This compares to the 37% of online bullying incidents that occur on Facebook, and 31% over Snapchat.
In 2014, research by Cox Communication found that incidents of cyber-bulling were most common on Facebook. Three years on, Facebook has seen a slight 2% decrease, but Instagram has now taken first place, with cyber-bulling among young people on this social network skyrocketing by 20%.
One of the participants, a 13-year-old girl, described her experiences with cyber-bullying on Instagram.
She said: ‘I was on Instagram and I have a private account. Somebody that I didn’t know somehow had a picture of me and said that they would put my face on a nude picture if I didn’t answer the call.
‘I didn’t answer the call. And to this day I don’t know if that person has put it online.’
It’s not hard to imagine how traumatic cyber-bullying is for anybody, and even more so for young adults and children. Out of the participants who took Ditch The Label’s survey, 41% said that they have developed social anxiety as a result of being bullied online and devastatingly, over a quarter admitted to having suicidal thoughts. Despite this, it seems as though young people accept this level of cyber-bulling as the norm – as 23% of the participants believe that it is a standard part of growing up.
Instagram states in their community guidelines that they want to ‘foster a positive, diverse community’, and have encouraged anyone who feels victimised to report abuse. But although this is supposedly the ‘fastest way’ to get abusive posts and profiles reviewed, 71% of young people still say that social media networks do not do enough to prevent cyber bullying.
So what can be done to prevent online abuse? Lauren Seager Smith, executive of Kidscape, a children’s anti-bullying charity, thinks that parents have a role to play when educating their children on social media. She told the BBC: ‘We are living in a culture of antagonism. That sadly is the climate our children are growing up in.
‘Often parents are equally addicted and they have to ask what impact that is having on family life. It could be time for them to say that there is more to life than social networks and the glossy picture of life that it often shows.’
Ditch The Label also found that half a million young people were bullied in the UK last week alone.
*** If you’re a victim of any kind of bulling, be sure to call BullyingUK’s helpline to get some anonymous and confidential support on 0808 800 2222.***
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.