One in six school children is affected by cyberbullying, according to the second report on Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) by the World Health Organization (WHO), which was published in Copenhagen on Wednesday.
Online violence in particular has increased significantly since the previous report in 2018. The current report refers to data for the period 2018 to 2022.
Around 15% of pupils had already experienced cyberbullying. The proportion of victims among boys rose from 12% in the 2018 report to 15% and among girls from 13% to 16%.
Around one in eight schoolchildren aged 11 to 15 stated that they had already bullied someone in the digital space.
While 11% of boys stated in the 2018 report that they had bullied someone in the digital space, this figure has now risen to 14%. For girls, the figure rose from 7% to 9 %.
The report focussed on the patterns of bullying and violence among children and young people. It analysed data from more than 279,000 young people. For the HBSC study, 11 to 15-year-olds are surveyed every four years. The most recent survey in 2021/2022 was conducted in 44 countries and regions in Europe, Central Asia and Canada.
According to the report, the number of bullying incidents in schools overall remained relatively stable. Around 11% of students said they had been bullied at school, while 6% stated that they had bullied someone at school. This behaviour was more common among boys (8%) than girls (6%).
One in 10 young people had already been involved in physical altercations, with a clear difference between the sexes: 14% of boys compared to 6% of girls.
"This report is a wake-up call for all of us to call out bullying and violence, whenever and wherever it happens,” stated Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe.
"With young people spending up to 6 hours online every single day, even small changes in the rates of bullying and violence can have profound implications for the health and well-being of thousands
A commitment must be made to protect children from violence and harm, both online and offline.