An alarming 60% of children have said they would not tell their parents if they were cyberbullied, research reveals.
The research, by Barnardos as part of their Online Safety Programme, also revealed that over half surveyed have been cyberbullied once or many times.
And 18% who have been cyberbullied said it affected their ability to learn and feel safe at school.
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The children’s charity ran the survey and hosted seven focus groups of more than 320 children aged eight to 12 in schools across the country in June.
The research, conducted between Barnardos and Google.org, also revealed that the 60% who would not tell their parents if they were cyberbullied also said they do not know how to have a conversation about it.
A total of 62% have seen other people being cyberbullied while a quarter responded that they had cyberbullied others.
“It is very concerning to hear that many of the children spoken to wouldn’t tell their parents if they were being cyberbullied,” Barnardos CEO Suzanne Connolly said.
“This shows how important it is that we roll out our preventative online safety workshops for both children and their parents alike. Our goal is to help parents and children have an open dialogue about online safety.
“It is vital that the views and experiences of children who have directly faced cyberbullying continue to inform the development of the Department of Education’s next Action Plan on bullying and are involved in measuring its success.
“Given that over half of children (53%) have experienced cyberbullying themselves and almost half (48%) said they would tell nobody if they were cyberbullied we feel the Action Plan, which we hope to see published soon, should recommend online safety learning be an essential part of the school curriculum - because childhood lasts a lifetime."
Ryan Meade, Public Policy Manager, Google Ireland said: “At Google we created Be Internet Legends to help young people be safe, confident explorers of the online world.
“This includes being comfortable talking about any negative experiences with a trusted adult.
“We are delighted to support Barnardos Online Safety Programme which has already reached over 40,000 children and families with these and other important fundamentals of digital citizenship and safety.”
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