Parents of pre-teens and adolescents have a lot to worry about, but a new study says cyberbullying isn't nearly as rampant as many believe.
According to two national studies of 5,000 young people, only 15% said they'd been bullied online last year. In a presentation to the American Psychological Association, Michele Ybarra, research director at the non-profit Center for Innovative Public Health Research, said past studies showed the cyberbullying rate ranked from 30 to 72%, far more than the current studies show.
"We assume it's this overwhelming thing, that everybody's being bullied and that it's inescapable — that's not totally accurate," said Ybarra.
High-profile cases, including that of college student Tyler Clementi, who killed himself after his roommate used a webcam to spy on his homosexual encounters, as well as other cases of children being bullied online, have caused people to believe that most young people are harassed online, but Ybarra said the survey shows that it may not be so prominent.
"Because we're seeing stories that are really serious," Ybarra said, "it does give this sort of sense that it is happening all over the place."
But should parents breathe a sigh of relief and not be so concerned — and with the school year starting in upcoming days, ease their careful watch over their children's online activities? Not so fast, warn other experts.
What Is Cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying expert Dr. Joel Haber told NBC News part of the problem is that there is so much debate over what cyberbullying is, that surveys such as the one Ybarra discussed don't really encompass what hazards teens face online.
Traditional bullying involves repeated abuse by one person in power over the victim, Haber says, but online, power is determined by how popular teens are in the digital world, measured for example on Facebook, where having more friends means more status.
Many people, even cyberbullying victims, think that online harassment needs to happen more than once to be considered bullying — but sometimes it only has to happen once to affect a young person's self-worth and ego.
"Whether it's kids being exclusionary online or being mean online, harassment happens more frequently than real cyberbullying, where somebody has more power over you and hurts you," Haber said.
And those one-time incidents are happening more often than people admit, possibly because teens and their parents don't find the threats severe enough to complain. The new studies, while saying cyberbullying incidents are over-reported, found that nearly half the teens reported being victims of cyber harassment at least once.
How Does it Happen?
With the growth of Facebook and Twitter, teens are more connected than ever — especially since mobile devices keep them online even when they're not home.
Mobile devices, though, are a true cyberbully's dream. When people first got home computers, they were careful to keep them in a central location in their home, where parents could keep an eye on their children's activities.
This meant that not only could parents protect their children from cyberbullying — but they could watch their children to make sure they weren't treating others badly online. However, mobile devices mean teens are more likely to be online and away from adult supervision. And if teens don't complain to their parents and the adults aren't monitoring their online activities, sometimes the cyberbullying raises to a fever pitch — and can escalate to tragedy — before someone takes action.
How it Crosses the Line
Teens are naturally sarcastic with each other, so it can be a slippery slope from teasing to harassment and then on to cyberbullying. Haber says much of what's said online is taken literally because it lacks tone and context, meaning even the most innocent-seeming words can seem threatening to an unsuspecting person.
"Lots of kids report that other kids say mean or hurtful things online or that they purposely leave them out of group things online," Haber said. "But because they don't have the context, they don't know if it was intentional."
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