Indian children the most cyberbullied, finds McAfee survey, racial bullying online rising worldwide

Cyberbullying among children in India is the highest and in multiple categories, double the rates reported by other countries, cybersecurity company McAfee said in a press release yesterday, as part of a global report, titled 'Cyberbullying in Plain Sight'. And racially motivated bullying online is on the rise worldwide, with India and the US topping the list, reporting the most such instances. Notes: Cyberbullying among children in India is the highest, and in multiple categories, double the rates reported by other countries, cybersecurity company McAfee said in a press release yesterday, as part of a global report, titled Cyberbullying in Plain Sight. Indian children are also most likely to have bullied someone else, according to the survey’s findings, McAfee says in the report. Leading all other nations, 85 percent of Indian children said they’ve been cyberbullied. And Indian children say that they’ve cyberbullied someone else at rates well over twice the international average. Specifically, 45 percent said they cyberbullied a stranger, compared to 17 percent worldwide—and 48 percent said they cyberbullied someone they know, versus 21 percent of children in other countries. Three out of four children in India admitted to at least one activity that could be described as cyberbullying, compared to less than half of children elsewhere who admitted to such activities. I was sent the report, press release and an India factsheet in an email, but I could not immediately find them on the company’s website, which currently has links to an earlier report, titled Global Connected Family Study that was released in May. The survey showed that many children take part in cyberbullying, often without realizing their behaviour for what it is, while parents struggle to keep up, according to the release. According to Indian parents, 42 percent of children have been the target of racist cyberbullying, compared with the 28 percent average for the rest of the world. Extreme forms of cyberbullying reported besides racism include trolling (36 percent), personal attacks (29 percent), sexual harassment (30 percent), the threat of personal harm (28 percent) and doxing (23 percent), all of these India at almost double the global average. India also reported acts such as spreading false rumours at 39 percent, being excluded from groups and conversations at 35 percent and name calling at 34 percent. The research was conducted between June 15 and July 5, 2022, by market research company MSI-ACI via email, inviting parents of children in the age group of 10 years to 18 years to complete an online questionnaire. In total 11,687 parents and their children completed the survey from 10 countries including the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, India, Canada, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico. McAfee’s survey found that 28 percent of children worldwide have suffered racially motivated cyberbullying, according to their parents. This threat presents itself most prominently in the US and India, with the reported rate of racially motivated cyberbullying at 34 percent in the US and 42 percent in India. UK (19 percent), France (17 percent), Japan (16 percent), and Mexico (14 percent) report rates well below the average. Overall, Twenty-two percent of children as young as 10 years old report being the victim of racially motivated cyberbullying. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds