More Students Being Bullied Online, New Federal Report Says

July 16, 2019

Online bullying is becoming more prevalent among middle and high school students, “even as overall rates of bullying in schools have remained steady,” says a new federal report.

The Indicators of School Crime and Safety report from the National Center for Education Statistics, a research center with the U.S. Education Department found that twenty percent of students between the ages of 12 and 18 were bullied during the 2016-2017 school year.

Within the population of students who reported being bullied, 13 percent reported being made fun of; 13 percent reported being the subject of rumors; and 5 percent reported being pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on.

The report shows the extent to which students with different characteristics report being bullied, including estimates by student sex, race/ethnicity, grade, and household income as well as the characteristics of the schools they attend.

Key findings from the report are:

In 2017, approximately 20 percent of students ages 12 through 18 reported being bullied at school. Of these students, 13 percent reported that they were made fun of, called names, or insulted; another 13 percent reported being the subject of rumors; 4 percent reported that they were threatened with harm; 5 percent reported that they were pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on; 2 percent reported that others tried to make them do things they did not want to do; 5 percent reported that they were excluded from activities on purpose; and 1 percent reported that their property was destroyed by others on purpose.
Seventeen percent of male students and 24 percent of female students ages 12 through 18 reported being bullied.
Of the 20 percent of students ages 12 through 18 who reported being bullied, 24 percent reported being bullied once, 17 percent reported being bullied on 2 days, 30 percent reported being bullied on 3 to 10 days, and 20 percent reported being bullied on more than 10 days.
Forty-one percent of these students also reported that they believed the bullying would happen again, and 33 percent reported being bullied by multiple students acting as a team, or acting both alone and as a team.

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