Cyberbullying: Preliminary comparisons from the 2011 and 2012 e-safer Suffolk Cybersurvey

The issue of cyberbullying is of increasing concern as technology becomes progressively more inter-connected. Cyberbullying has moved from mobile text message to encompass online chat, gaming, email and social networking etc. with many of these services available on a single smart phone. The Beatbullying (2012) survey reported 28% of respondents had been cyberbullied. The levels reported here give a national picture and highlight the need for focussed and local research to address the requirements of local authorities.
One such project is the e-safer Suffolk Cybersurvey. This survey aims to investigate the levels of reported cyberbullying from children and young people in Suffolk and the range of bullying behaviour encountered across different electronic media and technology. The survey also covers levels of e-safety education and the reporting of bullying. Importantly respondents are allowed to indicate whether they consider themselves to have experienced cyberbullying, and behaviours that may be considered to be bullying are recorded separately (and differentiated by media). This allows for the individual subjective experience, and resilience, to be accounted for whilst retaining data for formal definitions of cyberbullying.
Though the survey is in its’ infancy two reports have now been published, with 4103 responses in total. 19% of respondents identified as cyberbulled in both the 2011 and 2012, indicating a potentially stable measure, though lower than the national Beatbullying (2012) figure. Other key indicators from the survey also suggest stability in the measures. For example there is only a 2% difference between those reporting to be upset by cyberbullying (71-73%), and a 2% difference in those reporting it (61-63% mirroring national statistics). This is particularly promising considering the doubling of the sample size from the 2011 survey to the 2012; key percentages remain consistent.
In this presentation we discuss further key comparisons and highlight areas of improvement and evolution in the Suffolk Cybersurvey, such as benefits of allowing respondents to identify as bullied or not separately from behaviour that might academically be considered indicative of bullying.