Every tenth child has experienced cyberbullying online

Every tenth child has received offensive messages or memes on the Internet or has come across the fact that groups or publications are being created on the Network specifically to offend him. This follows from the results of the Kaspersky Lab survey, which was reviewed by Izvestia on April 10. 18% of the children reported that their friends and acquaintances found themselves in a similar situation.

Experts clarified that online insults, if they occur systematically, may be a manifestation of cyberbullying or online harassment. Its consequences can be extremely negative for the child's psyche. So, of those parents who know that a child has been subjected to cyberbullying, 25% noted a decrease in self—esteem, 21% — severe stress, and another 21% - isolation and withdrawal.

"Cyberbullying differs from face-to-face bullying in two fundamental characteristics. Firstly, the online space is anonymous, and anonymity, unfortunately, frees the hands of aggressors and gives them more opportunities. Secondly, online information spreads like lightning, and a person finds himself under the close attention of many people, familiar and unfamiliar, at one moment, the scale of harassment can increase quickly and significantly," said Maria Novikova, researcher at the HSE Institute of Education.

Experts clarified that half of those children who faced insults online tried to cope with the problem on their own, 43% turned to their parents for help. Adults try to support them in various ways: 59% provided them with moral support, 53% advised them on how to communicate with abusers, 33% contacted the school, 24% talked to the aggressors themselves. More than half (57%) of those children who sought help from their parents admitted that it helped them solve the problem.

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"The first thing an adult whose child is confronted with cyberbullying needs to do is calm down. It is necessary to record the signs of harassment, it is advisable to take screenshots and certify them with a notary or lawyer. It is best to immediately record everything that is happening and contact the school administration if it is a question of harassment by classmates or other students of the same school, in case of threats to life and health, to law enforcement agencies," explained Anna Tseplyaeva, director of the online school of the European Gymnasium.

According to her, you can also contact the support service of the site where cyberbullying takes place, if it is a game or social media. Also, the parent should talk to the child and explain that it is possible to get out of this situation and they will be able to find the right solution. The child can additionally analyze this story with a psychologist.

Experts drew attention to the fact that one of the new threats to the digital environment is harassment using deepfakes, technologies that allow creating fake but convincing images, videos and audio using neural networks.

"Deepfakes are becoming more widespread. Therefore, it is very important to learn to recognize them now. It would be good for parents and teachers to tell their children about the risks associated with artificial intelligence, and also teach them to protect their digital identity by setting up privacy on social networks, being aware of posting personal photos and being careful when using AI tools," said the head of the department for children's online security at Kaspersky Lab." Andrey Sidenko.

Earlier, on March 12, it was reported that in 2024, Russians most often encountered fraudulent calls allegedly on behalf of bank security services. This was stated by 22.4% of respondents, according to the results of a survey conducted by RED Security. In addition, the attackers pretended to be representatives of telecom operators (21.7%) and law enforcement agencies (13.8%).