60% of children would not tell parents about cyberbullying - survey

A new survey has indicated that 60% of children would never tell their parents if they were cyberbullied and do not know how to have this conversation.

The study by Barnardos also shows that almost half of respondents said they would not tell anyone if they were bullied online.

62% of children have seen other people being cyberbullied and over half have been cyberbullied themselves.

18% of respondents said they had been cyberbullied in a way that really affected their ability to learn and feel safe at school.

A quarter of those surveyed said that they had cyberbullied others.

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The Barnardos Online Safety Programme ran the survey and hosted seven focus groups with more than 340 children aged eight to 12 in schools across Ireland in June 2022.

Barnardos CEO Suzanne Connolly told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that cyberbullying among children can often be carried out by their friends.

She said that many children involved in the focus groups described cyberbulling as being "mean to each other", "being excluded from groups" or being "killed" in games online.

It was very concerning that children would not tell their parents, but that some are afraid of how their parents could react, she said.

Children feared parents would take their phone away from them, she said, or could get involved in a way that might make lose friends resulting in isolation.

She said children need support in managing their friendships and advised parents to do this in a "more coaching style instead of too much interference."

This month marks the fourth year of a five-year partnership between Google.org and Barnardos to roll out online safety workshops across the country.

Last year, the programme was delivered to 23,000 people.

From next month, there will be free online training for parents and Ms Connolly said the aim is to support parents to have conversations about this issue of cyberbullying with their children.

Barnardos is calling on the Government to make online safety part of the curriculum as part of the National Anti-Bullying Plan, due out in November.

"It is vital that the views and experiences of children who have directly faced cyberbullying continue to inform the development of the Department of Education's next Action Plan on bullying and are involved in measuring its success," she said.