The survey, done as part of MTV's "A Thin Line" campaign, investigated several digital abuse topics among those under 25: the use of discriminatory language online, particularly on social networking sites; online bullying; sexting; and dating abuse. The poll was conducted Aug. 13-31, 2011, by Knowledge Networks, which interviewed more than 1,350 people ages 14 to 24.
Highlights from the poll:
- Fifty-six percent of respondents say they've been electronically bullied in some way or another, up from 50 percent in 2009, with the most frequent forms of bullying including people writing things online that aren't true (26 percent) and people writing things online that are mean (24 percent).
- Young adults are a bit more apt to have been electronically bullied at some point than teens (59 percent of young adults vs. 51 percent among teens), but for teens, electronic bullying is more recent. Just over three in 10 say they've been bullied at some point in the last six months, compared with 24 percent among those ages 18-24.
- Young women (82 percent) and non-whites (80 percent) are more apt to see bullying as a problem than are men or whites. And those 14-17 are more apt to call it a problem (80 percent) than their older peers (73 percent).
- Asking the person who did it to stop was effective for 47 percent who tried it, 14 percent said it made things worse and 27 percent said it had no effect.
- In terms of effectiveness, a few techniques stand out as being particularly helpful, all of which had to do with limiting access: 80 percent said changing their passwords made the situation better, 67 percent reported that changing their email address, screen name or cell phone number made things better and 59 percent said deleting their social networking profile ameliorated the situation.
AP released a story this morning on this topic, "Poll: Young people say online meanness pervasive," which can be found at The Seattle Times' website here.
