Teens, kindness and cruelty on social network sites

As social media use has become pervasive in the lives of American teens, a new study finds that 69% of the teenagers who use social networking sites say their peers are mostly kind to one another on such sites. Still, 88% of these teens say they have witnessed people being mean and cruel to another person on the sites, and 15% report that they have been the target of mean or cruel behavior on social network sites. Adult social network users are less likely to say they witness or experience this type of behavior, but they still report that it is prevalent: 69% of the adults who use social networking sites say they have seen people be mean and cruel to others on those sites. Social media use is widespread among teens. Fully 95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online and 80% of online teens are users of social media sites.

Teens of all ages and backgrounds are witnessing these mean behaviors online and are reacting in a variety of ways:

• 90% of teen social media users say they have ignored the mean behavior they have witnessed on a social network site.
• 80% say they have personally defended a victim of meanness and cruelty.
• 79% say they have told someone to stop their mean behavior on a social network site.
• However, 21% of social media-using teens say they have personally joined in on the harassment of others on a social network site.

In addition to probing the behaviors that teens witness or experience on social network sites, this study also examines instances of bullying that happen online and offline.

• Among teens, 19% report having experienced bullying anywhere – in person, by text message, by phone call or online – in the last 12 months.
• 12% of all teens report being bullied in person in the last 12 months
• 9% of all teens say they were bullied by text message in the last 12 months
• 8% say they have experienced some type of online bullying – such as through email, a social network site or instant messaging
• 7% of teens say they’ve been bullied by voice calls over the phone.