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Indian school going kids are prone to cyber bullying

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CIOL Writers
New Update
Telenor research cyber bullying

Cyber-bullying cases are constantly increasing and threatening the world of our children online. A survey  as part of "Telenor India WebWise" was conducted across schools in 13 cities, involving 2,727 students by Norwegian telecom giant Telenor to analyse internet usage and access patterns of children .

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According to the survey, Indian school-going children were found to be most vulnerable to cyber bullying in the form of account hacking or receiving inappropriate messages. It revealed that over 35 percent children have experienced their account being hacked while 15.74 percent shared that they have received inappropriate messages.

The worrisome part is that when bullied online only 15 percent complained, while 10.41 percent faced humiliation through picture/video that were uploaded on internet.

Over 76 percent children were not aware of Child Helpline 1098 that may help them fight cyber bullying. Thankfully, majority of the children were willing to approach their parents atleast in case they experience any cyber harm.

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The survey reveals a lot of information including access trends of school going children in areas such as: Medium used to access internet; What is Internet being used for; Who will they approach if they are bullied; Understanding of safe internet practices; Awareness about child helpline; Favourite social media platforms and types of cyber harm faced.

Sharad Mehrotra, Chief Executive Officer, Telenor India Communications said, "On one hand the WebWise Report highlights the vulnerabilities and cyber threats, and on the other hand it presents us with insights that can help us to create focused awareness campaigns around safe internet practices. Telenor has taken many steps towards enabling safe internet including Child Helpline 1098 by embedding the number on SIMs."

Another startling fact was that 98.8% school-going children access internet in urban areas and 49.5% of them do it from home. More than 43% use mobile as the medium to access internet, followed by laptop, desktop and tablets.

The survey revealed that children use internet to find information for school projects, playing games, reading online books, listening to music and watching movies, social networking sites, email, etc.