Over half of Israeli teenagers suffer from online violence – survey
Teenage girls more likely to encounter offensive content online than boys, poll finds
Tobias (Toby) Siegal is a breaking news editor and contributor to The Times of Israel.
Israel’s National Child Online Protection Bureau released new data on Wednesday about online violence and inappropriate behavior on social media among Israeli teenagers, and the results were alarming.
The survey, conducted among 1,000 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 18 and 900 parents to children between the ages of 10 and 18, indicated that most participants have been affected by cyberbullying in one way or another.
Over half of Israeli teenagers (52 percent) have come across online content that has made them feel uncomfortable, according to the data, while 28% of them have received embarrassing videos of themselves or others, and 16% admitting to having shared such content.
Overall, more than 11,700 calls were made to the child online protection hotline (105) throughout 2021, 22% of which were related to sexual offenses, 15% to sharing embarrassing pictures or videos, shaming and bullying, while 13% of the calls were classified as emergencies.
Teenage girls were more likely to encounter offensive content online than boys — 55% compared to 46% — the data showed. Teenage boys and men, however, were more likely to carry out an offense, with 77% of all recorded offenses being carried out by teenage boys and men and 23% by teenage girls and women.
Just over a third (35%) of all calls made to the hotline were by parents, while a third of callers said they were the victim of cyberbullying and 13% said they had witnessed an offense. Twenty-three percent of all offenses took place on the WhatsApp messaging app and 20% on Instagram.
Moreover, the chances of being exposed to cyberbullying increase with age, but the number of teenagers who share such experiences with their parents drops from 28% among ages 14-15 to only 19% among ages 16-18.
While touring the offices of the National Child Online Protection Bureau on Tuesday, Public Security Minister Omer Barlev said that the bureau is a “unique” intergovernmental body jointly operated by a civil administration and the Israel Police, and noted the importance of having such a body.
“Alongside the many online technological benefits, danger lurks as well, mainly targeting teenagers, and we must protect them,” Barlev said, noting that the data released by the bureau holds “social, educational and cultural value.”
Public Security Ministry Director General Tomer Lotan added that “the national bureau will continue to work together with its partners in order to create a safe environment for our children, while also protecting their privacy,” and called on parents to instill in their children positive and safe norms for using the internet and to call 105 in any case of online violence.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the extended periods of screen time required from children as part of distant learning programs have apparently served as catalysts to many of the disturbing phenomena noted in the National Child Online Protection Bureau’s data.
According to a report released last month by the Israel National Council for the Child, cyberbullying and suicidal tendencies among Israeli teenagers and children have increased since the outbreak of the pandemic. Fourteen percent of Israeli students participating in the council’s survey said they were victims of cyberbullying throughout 2021, compared to 11% in 2019.
The National Child Online Protection Bureau, also referred to as Unit 105, is an operational unit that is tasked with investigating online crimes against minors and enforcing Israeli law in cyberspace. It is part of the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 unit, which handles serious crimes on a national and international level.
