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Half of Swedish teen girls bullied online: survey

The Local Sweden
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Half of Swedish teen girls bullied online: survey
The Sifo survey revealed that a lot of the cyber abuse took place on Facebook. File picture.

More than half of Swedish teenage girls aged between 13 and 16 have been the subject of cyber abuse, a survey revealed on Tuesday.

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More than 1,000 young people took part in the study which revealed that one in three children aged between 10 and 16 had also been bullied online. Girls aged between 13 and 16 were particularly vulnerable with 54 percent reporting that they were victims of some form of online bullying.

The survey revealed that the most common places where the abuse took place was on Facebook and via chat application Kik, reported the Metro newspaper.

Girls were more often the victims of the abuse, with 37 percent of those aged 10 to 16 stating they were victims, compared to 28 percent of the boys in the same age bracket.

Other findings from the report showed that eight out of ten young people knew who was behind the bullying. Ten percent reported they had been attacked based on their ethnicity.

Cyber victim Amanda Persson told Metro that most of her schooling had been marred by persistent online bullying. She said that girls were typically taunted because of their appearance and in particular their weight.

"When I was in seventh grade I posted a picture of myself on Facebook. Then an old classmate of mine wrote that he wondered how I could stand myself. That's kind of how it works," said Persson.

She added that bullying has always occurred in school but that the advent of social media had amplified it.

"The bullying has probably always been there but it has only increased due to social media. Therefore, it is important that we support each other and show that we are not only bothered by the physical bullying but also that we care about those who are subjected to it on the web."

Sifo carried out the poll in November with a total of 1,070 young Swedes participating.  

The Local/pr 

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