Girls more often than boys affected by online stalking or defamation

More than 38 thousand people participated in this survey in the autumn of 2018. One of the sections of questions concerned interpersonal incidents. Internet users were asked whether they had experienced defamation (online gossip, harassment, bullying), stalking (repeated harassment), or threats during the previous twelve months.

Defamation most common

Online defamation was the most common occurrence, at 3.9 percent. According to their own reports, 1.9 percent of young people experienced online stalking and 1.0 percent experienced threats of violence. Girls were more likely to experience online stalking and defamation. Threats of violence occurred equally often among boys and girls. Online incidents were more common among the youngest group (aged 12 to 18), at 6.4 percent, than among young people aged 18 to 25, of whom 4.4 percent experienced them.

3 percent of girls victims of sexually oriented incidents

Of the young people, 1.6 percent experienced a sexually oriented incident and 4.0 percent experienced a non-sexually oriented incident. Sexually oriented incidents occurred considerably more often among girls (2.8 percent) than among boys (0.5 percent).

Gay or bisexual young people more often affected

Of the gay or bisexual young people, 11.4 percent experienced online incidents in 2018. That is more than twice as often as heterosexual young people. In particular, sexually oriented incidents were reported more often by gay or bisexual young people (5.3 percent) than by heterosexual young people (1.6 percent).

Usually no report or police complaint

Of the young people who experienced online incidents, 43.4 percent felt the emotional consequences after the most recent incident. They regularly thought about it, slept poorly because of it, or were very angry about it. Nevertheless, almost half of the victims (48.9 percent) said that although they regarded the incident as wrong, they did not consider it a crime. 11.3 percent described the incident as an accident and 7.5 percent blamed themselves for the incident. A small group, 4.1 percent, did consider the incident a crime.

Of the young people, 8.0 percent reported the incident to the police or another authority, and 36.7 percent told family, friends, or a teacher about the incident. Ultimately, 4.8 percent filed a police complaint.