One in five Canadian teenagers have witnessed cyber-bullying, according to a new report that notes kids in the digital era have nowhere to hide from their aggressors.
For kids aged 12 to 17, 21% have seen someone they know get bullied through a social networking site, according to an Ipsos Reid survey.
"Teens who fall victim to bullying at school or at work are no longer able to escape when they come home because of this online vector for harassment," said Catherine Dawson, senior vice president of Ipsos Reid in Vancouver.
And the problem seems to be getting worse for each generation. For those between 16 and 17, 14% had witnessed cyber-bullying, but for kids between 12 and 15, that number rises to 25%.
Girls are more likely to have experienced it, with 25% saying they've seen a friend harassed online compared to 17% of boys.
More than half (51%) of all teens surveyed report having had negative experiences with social networking, with 16% saying someone posted an embarrassing photo of them, 12% saying someone hacked their account and pretended to be them and 6% saying their peers used information gleaned from the Internet to harass them at school.
Ipsos Reid surveyed 416 Canadian teenagers between Dec. 12-20, 2011. The results have an estimated margin of error if 4.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 10.