Press Release

Smartphones are the most commonly used cyberbullying tools in all of the countries represented by the experts surveyed in this study, and have contributed to a significant increase in the prevalence of cyberbullying attacks. Thus cyberbullying is becoming increasingly mobile, as 93% of the respondents confirm. The constant availability of these devices reduces the inhibition threshold significantly. Photos and downloaded videos reinforce the harmful impact and the psychological pressure. Thus researchers also refer to smartphones as “smart weapons.”

Cyberbullying has a particularly aggressive impact on younger children. Substantial public exposure, the endless nature of attacks and the absence of safe havens result in severe injuries. 84% of the experts surveyed regard this as a virtual time bomb with incalculable potential effects. One out of every four school students in Germany has been a victim of cyberbullying at least once. Over 30% of all schools record a cyberbullying incident every week. The damage suffered by victims ranges from psychosomatic complaints to suicide attempts.

The efforts of German schools to educate students with regard to cyberbullying are inadequate. Only 16% of schools offer in-depth information about the dangers of cyberbullying to students. Institutional measures devoted to education and the prevention of cyberbullying as well as help systems are lacking at German schools all over the country.

Primary and comprehensive schools exhibit the lowest level of preventive activity, although such measures are needed most in these types of schools. The status of prevention efforts at schools is deficient on the whole in all of the countries surveyed. National action plans designed to combat cyberbullying in schools are in force only in Great Britain. Norway obligated schools to carry out prevention programs 10 years ago. The Dutch adopted this approach a year ago.

Thus nearly all experts (94 %) demand the application of a holistic approach to “prevention management” with nationwide structures and systems. “Schools are exposed to massive pressure and are more or less helpless in the face of this phenomenon,” says Dr. Katzer in emphasizing both the urgency and the necessity of a reassessment of policy by government, law enforcement and cultural authorities.

While the victims of cyberbullying grow younger and younger, on the one hand, cyberbullying is spreading progressively among adults, on the other – and with increasingly severe consequences. Based on the assumption of 5 to 6 days of absence from work due to illness resulting from anxiety, experts estimate total damages caused by business bullying and the consequential costs of illness at roughly three billion euros per year in German alone – and that figure is expected to rise
Over 90% of the scholars surveyed predict a progressive increase in business cyberbullying at the international level.

If one were to prepare a national ranking list, Great Britain would appear as the unrivalled leader. The country appears to have made the most progress with respect to the status of prevention activities in schools, in particular. In terms of research, however, Great Britain and the USA are neck and neck – they have earned their reputations as pioneer nations in the field of research on cyberbullying, followed by Norway and Netherlands.

Yet despite its success in the field of research, the record of the USA in terms of prevention is still unsatisfactory. That explains why the USA ends up along with the Netherlands, which has been under obligation to implement a school prevention program since 2015, and Norway, where a bullying prevention program has been in force at school for the past 10 years, in second place.

Germany is ranked in the middle of the pack. In the field of research we are on a par with the USA, the Netherlands and Great Britain, but deficiencies and shortfalls abound when it comes to prevention. Poland, Italy and Spain lag far behind the other countries. In spite of good research results, the experts rank them at the bottom of the list when it comes to implementing preventive measures, establishing networks and developing tools for prevention.

In addition to protection for victims, the participating experts appealed emphatically for the implementation of a catalogue of preventive measures. The essential elements of the catalogue include the mandatory obligation of schools to establish prevention programs (which has been the law in the Netherlands since 2015) and introduce regional networks of school in which schools collaborate in developing and implementing prevention concepts. The catalogue also calls for the enactment of a “cyberbullying law” which would cover business cyberbullying as well. Dr. Katzer’s appeal for social and political responsibility is expressed in the following words: “This is not the time to wait. This is the time for action.”