McAfee Reveals Cyberbullying Triples Among Teens

Source: - http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/17217806-mcafee-reveals-cyberbullying-triples-among-teens

A recent study report from McAfee, one of the leading digital data security solutions vendors, has revealed that the cyberbullying among teens has tripled in the year 2014 from the year 2013. 

Besides providing state of art data security software and instant McAfee customer service, McAfee also conducts an annual study of habits and online behavior of American pre-teens and teens. The company recently conducted a study know as “2014 Teens and the Security Study”. This study puts a deep glance at social networking, cyberbullying, and online privacy practices. The most significant finding that came out of this year’s study is that 87 percent of teens have witnessed cyberbullying. This stat is over three times more than the last year’s stats, which was 27 percent. The study also highlighted how risky the online bullying can be in the offline life of individuals and possibly make the targets even more vulnerable to cyberbullying.

"Parents must discuss online activity with their children to better ensure their safety and security offline," said, chief privacy officer at McAfee, Michelle Dennedy. 

 

He further added, "Whether a child is a victim or an instigator of cruel behavior such as cyberbullying, the negative behavior can deeply affect their identity and their reputation. By uncovering our youth's online behavior activities, parents, guardians, teachers and coaches can be more aware of cruel behavior that can potentially take place offline. As a result of closely monitoring online activities, hopefully we all can do our part to provide appropriate assistance and help eradicate cyberbullying.”   

 A further deeper look at the reports revealed that, among those who responded that they were cyberbullied, 72 percent reacted that they were bullied due to the appearance, 26 percent due to religion, and 22 percent due to sexuality. Of those who were cyberbullied, 53 percent became angry or defensive, whereas 47 percent deleted their social media accounts to lessen the significant emotional impact. The study also found out that 24 percent of the youth would not know what to do next if they were a victim of online harassment or cyberbullying. 

 

The study also included the effects of cyberbullying on the teens’ life. The study showed that 50 percent of teens involved in arguments because something was posted on social network that impacted them. When checked the privacy settings trends across youths, the study revealed that only 61 percent of youth have enabled their privacy settings on social networking profiles and, 52 percent of youth have not turned off their location tracking or GPS services. 

Meanwhile, there is also a rapid rise in the virus-malware attacks and fraudulent activities. It is also important for users to install reliable and effective antivirus solutions. There are some good brands to choose like McAfee, Kaspersky, Norton, AVG etc. However as no product is complete in itself, so the security solutions from these brands may also get problems. Good thing is there are multiple support companies to reach to. But only a few are good. Techcillin is one good company to contact at this front. The company is best known for its Kaspersky technical support, support for McAfee, AVG, and Norton etc.

To conclude all, a sudden rise of cyberbullying certainly is worrying. Cyberbullying is one serious matter that could lead to more severe consequences. They need to be stopped. The online services need to implement ways to stop them and on the users end, one should also take necessary measures to stay protected and respond rightfully to cyberbullies.