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Two-thirds of young people in over 18 countries reported as victims of bullying: UNICEF poll

Xinhua, August 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

More than nine out of 10 young people believe bullying is a pervasive problem in their communities, and two-thirds say they have experienced bullying first hand, showed a new poll by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and their partners, which was issued here Friday.

The poll was conducted on April 5 through U-Report, a rapidly growing youth engagement tool that provides a platform for over 2 million young "U-Reporters" from more than 20 countries, the UN agency said in a press release.

The young people were asked via SMS, Facebook and Twitter, a series of questions relating to the impact of bullying in their community, their own personal experiences of bullying and what they think can be done to end this type of violence.

More than 100,000 U-Reporters, recruited by partners such as the Scouts and Girl Guides, with an estimated age of 13-30, participated in the poll including young people from Senegal, Mexico, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mozambique, Ukraine, Chile, Malaysia, Nigeria, Swaziland, Pakistan, Ireland, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Indonesia, Zambia and through the Global U-Report channel.

"Bullying, including online bullying, remains a largely misunderstood risk to the wellbeing of children and young people," said UNICEF's senior adviser on child protection, Theresa Kilbane.

"To end this type of violence, we must improve public awareness of the harmful impact of bullying, equip teachers, parents and peers with the skills to identify risks and report incidents, and provide care and protection for victims," she said.

Meanwhile, the poll also showed that one-third of respondents thought being bullied was normal so they did not tell anyone, and the majority of respondents who reported being victims of bullying said they were bullied because of their physical appearance.

Bullying was also attributed to gender or sexual orientation and ethnicity, the poll said, adding that one quarter of victims said they did not know who to tell.

More than eight in 10 respondents believe that raising awareness including through teacher training around helping children to feel comfortable reporting bullying is one way to address the issue in schools, it said. Endit