Nearly all Oz teens are victims of mobile phone bullying

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Melbourne, Jan 23 : Nearly all Aussie teens experience some form of mobile phone bullying at school, states a new study.

The research, led by Queensland University of Technology Associate Professor Judy Drennan, has based its findings on a survey of 218 Queensland teens, out of which 93.6 percent admitted to having being bullied.

Mobile phone bullying - or m-bullying as it has been nicknamed - involves using a mobile phone to harass, menace or offend someone.

This form of bullying can include sending obscene or pornographic images, threats to sabotage the receiver's reputation, or inappropriate messages of affection.

Prof Drennan said that the results contradicted the findings of previous research that stated that mobile bullying was not on the rise in the country.

"In contrast to previous research suggesting m-bullying did not appear to be increasing, our study finds that it is more prevalent than generally perceived among senior high school students,'' News.com.au quoted Prof Drennan, as telling the AAP.

The researchers also found that this form of intimidation was more common among male students than females, but was more likely to have an upsetting effect on the latter.

"It was found that boys are, on average, exposed to more m-bullying instances than girls," Prof Drennan said.

"With regard to distress levels, girls were significantly more likely than boys to be distressed about certain m-bullying experiences."

They also noted that boys were twice as likely to receive pornographic or obscene images or messages as well as threatening messages.

ANI

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