Cyberbullying Among U.S. Students and the Relationship with Cell Phone Policy

The percent of schools reporting cyberbullying increased from 62.3 percent of schools in 2010 to 80.9 percent in 2016. Additionally, a greater percent of schools that had policies prohibiting cell phone use reported cyberbullying on a weekly or daily basis than schools that did not have policies regarding cell phones. The National Center for Education Statistics released a new Data Point report entitled Cyberbullying and Cell Phone Policy in U.S. Primary and Secondary Schools. This report examines the frequency of cyberbullying among U.S. students in 2010 and 2016, and the relationship between cell phone policy, racial composition, and cyberbullying. Some key findings are: The percentage of schools that reported daily/weekly cyberbullying increased from 7.9 percent in 2010 to 12 percent in 2016. There was a decrease of 18.6 percentage points from 2010 (37.7 percent) to 2016 (19.1 percent) in schools that reported cyberbullying never occurring. Across all schools, 65.8 percent had rules that prohibited the use of cell phones A greater percentage of schools that did not allow their students to use cell phones reported daily/weekly cyberbullying (16.4 percent of schools) than did schools that allowed cell phone use (9.7 percent of schools). Schools where 50 percent or more of the student body was non-white showed no difference in daily/weekly cyberbullying between those that allowed cell phone use (11.6 percent) and those that did not allow the use of cell phones (12.4 percent). The data for this report come from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), which asks public school principals about the prevalence of violence and crime in their schools, school security measures, disciplinary problems and actions, presence of security staff, and other related characteristics. The SSOCS is a nationally representative sample survey of about 3,500 public K-12 schools in the 50 states and District of Columbia.