a case study about cyber bullying

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A 15-year-old boy died by suicide after relentless cyberbullying, and his parents say the Latin School could have done more to stop it

By Megan Hickey

April 25, 2022 / 10:44 PM CDT / CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 15-year-old boy named Nate Bronstein was enrolled at one of the most prestigious private schools in Chicago and had a promising future — that is, until his parents say he became a victim of relentless cyberbullying by his classmates.

Nate took his own life. 

And in an exclusive interview with CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey, his parents allege that the Latin School of Chicago could have done more to stop it. 

Rose and Robert Bronstein never fathomed that they'd be speaking about their son, Nate in the past tense.

"I still can't process it," said Rose Bronstein.

"He definitely wanted to go to a college that had big time sports," said Robert Bronstein. "He loved to make people laugh, and laugh himself."

And of the school, Rose added, "It's a toxic culture – so toxic that we lost our son from it."

The Bronsteins' 10th-grader was a super-sharp, funny kid; A pillar in their family of five. He was a new transfer last fall to the Latin School of Chicago, at 59 W. North Blvd. in the Gold Coast.

But he was bullied by his classmates to the point that he didn't want to live to see his future. 

"It had been kept from us, so that's why we were completely, completely taken off guard when this happened," said Robert Bronstein.

The Bronsteins had concerns about their son adjusting to a new school — and according to a 68-page lawsuit just filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, they raised those concerns repeatedly with administrators. 

Bronstein Complaint (Filed 4.25.22) by Adam Harrington on Scribd

But according to the filing, they had no idea about the extent of the cyberbullying that tormented Nate. 

But the Bronsteins say Latin did. 

"Our son would still be alive today if Latin would have done their job and reported to us what had gone on within the school," said Rose Bronstein.

The Bronsteins say they were never told that on Dec. 13, 2021, Nate asked for a meeting with his dean of students to report that several students were bullying him via a text message thread provided to CBS 2, and on Snapchat.

One of those Snapchats, according to the lawsuit, encouraged Nate to kill himself.  Another used a phrase that's understood to be an indirect death threat. 

The dean listened, but took no disciplinary action, according to the filing. 

And exactly one month later, Nate's father found him hanging from a shower in the bathroom in their home. A noose was tied around his neck. 

Again, he was just 15. 

 "We would have known, and we would have protected him, and he'd still be here today," said Rose Bronstein.

It wasn't until after Nate died that the family was made aware of the texts, the Snapchats, the taunting — from another parent at Latin. And that's a problem — a legal one in the State of Illinois. 

Illinois General Assembly Public Act 098-0669 requires that every school in the state, including private schools, have an anti-bullying policy.

That policy must include information about how bullying should be reported and how it is to be investigated, and also that bullying incidents must be reported to the parents of those involved. 

"When there's an alleged incident of bullying, they are supposed to notify the parents of both parties involved," said Vitto Mendez, one of the leading experts in the country on state anti-bullying laws and their effectiveness.

Vitto Mendez confirmed that school administrators in the state of Illinois are legally obligated to report incidents of bullying to the family members of those involved.

Anna DiPronio Mendez is the executive director of the National Association of People Against Bullying, and she can speak to why notification is so important.  Her son Daniel's school knew about his bullying, but she was never notified until after he took his own life in 2009. 

He was just 16.  

"It's one of my biggest regrets that I've lived with to this day is why was I not contacted? Why was I not told?" she said.

In the weeks and months following Nate's death, students, parents, and even a current employee of the school reached out to tell the family they were not alone in their concerns about an alleged cover-up culture at Latin. 

You don't have to look much farther than Instagram to see public testimonials to that effect. 

The Survivors of Latin Instagram account was a public account with close to 3,000 followers. According to the creator, the 121 pages' worth of stories involve "anti-Blackness, xenophobia, racism, classism, sexual assault, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny."

The Instagram page was taken down as of Monday night, but a Survivors of Latin Facebook page remained in place .

"Look, our son was 15, and his perception of what he can and can't handle isn't necessarily accurate – but that's why the policies exist, and that's why, now, the law exists – to involve parents," said Robert Bronstein. "The school has to err on the side of a lot of transparency," 

To be clear, the family isn't suing Latin for the money. They've pledged to donate any money gained through legal proceedings to anti-bullying and anti-suicide charities. They say they're speaking out because remaining silent would disrespect their son's memory. 

"You can't allow this to go on, because it's going to happen to another child," said Robert Bronstein.

The Bronsteins never got to watch their son grow up. But they hope they might give other parents the chance to step in. 

"We need transparency into what they did and didn't do while he was a student there, and after the fact," said Robert Bronstein, "because if this can be allowed to just be swept under the rug, then it's going to happen again — and we're not going to be complicit in that."

We reached out to the Latin School with several questions upon the filing of the lawsuit. The school issued the following statement late Monday:

"Our school community deeply grieves the tragic and untimely passing of one its students. It is a loss that impacts our whole community. Our hearts go out to the family, and we wish them healing and peace. With respect to their lawsuit, however, the allegations of wrongdoing by the school officials are inaccurate and misplaced. The school's faculty and staff are compassionate people who put students' interests first, as they did in this instance. While we are not, at this time, going to comment on any specific allegation in this difficult matter, the school will vigorously defend itself, its faculty and its staff against these unfounded claims."

If you or someone you know is concerned about suicide, you can contact the 24/7, confidential National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, or go  here  to online chat. More helpful resources can be found  here . 

Megan Hickey is a member of the 2 Investigator team, focusing on topical investigative stories.

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• > Journals
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• > The Psychiatrist
• > Volume 37 Issue 5
• > Cyberbullying and its impact on young people's emotional...

Article contents

The nature of cyberbullying, the impact of cyberbullying on emotional health and well-being, technological solutions, asking adults for help, cyberbullying and its impact on young people's emotional health and well-being.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

The upsurge of cyberbullying is a frequent cause of emotional disturbance in children and young people. The situation is complicated by the fact that these interpersonal safety issues are actually generated by the peer group and in contexts that are difficult for adults to control. This article examines the effectiveness of common responses to cyberbullying.

Whatever the value of technological tools for tackling cyberbullying, we cannot avoid the fact that this is an interpersonal problem grounded in a social context.

Practitioners should build on existing knowledge about preventing and reducing face-to-face bullying while taking account of the distinctive nature of cyberbullying. Furthermore, it is essential to take account of the values that young people are learning in society and at school.

Traditional face-to-face bullying has long been identified as a risk factor for the social and emotional adjustment of perpetrators, targets and bully victims during childhood and adolescence; Reference Almeida, Caurcel and Machado 1 - Reference Sourander, Brunstein, Ikomen, Lindroos, Luntamo and Koskelainen 6 bystanders are also known to be negatively affected. Reference Ahmed, Österman and Björkqvist 7 - Reference Salmivalli 9 The emergence of cyberbullying indicates that perpetrators have turned their attention to technology (including mobile telephones and the internet) as a powerful means of exerting their power and control over others. Reference Smith, Mahdavi, Carvalho, Fisher, Russell and Tippett 10 Cyberbullies have the power to reach their targets at any time of the day or night.

Cyberbullying takes a number of forms, to include:

• flaming: electronic transmission of angry or rude messages;

• harassment: repeatedly sending insulting or threatening messages;

• cyberstalking: threats of harm or intimidation;

• denigration: put-downs, spreading cruel rumours;

• masquerading: pretending to be someone else and sharing information to damage a person’s reputation;

• outing: revealing personal information about a person which was shared in confidence;

• exclusion: maliciously leaving a person out of a group online, such as a chat line or a game, ganging up on one individual. Reference Schenk and Fremouw 11

Cyberbullying often occurs in the context of relationship difficulties, such as the break-up of a friendship or romance, envy of a peer’s success, or in the context of prejudiced intolerance of particular groups on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability. Reference Hoff and Mitchell 12

A survey of 23 420 children and young people across Europe found that, although the vast majority were never cyberbullied, 5% were being cyberbullied more than once a week, 4% once or twice a month and 10% less often. Reference Livingstone, Haddon, Anke Görzig and Ólafsson 13 Many studies indicate a significant overlap between traditional bullying and cyberbullying. Reference Perren, Dooley, Shaw and Cross 5 , Reference Sourander, Brunstein, Ikomen, Lindroos, Luntamo and Koskelainen 6 , Reference Kowalski and Limber 14 , Reference Ybarra and Mitchell 15 However, a note of caution is needed when interpreting the frequency and prevalence of cyberbullying. As yet, there is no uniform agreement on its definition and researchers differ in the ways they gather their data, with some, for example, asking participants whether they have ‘ever’ been cyberbullied and others being more specific, for example, ‘in the past 30 days’.

Research consistently identifies the consequences of bullying for the emotional health of children and young people. Victims experience lack of acceptance in their peer groups, which results in loneliness and social isolation. The young person’s consequent social withdrawal is likely to lead to low self-esteem and depression. Bullies too are at risk. They are more likely than non-bullies to engage in a range of maladaptive and antisocial behaviours, and they are at risk of alcohol and drugs dependency; like victims, they have an increased risk of depression and suicidal ideation. Studies among children Reference Escobar, Fernandez-Baen, Miranda, Trianes and Cowie 2 - Reference Kaltiala-Heino, Rimpalä, Rantanen and Rimpalä 4 , Reference Kumpulainen, Rasanen and Henttonen 16 and adolescents Reference Salmivalli, Lappalainen and Lagerspetz 17 , Reference Sourander, Helstela, Helenius and Piha 18 indicate moderate to strong relationships between being nominated by peers as a bully or a victim at different time points, suggesting a process of continuity. The effects of being bullied at school can persist into young adulthood. Reference Isaacs, Hodges and Salmivalli 19 , Reference Lappalainen, Meriläinen, Puhakka and Sinkkonen 20

Studies demonstrate that most young people who are cyberbullied are already being bullied by traditional, face-to-face methods. Reference Sourander, Brunstein, Ikomen, Lindroos, Luntamo and Koskelainen 6 , Reference Dooley, Pyzalski and Cross 21 - Reference Riebel, Jaeger and Fischer 23 Cyberbullying can extend into the target’s life at all times of the day and night and there is evidence for additional risks to the targets of cyberbullying, including damage to self-esteem, academic achievement and emotional well-being. For example, Schenk & Fremouw Reference Schenk and Fremouw 11 found that college student victims of cyberbullying scored higher than matched controls on measures of depression, anxiety, phobic anxiety and paranoia. Studies of school-age cyber victims indicate heightened risk of depression, Reference Perren, Dooley, Shaw and Cross 5 , Reference Gradinger, Strohmeier and Spiel 22 , Reference Juvonen and Gross 24 of psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches, abdominal pain and sleeplessness Reference Sourander, Brunstein, Ikomen, Lindroos, Luntamo and Koskelainen 6 and of behavioural difficulties including alcohol consumption. Reference Mitchell, Ybarra and Finkelhor 25 As found in studies of face-to-face bullying, cyber victims report feeling unsafe and isolated, both at school and at home. Similarly, cyberbullies report a range of social and emotional difficulties, including feeling unsafe at school, perceptions of being unsupported by school staff and a high incidence of headaches. Like traditional bullies, they too are engaged in a range of other antisocial behaviours, conduct disorders, and alcohol and drug misuse. Reference Sourander, Brunstein, Ikomen, Lindroos, Luntamo and Koskelainen 6 , Reference Hinduja and Patchin 26

The most fundamental way of dealing with cyberbullying is to attempt to prevent it in the first place, through whole-school e-safety policies Reference Campbell 27 - Reference Stacey 29 and through exposure to the wide range of informative websites that abound (e.g. UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS; www.education.gov.uk/ukccis ), ChildLine ( www.childline.org.uk )). Many schools now train pupils in e-safety and ‘netiquette’ to equip them with the critical tools that they will need to understand the complexity of the digital world and become aware of its risks as well as its benefits. Techniques include blocking bullying behaviour online or creating panic buttons for cyber victims to use when under threat. Price & Dalgleish Reference Price and Dalgleish 30 found that blocking was considered as a most helpful online action by cyber victims and a number of other studies have additionally found that deleting nasty messages and stopping use of the internet were effective strategies. Reference Livingstone, Haddon, Anke Görzig and Ólafsson 13 , Reference Kowalski and Limber 14 , Reference Juvonen and Gross 24 However, recent research by Kumazaki et al Reference Kumazaki, Kanae, Katsura, Akira and Megumi 31 found that training young people in netiquette did not significantly reduce or prevent cyberbullying. Clearly there is a need for further research to evaluate the effectiveness of different types of technological intervention.

Parents play an important role in prevention by banning websites and setting age-appropriate limits of using the computer and internet. Reference Kowalski and Limber 14 Poor parental monitoring is consistently associated with a higher risk for young people to be involved in both traditional and cyberbullying, whether as perpetrator or target. Reference Ybarra and Mitchell 15 However, adults may be less effective in dealing with cyberbullying once it has occurred. Most studies confirm that it is essential to tell someone about the cyberbullying rather than suffer in silence and many students report that they would ask their parents for help in dealing with a cyberbullying incident. Reference Smith, Mahdavi, Carvalho, Fisher, Russell and Tippett 10 , Reference Stacey 29 , Reference Aricak, Siyahhan, Uzunhasanoglu, Saribeyoglu, Ciplak and Yilmaz 32 On the other hand, some adolescents recommend not consulting adults because they fear loss of privileges (e.g. having and using mobile telephones and their own internet access), and because they fear that their parents would simply advise them to ignore the situation or that they would not be able to help them as they are not accustomed to cyberspace. Reference Smith, Mahdavi, Carvalho, Fisher, Russell and Tippett 10 , Reference Hoff and Mitchell 12 , Reference Kowalski and Limber 14 , Reference Stacey 29 In a web-based survey of 12- to 17-year-olds, of whom most had experienced at least one cyberbullying incident in the past year, Juvonen & Gross Reference Juvonen and Gross 24 found that 90% of the victims did not tell their parents about their experiences and 50% of them justified it with ‘I need to learn to deal with it myself’.

Students also have a rather negative and critical attitude to teachers’ support and a large percentage consider telling a teacher or the school principal as rather ineffective. Reference Aricak, Siyahhan, Uzunhasanoglu, Saribeyoglu, Ciplak and Yilmaz 32 , Reference DiBasilio 33 Although 17% of students reported to a teacher after a cyberbullying incident, in 70% of the cases the school did not react to it. Reference Hoff and Mitchell 12

Involving peers

Young people are more likely to find it helpful to confide in peers. Reference Livingstone, Haddon, Anke Görzig and Ólafsson 13 , Reference Price and Dalgleish 30 , Reference DiBasilio 33 Additionally, it is essential to take account of the bystanders who usually play a critical role as audience to the cyberbullying in a range of participant roles, and who have the potential to be mobilised to take action against cyberbullying. Reference Salmivalli 9 , Reference Cowie 34 For example, a system of young cyber mentors, trained to monitor websites and offer emotional support to cyber victims, was positively evaluated by adolescents. Reference Banerjee, Robinson and Smalley 35 Similarly, DiBasilio Reference DiBasilio 33 showed that peer leaders in school played a part in prevention of cyberbullying by creating bullying awareness in the school, developing leadership skills among students, establishing bullying intervention practices and team-building initiatives in the student community, and encouraging students to behave proactively as bystanders. This intervention successfully led to a decline in cyberbullying, in that the number of students who participated in electronic bullying decreased, while students’ understanding of bullying widened.

Although recommended strategies for coping with cyberbullying abound, there remains a lack of evidence about what works best and in what circumstances in counteracting its negative effects. However, it would appear that if we are to solve the problem of cyberbullying, we must also understand the networks and social groups where this type of abuse occurs, including the importance that digital worlds play in the emotional lives of young people today, and the disturbing fact that cyber victims can be targeted at any time and wherever they are, so increasing their vulnerability.

There are some implications for professionals working with children and young people. Punitive methods tend on the whole not to be effective in reducing cyberbullying. In fact, as Shariff & Strong-Wilson Reference Shariff, Strong-Wilson and Kincheloe 36 found, zero-tolerance approaches are more likely to criminalise young people and add a burden to the criminal justice system. Interventions that work with peer-group relationships and with young people’s value systems have a greater likelihood of success. Professionals also need to focus on the values that are held within their organisations, in particular with regard to tolerance, acceptance and compassion for those in distress. The ethos of the schools where children and young people spend so much of their time is critical. Engagement with school is strongly linked to the development of positive relationships with adults and peers in an environment where care, respect and support are valued and where there is an emphasis on community. As Batson et al Reference Batson, Ahmad, Lishner, Tsang, Snyder and Lopez 37 argue, empathy-based socialisation practices encourage perspective-taking and enhance prosocial behaviour, leading to more satisfying relationships and greater tolerance of stigmatised outsider groups. This is particularly relevant to the discussion since researchers have consistently found that high-quality friendship is a protective factor against mental health difficulties among bullied children. Reference Skrzypiec, Slee, Askell-Williams and Lawson 38

Finally, research indicates the importance of tackling bullying early before it escalates into something much more serious. This affirms the need for schools to establish a whole-school approach with a range of systems and interventions in place for dealing with all forms of bullying and social exclusion. External controls have their place, but we also need to remember the interpersonal nature of cyberbullying. This suggests that action against cyberbullying should be part of a much wider concern within schools about the creation of an environment where relationships are valued and where conflicts are seen to be resolved in the spirit of justice and fairness.

Acknowledgement

I am grateful to the COST ACTION IS0801 for its support in preparing this article ( https://sites.google.com/site/costis0801 ).

Declaration of interest

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• Volume 37, Issue 5
• Helen Cowie (a1)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1192/pb.bp.112.040840

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Share Your Cyberbullying Story

Share and read cyberbullying stories posted by others below. We have many resources on this site to help you deal with cyberbullying. If you are a teen, check out: Responding to Cyberbullying: Top Ten Tips for Teens. If you are an adult who is being harassed online, see our recommendations here . If you are a parent of a child who is being cyberbullied, please see: Responding to Cyberbullying: Top Ten Tips for Parents and educators should review: Responding to Cyberbullying: Top Ten Tips for Educators.

If you feel comfortable sharing your story, we would like to hear from you. You can anonymize your experiences if you’d like, and we promise to maintain your individual confidentiality to the maximum extent of the law. The more detail you can provide the better.  We use these stories to educate the public about the serious nature of cyberbullying with the goal of preventing others from doing it. We read every one of these stories and please know that you are not alone.  Even though it may seem like there is nothing that can be done to stop the cyberbullying, don’t give up.

Please note that any stories, anecdotes, or screenshots sent through email or through cyberbullying.org to us can be used by us as real-life examples of cyberbullying in academic papers, books, and presentations.  While form submissions through cyberbullying.org are anonymized, we will  never share any personal, identifying information  that you voluntarily choose to provide us in your communications to (or with) us.  If you have any questions or concerns about this, please  contact us .

SOME CYBERBULLYING STORIES SHARED WITH US

The following is a small sample of the thousands of anecdotal cyberbullying stories and comments we’ve received from children and adolescents who have experienced cyberbullying. If you would like to anonymously submit a description of your cyberbullying experience to us, please do so in the form below. Please provide as many specific details of your experience as you can.

""There is a site right now on face book that is called "Calling all hoes" that seems to be a place for people to write, for all the world to see, any hurtful or sick thought about anyone that they don't like-- Face Book refuses to take the page down... I don't know what to do and I feel that something needs to be done before we are hearing on the news about some poor kid who killed themselves over what's being written about them on this vile site. Help..... Anyone know how I, we, can begin the process of taking this Facebook page down?" "  - 17 year-old girl from US

""I have been friends with this person for 3 years now. Well best friends. I never thought she could do this to me. She's lying and getting our friends on her said. All i can do is watch. She's called me " Ugly RagDoll , Useless , Babied all my life , Jealous , I need to grow up , unpopular , I can go and riot under a rock! Who says these kinds of things? Only someone that is heartless and that has never been bullied before. They don't know how it feels i guess.""  - 12 year-old girl from MI

""My sixteen year old son was cyber bullied on Facebook over a period of 8 hours. The event was so traumatic it caused my son to have an acute psychotic break and to be hospitalized in an adolescent psychiatric ward for almost a month. He is changed forever and will never be the same mentally. Internet bullying can hurt and affect people and kids need to know this. These kids are not being punished in any way and think the incident is funny! We know it is life changing." "  - Parent of 16 year-old boy from MN

""Being I have been bullied many times before it makes me not want to live in this world anymore. I've been called probably every name out there.it really hurts. I sometimes contemplate suicide but i think where will that get me? i would only end up hurting the ones that i love.""  - 14 year-old girl from WA

""I am a Facebook user and I have reported these two people who are female who are putting all kinds of things about me on their wall and Facebook apparently don't care because they have not done anything about the bullying so far before or now. I don't think that this is right they should take these problems very serious!""  - 36 year-old woman from Pawtucket, RI

""I've been bully by the same person for almost 4 years now [AND YES, IS STILL HAPPENING RIGHT NOW] and he is an underclassman at my school. I don't know what the problem that got into him, I wasn't even doing anything. I thought that underclassmen should respect upperclassmen. He added me on Facebook and I just randomly accepted him, then on my birthday he start to say bunch of random crap to me and bunch of harsh stuff. Then a week ago, I blocked him and deleted him from my contact because he keeps bullying me no matter when, even in class or online. You don't have no idea how it makes me feel. Being bully by the same person for more than 3 years is pretty sucks, whenever i see him, I always look myself down even though I'm a whole lot older than him, I feel frustrated.”"  - 15 year-old boy from Muscat, Oman

""Whenever I am on Facebook, I am in fear of my account being hacked, mostly for the fact that Facebook app Yoville is a very effective method to obtain information and be able to successfully hack Facebook. I can't help but play it because i have online friends that I chat with. I just hate the fact that there are people that hack Facebook accounts through yoville for pleasure.""  - 18 year-old girl from NM

""It feels like you could die inside." "  - 13 year-old girl from CA

""My friend is Jamaican. There are 5 boys in our class and they bully this girl because she is black. They tell her to go back to KFC and they call her "Black Momma". No, this problem is not being solved and I'm scared to help her and tell them to stop. They are very mean and dangerous kids. We are in the same class.7th grade. In the age group of 12-13 or possibly 11 or 14." "  - 12 year-old girl from Brooklyn, NY

""A boy in my sixth grade math class called me mean names. Like four eyes, alien and more just for wearing glasses. It made me very upset. I don't think that kids who wear glasses shouldn't get made fun of. It's not someone's fault for wearing glasses.""  - 11 year-old boy from MI

""I have been threatened that someone was going to kill me and told me to shut the fuck up here is a picture http://twitpic.com/48br8p""  - 12 year-old boy from WA

""I've been bullied on Twitter, by two people in the last couple weeks. I've told them to stop and to leave me alone, but they keep at it. After I told them to stop and leave me alone, I stopped communication with them but they still kept tweeting me. I feel like I can't say anything with someone on Twitter bullying me. I try to make it look like I don't care and all, but it never seems to work. I've reported and blocked them. Anyone have any suggestions please?" "  - 21 year-old girl from USA

""How ironic that Miranda Cosgrove is being used as the celebrity face for anti-bullying, since I just told my 11 yr. old she can no longer watch "iCarly" because Carly and Sam (especially Sam) consistently bully "the less cool kids" on that show. Just watch one episode and you will see it. This is the problem. Everyone talks about stopping bullying, but they don't even recognize that THEY ARE THE BULLY!!!""  - 11 year-old girl from USA

""There's a game called habbo.com. Now there's a certain room in the called chromide club where the kids go to make fun of people. It's bad because they get your Facebook and make fun of the way u look. They spam your Facebook throughout the game and it hurts people's feelings.""  - 13 year-old girl from USA

""My daughter has recently been bullied by her so called "friends" so badly that we had to take her out of the school and enroll her in a private school which allows us to home school since it is such a distance to travel. We approached the school which did nothing. They acted concern but did not act on the information. The bullying did not stop at school, it went on further onto Facebook. The girls thought they it was funny and tried to make it look like my daughter had been saying ugly things about them. The awful part was while they were doing this they were acting like they were her friend and staying at our house. They actually said they had been planning all of it!! We thought it would quit once we took her out of the school, but they did not quit. It has affected her emotionally. She feels isolated because they went throughout the whole school telling lies about her. People were texting her and calling her as well as posting on Facebook. She blocked so many people but it has really affected her. I feel for her safety and that it has really affected her self-esteem. As a parent, I am angry at the other parents and at the school system. We have been let down by this school system. I am considering contacting the Texas Education Association. This is a large school district which has turned a blind eye to my child's wellbeing.""  - 16 year-old girl from TX

""some weirdo on twitter said some very hurtful things to me. Mostly about being a Christian. i don't want to go into it any more than that.""  - 13 year-old girl from WI

""Well i always get bullied and i hate it i feel like killing myself sometimes.""  - 13 year-old girl from Victoria, Australia

""I found my daughter was being cyber bullied a week ago. It had started a few weeks earlier but became extreme last week. This was part of an ongoing bullying campaigned by a group of girls at her school after a broken friendship. When it became Cyber I kept copies of the harassment which was lucky as I was able to take it to the school. She had been called vile horrible names, accused for things she hadn't done and set up to appear racist. There were threats of bashing. Finally she was provoked and she ended up using language out of character in retaliation. We rang the school who suggested the Police. We rang them and they said that as they are all under 14yrsold they couldn't do much. I then referred to the got schools policy which clearly stated that if cyber bullying could be directly related to the child and school then it was an issue the school had to deal with in order to create a safe environment for my daughter. Feeling i might be dismissed with "your daughter is too sensitive" or similar I wrote a very precise 3 page letter with 6 attachments cover 22 pages of evidence. Protocol was then followed which was satisfactory. I did however suggest that a very active learning program be set up to educate these children on how to use Facebook and how to change privacy settings etc. I explained that banning this technology was a useless endeavor and would not work so we need to work with it. I would love to be able to do more in the schools so have found your site fantastic.""  - 11 year-old girl from Australia

""I was walking home from school when i got a text message that read ‘you wait till tomorrow bitch you're going to die' when i got home i asked what was the matter she told me that she heard i told my cousin which was her boyfriend she was cheating on him (which was a lie). i tried to confront her but it failed i kept getting threating messages but it soon stopped when my cousin broke up with her.""  - 18 year-old girl from Victoria, Australia

""My son has been receiving text messages that are being set up on a computer internet webmail address. The person is sending him little messages, not really threatening, but bothersome. The person set up a bogus email address and sends messages to his cell phone up to 50 to 60 at a time of the same message. It ties up his phone and is a problem. He has already had to change his number once but the person found it. We are going to go to our State's Cyber bullying division for help after local police could not do anything.""  - Parent of 19 year-old boy from MS

""When I was 15, a freshman in high school, I was bullied over the Internet and at school. I felt like it came out of nowhere. One day the group of girls I called friends turned against me viciously over MySpace. They created a fake MySpace profile for me, which contained my cell phone number and instant message name. They photo shopped obscene sexual photographs of me and posted them in this profile. I was getting calls and began being stalked by strange men. These girls would make up sexually explicit rumors about me even though at the time I was a virgin. They would instant message me and tell me I was going to die. They were going to kill me. I was afraid to leave the house, to have friends, to pick up the phone. I lived in fear for so long. I knew they were looking for a fight and I refused to give them one so I deleted all known online presence and changed my number. I became recluse, a prisoner in my own home. Once I graduated high school I applied to college outside of my hometown to run away. Now, I am 22 and still have to live with the effects of these cruel girls. Trauma is hard to recover from but I know it is possible and I am stronger now than I have ever been. I am not that scared 15-year-old girl but I am still haunted by the girl I used to be." "  - 22 year-old girl from Middletown NY

""A guy i know (he is a good friend of mine now) used to be pretty cruel to me in front of my friends, mocking me. But i just want to say to every victim out there, don't stop believing it will all get better. Stand up for yourself, fight, do whatever you can. Peace.""  - 14 year-old boy from IA

""I think that cyber bullying is one of the worst things that a teenager may be exposed to. But in this age kids cannot act properly. The cyber-bullies are always not self-confident children who, in many cases, envy their victims. I was bullied twice. The first incident happened 2 years ago in a new social site- Formspring.me In this site you can send your opinion or question anonymously. One person sent me a message claiming that I was fake and that I wasn't a good friend. I was too offended to answer and I just disabled my account. The second incident happened a year ago. Those who I had considered my "best friends" tended to tease me often about my appearance. This teasing eventually led to harsh words exchanged over Facebook, which by a month time resulted in cyber-bullying. The bullying ended when I blocked them, and moved after the school year. So if you are bullied the best thing to do is to block those people or just find a different social network. Don't pay attention to the bullies because most of things they say are not true. However, if the bullying becomes very serious then an adult should be informed for help.""  - 14 year-old boy from USA

""I was and still am being bully by girls that once where my best friends. They tease and taught me and call me ugly, and some not so nice names. They keep messageing me on facebook and saying i need to stop when it isthem. Yesturday i heard this story of a 13 year old boy who committed suicide because of the bullies i was crying becasue of what happens to me. i just want it to STOP! But every time i tell the pricipial he will not listen:(...it is very hard but i deal with it.""  - 12 year-old girl from IL

""Cyber Bullying is a serious topic! I was bullied and began to cut myself... You may want to know why... time to tell I was bullied, stalked, and harassed. Never to my face but online the people who bullied me would make fake pages and put me on them saying I'm how and everything I'm willing 'to do' with a guy, but nothing on them were true... They told people to walk up to me and ask me if I was a hoe, lesbian, dyke, slut, pregnant.. etc. I couldn't take it anymore I was on the verge of suicide and when you're going through this you want to handle it alone, but truthfully you can't. So I began to cut. For everything I was going through. I got help. I came clean to a trusted adult and they told my mom everything my mom got very upset and began to take pills to solve her problems. I got madder and cut even more then I finally said no! STOP I haven't cut in a month and 5 days... i use to cut every day. So to wrap this up I'm done cutting my mom's still on pills and I told the police (about the bullying) and guess what. The sites and texts are gone!!! :)""  - 14 year-old girl from MN

""On December 17, 2010, my daughter was a victim of cyber bullying. There were four children involved in a chartroom within their e-mail accounts. One ring leader who seemed rather angry with my daughter started name calling, letting her know nobody liked her, and even went as far as wishing she would die in a hole. This obviously was a very hurtful conversation which led to my 11-year-old daughter to even consider death as an option. I thankfully monitor my child's accounts and was able to copy the conversation, and bring this conversation to my child's school. They acted quickly, and knew the severity of the situation. My hope is that there will be a positive outcome, and the four involved will have the opportunity to learn from this. Education and positive guidance are important tools to use as you do not want it to repeat, nor for you want it to fester in the minds of these young souls.""  - Father of 12 year-old girl from VA

""Our Pastor was texting our daughter early morning and late at night. Then started FB emails telling her to stay in contact however she could. He told her how horrible her family is and what liars we were. Told her we did things just to make her feel bad. We spent $35,000,00 to get a Permanent Injunction prohibiting contact for 10 years. Now he is suing us for his attorney fees.""  - Mother of 17 year-old girl from IL

""I stopped being friends with this girl who was just a bad influence on me, and she got a couple of her friends to hate me. On MSN they had a group chat room, and it was the two girls, and they were threatening to bully me at school, and I got scared about it. (The first girl) said if I came to school she would beat me up during recess, so during that day I hid in the bathroom at lunch.""  - 12 year-old girl from AL

""I have an account on this site called Formspring, and what it was is I got cheated on by my ex, and someone was just like, ‘You need to let him go,' and started cussing me out. People are harsh. People are very harsh. Then they were saying my articles suck.""  - 16 year-old girl from AL

""I broke up with this guy because I wanted to keep our relationship secret. So after a week he all of a sudden started texting me and saying how me and my brother were brats and how I was a B****. He said some pretty nasty things. I asked him why he said it and he said it was because I broke his heart and he was getting revenge from that. Me and my friends often get bullied it's one thing if it's at school but to bring it home was another. We have to stick up for each other. I thought school was supposed to be safe.""  - 16 year-old girl from USA

""When I was thirteen, a friend of a friend, whom I had previously contacted on good terms, decided that in the absence of my physical self, the bullying that used to go on in elementary school (I had become homeschooled since) should start a new online. She insulted me, telling me how glad she was not to be put in close proximity with my allegedly ugly face anymore and mocking me for my perceived sexual orientation. Whenever I thought I'd seen the last of her, out of the blue she would instant message me again just to share her opinion. I hadn't seen her in almost a year, but she still entertained herself by telling me how horrible I was. It was like she was conjuring up the school situation which I had tried so hard to overcome.""  - 15 year-old girl from CA

""My daughter is a victim of cyber bullying she is 15 ,someone placed her picture on another person's face and wrote a lot of vicious, hateful, discusting lies about her and from one cell phone to another the hole school had it going around she didn't want to go to school anymore i had a place herin another school, her self-confidence, self-esteem her grades were failing, she got sick, the school didn't help us they just wanted us to not pay attention to this cruel behavior, as a parent i was pissed, hurt and confused, all i could do was try to talk to her but she said mom it's too hard to overlook when everywhere you walk people are pointing at you calling you names, i just took her away from the school changed her cell phone number and just pray." "  - Mother of 15 year-old girl from Los Angeles, CA

""I had asked a guy to prom and posted pictures on Facebook of me and him. a girl that used to be my friend from where i used to live commented on them saying that i was desperate and i only asked him because i knew no one would ask me. Luckily, some of my real friends defended me, but i will never forget sitting in front of the computer screen crying because of something someone said.""  - 16 year-old girl from AZ

""WELL I WAS IN THIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS BOY CEJAY AND HE STARTEDTO GET UPSET BECAUSE I DIDNT WANT TO DO ANY THING SEXUAL OR PHYSIACAL SO HE STARTED TO POST MEAN AND HERTFUL BLOGS ABOUT ME. HE EVEN COMMENTED ON ALLMY STATUS I WAS EMBARASSED. WHEN I CONFRONTED HIM ABOUT HE DIDNT EVEN CAREOR HAVE ANY REGRET BUT IT WAS A DIFERRENT STORY WHEN I GOT REVENGE BY TELLING THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ON HIM. THEN HE GOT UPSET AND DONE EVEN MEANER THINGS TO ME LIKE SEXUALLY HARRASSING ME BUT SINCE THEN IT BEEN BETTER BECAUSEI ERASED ALL OF MY EMAIL ACCOUNTS EVEN GOT OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL.""  - 14 year-old girl from Columbus, OH

""I was the new girl in school and everyone just had to be mean to me. The girls in my class wrote my name on the bathroom stall saying i like two boys when i did not even like one of them. i had trusted two of the girls and they let me down. In the bathroom stall every single girl could see it. Luckily i told my mom and then she told my teacher and they got detention with the principal for a week.""  - 12 year-old girl from Ontario

""Last year when i was 16 i was bulled because i liked this boy, my friend liked him too. So i started talking to him one day and my friend seen us so she stopped talking to me. She started spreading rumors about me. People us to beat me up after school. This went on for months until i told my father he went up to the school and told the principle. He suspended the kids now they don't mess with me anymore. If you are being bulled don't be afraid to tell an adult don't take matters into your hands don't let bullying happen if you see it tell an adult.""  - 16 year-old girl from OH

""I was on Facebook when a friend of mine wrote on my wall that whenever I was in someone's life their life started to get fucked up. That hurt a lot because I trusted this person. He verbally bullies me whenever he gets the chance. I don't want to tell my mom because she'll make a big deal about it. I'm really getting hurt from this. Why does he have to be a wimp and say it online and not to my face? He'd be a man if he did.""  - 15 year-old boy from MI

""I was bullied on a site, like MySpace. I had a MySpace page devoted to me. I thought for the longest time about killing myself, until one day I realized that god put me on this earth for a reason.. And killing myself wouldn't so any good. My bullies put signs in my yard. What killed me is the fact that the school could not do anything because it was done online. I will never get over this. Even though it happened a few years ago.""  - 16 year-old girl from IN

""Some girl in my daughter's grade started a rumor that my daughter is a lesbian, this got all over school, not happy with that she starting texting her with all this comments. I spoke to her mom and ask her to please make her stop. Well big mistake...she post comments on Facebook, mocking her. We will start counseling very soon, I'm afraid for my daughter safety, not sure how bad this is affecting her, and she tells me that she's trying to avoid them in school. This is a terrible experience that no child have to go thru.""  - Mother of 14 year-old girl from Suffolk, NY

""People always make fun of me because of my weight. They say I'm pretty but i can't believe them. Last year i was being bullied by an 8th grader at my school. People would send me messages saying that I'm a disgrace i shouldn't be in this world. my best friend also told me that after we got in a fight, i cried for so long knowing my best friend thought that of me and what hurt me too was that she said it with hatred the look in her eyes was like she never wanted to see or hear from me again. i felt so bad i wanted to kill myself. i thought it was the only way out. I've been bullied since i was in pre-school. i thought it would go away by now but its only getting worse. My sisters even make fun of me but they say that their just playing around. They don't think it doesn't hurt me but it does especially coming from my sisters, it makes me feel even worse.""  - 13 year-old girl from NV

""This girl I've known for a few years liked my boyfriend. She would always try to make me jealous by hugging him or anything she could think of. One day she posted a bulletin on MySpace all about him and I told her she shouldn't talk about him like that. She ended up harassing me online, calling me names. But when I went to school she would never say anything to my face, she denied ever saying anything to me when I confronted her in front of her friends. Then when I went back home she kept doing it over the computer. Her insults getting worse. Then I went to school and confronted her again and got in a fight. She hit me and I beat her up and now I don't know if that was the right thing to do. What else could I do?" "  - 15 year-old girl from NV

""My 14 year old daughter is being cyber bullied now. Found a website she belongs to called "Formspring". This is where anyone can (even if you dont know them) can post a comment to you or ask you a question. Then you respond if you want. I was so appalled that you can post and ask questions anonymously and you have no have no idea who is posting. Many of these posts are telling my daughter that they hate her and she should just go kill herself. If you cant see who posts these things what options do you have? I have banned my kids from the computer now unless it's for homework. I have deleted their Facebook accts. At my wits end. My 24 yr old son has started a web page for this. And I think everyone should start one to try to pull together communities in fighting this.""  - 14 year-old girl from USA

""I have a formspring account, which anonymously allows people to ask you questions. Instead of receiving what i thought would be nice questions, i constantly was sent comments like "you're ugly", "you're stupid", "you're a slut", etc. I have a total of over 1000 formspring "questions" and i would say that 95% of them were verbal abusing me and completely destroying my self-esteem. It got to the point where i couldn't stand going to school or even looking at myself in the mirror knowing that when people see me they think of a stupid, ugly, whore. People that stick and stones can break your bones, but names can never hurt you. But i have come to realization that the statement does not apply to the majority of teenagers. Verbal Abuse hurts.""  - 16 year-old girl from VA

""I was picked on in the 5th grade by having my stuff pushed off the table or having my belongings stolen. it went into 7th grade where i completely lost it, beat up the kid who was the leader of the bullies, and now he gives me the respect i deserve. Violence isn't usually the way to go, but in this case it helped a lot.""  - 14 year old boy from MA

""Hi my name is _____ i was targeted online on Facebook. One of my friends who i thought was my friend made a Facebook page that had the title _____ is pregnant. I'm not pregnant. I was so frustrated and upset because i didn't deserve this. My family and I am Catholic. One of my friends got brought into this. I went to the principle and he dealt with it. I have been a target my whole life how do i stop it.""  - 16 year-old girl from PA

""I have a fifteen year old who suffers from anxiety and depression and just yesterday I filed a police report. My son has a Facebook account and a classmate was posting some very disturbing comments to my son he was telling my son to end his life already, threatening him that if he went to school he was going to kick his a#! and calling my son a spic and telling my son to go back across the border my sons status on face book is bisexual and the things they were saying about him were disturbing. I printed all the posts went to my local police dept. were the police officer told me that he was not sure they could do much since they are minors could you believe that! I insisted I wanted something done and charges filed he gave me a report number and would call me today. I called my lawyer!""  - 15 year-old boy from MD

""Teammates, unknowingly to the victim, accessed the victims phone and put embarrassing remarks on the victims Facebook page, which were attributed to the victim. It appeared that the victim was confessing that they were gay.""  - 14 year-old boy from MD

""I came to college thinking everything would be all fun and games. I shortly found out it was not. My suite-mates, did not like me, for reasons I do not know. When they discovered I had a formspring page, they took the chance to say things to me that hit home, and then took actions against me in person. I felt hopeless, and the University I currently attend did not do anything about it. It was a low point in my life." "  - 18 year-old girl from NY

""I try to ignore her but she turns everyone against me and makes my life miserable. She spreads awful rumors about me and i just can't take it.""  - 14 year-old girl from TX

""My best friend and I were so close, we could almost be sisters. We were going on holiday to Scotland in October to take a break from all our crazy work from school, because we both just started an early GCSE. Until she started getting friendly with another girl, who I instantly didn't like, as I thought she was a bad influence. Eventually I started getting nasty texts and emails, and messages on MSN about my appearance and personality. I broke down in tears one night when something about Scotland came on the television. I started getting emotionally depressed at home and at school, and my work was getting effected and my family was deeply alarmed by this. In the end I told her that I wasn't sure if i wanted to go to Scotland with her, so the messages got worse. In the end I showed my parents and teachers and they were had a word with. It's not so bad now, even though I still get depressed sometimes, but now I'm sure who my true friends are." "  - 13 year-old girl from England

""When I was 13 in middle school I would receive anonymous phone calls on my cell phone during school and after school from some boys in my Spanish class threatening to rape me, kidnap me, kill me, and kill my dog. It was literally one of the most terrifying things that had ever happened to me, and after about 2 weeks of putting up with it, I finally reported them and they were arrested. Unfortunately that's not where it ended. These boys turned out to be the well-loved class clowns of the school and the torment from other students continued on MySpace. I ended up deleting it and didn't create another one until mid-8th grade when tensions died down a bit. I felt miserable for the rest of my middle school career and pleaded with my parents to transfer schools but they wouldn't listen. I did try to commit suicide more than once. The depression carried over into high school, but it was masked by having new friends that actually liked me. Eventually I did get help mid-Senior year and am continuing talk therapy in college.""  - 18 year-old girl from FL

""As you know, Japan has very bad bullying. Cyber bullying, physical bullying, and mental abuse bullying. We have a very high rate of suicide attempts at the age bracket of middle school kids to high school kids. This is a story about a best friend I had who committed suicide right in front of me. And all it started was a crush she had, it was such a small thing. All she wanted to do is have a normal teenage life; that never happened. She wanted to join in the group but everyone called her "gloomy, sullen, creepy." It wasn't very nice at all. The tone of their voices changed when she came in the room, there were thumbnails in her shoes, dead animals in her desk, and many more. There were also a lot of hate mail. Sometimes just to ease the pain I deleted the mails before she could even see them, but that didn't do much good. I wish I could've helped more... Every day I saw her eyes die and become darker and darker. It was the time when I was going home with her and we were waiting for the train to pass by; it was that time when she just pushed me away and ran in front of the tracks and committed suicide. Now it has been 3 years since she did this act, I still regret not saving her, I still regret everything I could not have done.""  - 16 year-old girl from Japan

""I was cyber bullied when i was in 8th grade by a bunch of girls telling me that i need to get a life so i went home told my mom and they kept bullying me still so then i just kept skipping school and getting i n trouble at home and then just ran away then i finally got everything figured out with the cops.""  - 13 year-old girl from KY

""I was cyber bullied when i was in 8th grade by a bunch of girls telling me that i need to get a life so i went home told my mom and they kept bullying me still so then i just kept skipping school and getting i n trouble at home and then just ran away then i finally got everything figured out with the cops""  - 13 year-old girl from KY

""When I was 8 years old, I met a girl who had gotten into a fight with me a week later. This resulted in cyber bullying that lasted 5 years. The girl was now 16 and was still harassing me. I told my parents who stopped the messages but then the girls mugged me and attacked me. I was in the hospital for 1 week. The girls were caught by the police and now the girls are in juvenile hall. I'm glad that it stopped.""  - 14 year-old girl from Wales, UK

""Honestly when I was being cyber bullied I felt like I wanted to never get out of the house or talk to anyone ever again. It led me to depression and the person who was bullying me... they believed that it was funny. I ended up staying quiet and even today I do get bullied online.""  - 17 year-old girl from NJ

""I get mean messages on Formspring, with people telling me I'm fat and ugly and stupid. I don't know what I ever did to anyone. I wish it wasn't anonymous...""  - 15 year-old boy from IL

""I frequent the adam4adam site often; at some point started getting several negative emails from this person who me of i have never met; I changed my screen name a few times only to have my old screen name come back tiaras me even more over the same thing. have complained to the adam for adam site & the best advice they could give me is to just block the person; what really made me up site with the site was that was once called a porch monkey & all they did was tell me to block the guy & not much was done to stop him from accessing his account; have complained many times that I want to take legal action against the person that keeps changing screen name when i change names; how can I find out this persons isp address to press charges??""  - 45 year-old man from CA

""I got cyber bullied after i got surgery on my knee & it was horrible they always said go die & your worthless why are you here? You're wasting air. it made me so depressed and i thought of suicide plenty of times but i wasn't going to let them get to me so i deleted all of them from my Facebook, MySpace and all that & it stopped until i went back to school. i just had surgery and couldn't walk so they put me in a wheelchair & everything was fine the few first days i had so many friends and they all loved me & helped me, but when my best friend came home from Mexico all hell broke loose, & people kept saying i was talking about her & lying about everything which wasn't true someone hated me so much they decide to make my life hell. That day @ lunch i had about 20 girls who were mad @ me because "i lied " & i didn't. they all tried to hit me & fight me when i was in a wheelchair after 5days after my surgery, so my boyfriend took me to the consular & that when i know i am de the biggest mistake, after that i got horrible texts,& people would call me & leave me voice mails & stuff and it was horrible , i thought about suicide & my mom caught me & ending up in the hospital i never want to go through that again it was horrible, all this was 1 year ago & this stuff is still going on I wish it would just stop.""  - 13 year-old girl from OH

""I usually feel pretty and liked it's not like i brag i just feel regular then on MySpace I comment on some girls status saying something like "I do that too!" I was just replying to something she said. Then like 5 minutes later she put.. "Sorry Friend But I See The Opposite Of Beautiful & Gorgeous When I Look At Herr (;" I felt something go threw me like jeeze what's wrong I was nice and friendly i don't deserve this! And usually I'm very insecure about my appearance and when I finally feel better she had to ruin it oh well STOP CYBER BULLYING" "  - 13 year-old girl from Sacramento, CA

""My elderly mother has been harassed by email by two different neighbors. The bullying has gotten so bad that it is causing health issues and my parents are trying to sell their house. They have hired a lawyer and reported the harassment to the police but to no avail. The police said they could arrest the people responsible but that wouldn't stop the harassment. I think this comes under the cyber bulling law in Iowa but I don't know if it has been used other than with schools and youths. I really need help for my parents.""  - Daughter of an 83 year-old woman from IA

""okaay so it's this boy and my friend use to go with him.. and so he liked me and i liked him back and so i asked my friend is it ok if i go with the boy she said alright she over him and i can have him and when i start going with him she started getting mad at me and i told her if it means that much to you ill break up with the boy cause i don't need no boys in my life as long as i got my friends.. so then she started calling my phone and started cussing me out so hung up and put her on my block list and she left me a voicemail threating me and all this other stuff i ignored it. Cause it doesn't really matter anymore.""  - 12 year-old girl from TX

""I was on aim minding my own business, and then all of a sudden a screen name I didn't recognize popped up. They started to talk to me and call me really horrible names. I felt like crying. I asked who it was a bunch of times and all they said was "none of your business." I blocked them but they always made a different screen name. I remember every word they said to me. I will never ever let it go because from that day on I was harassed badly and still never figured out who it was.""  - 11 year-old girl from CA

""My friend and i have 3 cyber bullies. They would call us randomly on their phones and not leave us alone. They would also text us really mean and bad things, like they called us lezbians and something else really bad. Yesterday i was watching a movie and she called me 2 times and i said stop. Then she kept texting me so many mean things that i wanted to throw my phone against the wall. I told my mom and she called her. My mom told her that she wanted to talk to her parents and the girl hung up. After that the mean girls texted me, wow you can't fight your own battles! Now my friends mom and my mom are doing anything they can to stop this. My mom is worried this is going to carry on into middle school.""  - 11 year-old girl from MI

""My son has been cyber bullied by the same child that is his age for a while now, he has threatened to beat him up and tells my son to kill himself because no one cares about him. My child is so sensitive and not to mention small for his age with type one diabetes. I have no idea who to turn to for this problem. I want to go to this other kids house and have a chat with his mother, but I don't know my rights.""  - Mother of 12 year-old from WI

""I was at this anime site where peopled bulled non-stopped in this chat room. All they did was tell me how stupid i was for a year. But then i would go back because people where nice to me. I've went their for a year people keep yelling at me calling me stupid stupid stupid stupid stupidstuipd stuipd buti was addicted to chatting . now i've been banned thank god and is freeeeee.""  - 15 year-old boy from IL

""Hi, my son has been repeatedly humiliated and harassed through an online gaming forum by other teenagers. It has had a tremendous affect upon him, he has cried, become angry, and is confused as to why these people don't like him. There has been continues postings about him and harassing personal messages sent to him. I naturally told him to stay off of this site. When I contacted the administrators of this forum, I received a response from an Attorney who is an administrator. He told me there was nothing they could do. As our conversation continued and I expressed to him that as a Dad this forum that accepts children has an inherent responsibility to protect them. He eventually banned my son, ridiculed me as a Father and challenged me to try and do something. What can I do as a Dad to ensure that Children like my son won't be emotionally abused through a Forum that allows children?""  - Father of 12 year-old boy from CA

""My friend and i have 3 cyber bullies. They would call us randomly on their phones and not leave us alone. They would also text us really mean and bad things, like they called us lesbians and something else really bad. Yesterday i was watching a movie and she called me 2 times and i said stop. Then she kept texting me so many mean things that i wanted to throw my phone against the wall. I told my mom and she called her. My mom told her that she wanted to talk to her parents and the girl hung up. After that the mean girls texted me, wow you can't fight your own battles! Now my friends mom and my mom are doing anything they can to stop this. My mom is worried this is going to carry on into middle school.""  - 11 year-old boy from MI

""I am tired of having him messaging me and saying inappropriate things, threatening, and just being downright annoying! I'm tired of having to block him over and over, I've reported him more than once...but he is still here. This whole conflict with him is ruining my gaming experience. I hardly enjoy signing onto the PSN.""  - 16 year-old girl from USA

""Somebody on Facebook would not stop bullying me. He was harsh and kept saying I was a "slutty bitch" whatever that is. I was very depressed, regardless.""  - 12 year-old girl from Russia

""Once i went on Facebook and all my friends were making fun of me. They said that i should kill myself and no one likes me and stuff like that. i was depressed for a long time. All my 'friends' weren't talking to me and i didn't know what to do. i went home and thought about suicide but i just couldn't. The principal in my school had found out about this and confronted these kids. They said sorry but they didn't mean it. I've always thought about suicide ever since." "  - 12 year-old girl from OH

""For years, in middle school i spent every day of my life being bullied. i was called "the emo lezbo" for almost 3 years straight. now i am 15 and in high school with low self-esteem, and still thinking about suicide as the way out. i can't ask for help, I'm scared my mom will take it out on herself. Sometimes i can't handle it, i wish i could have started over, not as me, but someone pretty and smart that everyone would love.""  - 15 year-old girl from USA

""My so-called "best friend" and I were joking around making a fake music video, and when we were making it she pranked me by pushing me in the pull. I broke my nose pretty badly and the video went around my school like wild fire. To this day I still get made fun of and its 2 years later.""  - 18 year-old girl from USA

""I have a form spring and for the past month that i have had it I have been bullied on it. Thank god i am not like that 17 year old girl because the things being said to me are so mean I don't even know how a person can come up with this "shit" for lack of a better word. I feel if this person has such a problem with me they need to grow up and say it to me in person instead of try to act tough posting stuff without their name on it. The web site is for questions not insults and I think police should be more active on these site so people like that can get help because clearly there are issues!!!""  - 17 year-old girl from Tewksbury, MA

""As a mom, I'm devastated by the cyber-bullying taking place against my 15-year-old daughter. Kids are ganging up, saying horrible things - ugly, fat, bitch - anonymously. If it's devastating for me, I can't imagine what it's like for her.""  - 15 year-old girl from CT

""My friend told me about a chat website, so I went on it. It was fun at first, until there were people who started saying mean things and harassing me on the site for no reason. I still remember some of the things they said, and I wish I didn't, because you keep on remembering and wondering if maybe it is true." "  - 14 year-old boy from M

""I was on aim minding my own business, and then all of a sudden a screen name i didn't recognize popped up, they started to talk to me and call me really horrible names. I felt like crying . i asked who it was a bunch of times and all they said was "none of your business" i blocked them but they always made a different screen name , i remember every word they said to me ,this happened to me about 3 or 4 years ago. i will never ever let it go because from that day on i was harassed badly and still never figured out who it was . Note: for every kid that has an aim, and you don't know who it is , and when you ask them over and over again and they don't tell you , tell an adult . It's the best thing to do when your being harassed good luck everybody i wish you all best of luck.""  - 11 year-old girl from CA

""I've never ben bullied myself .yes I've bullied and i regret it and want to apologize to the people who have been bullied it is wrong and don't think anyone should take your life nor feel depressed because jerks want to bully.""  - 14 year-old boy from NC

""Sometimes it's hard to believe what starts it, The truth is whatever the reason revenge, or because it makes you feel good. Cyber bullying or bullying of any type is against the law. It can have horrible outcomes that will kill others, and sometimes it can lead others to do crimes, murders, and sometimes even cause deaths to innocents that had nothing to do with it in the first place. Its time to take a stand now, that when we teach our children its okay to get revenge, or hurt others if they have hurt you, then its then we teach them its okay to cause pain, wars, this is bullshit. We don't have a right to cause any pain to any person for whatever reason. The time is now to stop the violence and it stops here and now. In our schools, Computer Labs, and the internet. STOP hurting others, it doesn't feel good, and in the end could cause you more harm then you realize. I was the victim of cyber bullying, I was also the cause of it at one point because I had continued to try to get revenge on those that hurt me. In the end it wasn't much of anything but pain, and the pain continued on to my own friends and others. It's not worth it no matter how much someone hurts you its needs to stop and it stops now... So here I am trying to make it stop.""  - 33 year-old man from AZ

""I have autism and have been made fun of for most my childhood. It hurts me so much when people pick on me and hardly ever think before they speak. They gossip and say whatever they want to without asking themselves if they will be rude to someone else by saying it. I have grown up quite a bit and wish they could understand, but they don't. My heart breaks from this pain inside me and they don't care at all.""  - 17 year-old girl from WA

""I gett harassed by this girl named amber she is in my class she always say im ugly and i cry every day :(""  - 12 year-old girl from CA

""BIENG BULLIED ISN'T GREAT BECAUSE AFTER A WHILE YOU START TO BELIEVE THE STUFF THAT THEY SAID TO YOU. I STILL CRY WHENEVER I THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY SAID.""  - 10 year-old girl from CA

""My son made the high school baseball team in December by February the team started to call him Down syndrome Darren. They would tease him all the time and push him in the hallways with his books. In March we found out about a Facebook page made called Down syndrome Darren and he was mortified. He stopped eating as much. Cried a lot and made comments about death. We went to the coach and team mom and they said they would take care of it. The boys that made the website were suspended for one baseball game but the teasing continued and the physical bullying got worse even though the website came down. He had his gear hidden, grape fruits thrown at him, he was tripped, pushed, shoved, and he was given a baseball with a penis drawn on it with all kinds of obsinities written on it. My oldest son came to a game and the parents told him that if he started anything they would call the cops. He told them they should call the cops on their own kids. They told the school that my oldest son threatened their sons and the police called me the next day telling me that there would be someone there to watch the games and not to bring my oldest son to the games any more. I was glad someone would finally be watching the team, but he was there to protect the other boys not my son. When the season was over he left. The coach was so concerned about his varsity players that he left his junior varsity and freshman players alone and my son was ganged up on and forced to wrestle and body box twice while being filmed by several boys. He did not win. He was teased and humiliated. He came home really out of control of his emotions he was so upset. He was punching things, flipped over the couches, and was screaming at the top of his lungs. We had to take him to the hospital when he threatened to kill himself for he cut his arm all up. He was in the hospital for 6 days. The most the school has done is said they are investigating it and that they would refer him to a new school. He never wants to go back to that school but come on that is the best they can do?""  - Parent of 14 year-old boy from CA

""A group of boys who i meet through my hall of residence have always had a thing against me, i appear to be outgoing, happy, confident and loud. I stand up for myself. What they didn't know is that I suffered from a mild depression from issues in my past. After constantly saying mean stuff and making mean gestures to me whenever they saw me or i came up in conversation they decided to make a Facebook group for a 'leaving party' for me, even though everybody new they did not like me. i am going on a unit exchange and they said this was for me and sarcastically talked about how sad they will be and how will they cope without me. Everybody knew it was a joke, they publicly humiliated me and expressed their hate for me. I was very very distressed and my confidence was and still is lowered. I was diagnosed with severe depression and have had suicidal thoughts which i am working on to get better. It has been a month and not one of them has apologized, my mother and father are furious and want me to go to the proctor of my university about it or the police but I am unsure if they could do anything about it. I thought when I got to university this would stop but it has gotten worse and I do not know what action I should take against them but I am scared that they will do it to someone weaker to me and this could be very, very bad.""  - 19 year-old boy from NZ

""2 or 3 years back, when I used Youtube as my social network, I was cyber bullied by a white-power obsessed bully. On my profile I said I lived in the United States but was from Ecuador. When this guy read it he started posting rude spam comments calling me a "spick" and "wetback". Of course, I fought back as much as I can, and when my friends read his comments they helped. They were also being victimized. After a while, I just blocked him and we all reported him to the site. He was gone, but later on he came back, and the same thing happened. When he returned months later, I was already fed up with it and blocked him fast. Happened one more time after that, but I learned that I should just ignore it because whoever the person is, he doesn't know anything about me. Right now, nothing recent has happened, and I don't use Youtube anymore, and I hope that kids know never to let someone get to you because if they have to insult you through the computer, then they aren't worth the second thought.""  - 15 year-old girl from NY

""how does it feel being the fat ugly outcast of all your pretty skinny friends why do you take a bazillion pictures of yourself ...like your some kind of model? i think you're a little too big for even a plus size model...and think you have to be pretty to model ... so epic fail for you nuff said... ""  - 14 year-old girl from DE

""When I was very young, in about 4th grade, I remember this group of girls made a website about me. It had a picture of a pig on it and said " _____ is a fat pig and everyone hates her!" I was devastated when it happened, but when I look back I just laugh. Cyber bullying is a problem because the internet and technology gives people a sense of security. People are much more likely to send a threatening text to someone then say something to someone's face these days.""  - 19 year-old girl from MN

""I was at this anime site where peopled bulled non stopped in this chat room. All they did was tell me how stupid i was for a year. But then i would go back because people where nice to me. I've went there for a year people keep yelling at me calling me stupid stupid stupid stupid stupidstuipd stuipd but I was addicted to chatting. Now I've been banned thank god and is freeeeee.""  - 15 year-old girl from IL

""Whenever i get on Facebook all i see on people's pages are people getting bullied and it is so upsetting. i have gotten bullied through I'm on Facebook to and it hurt...""  - 13 year-old girl from IN

""I was bullied on the internet and it made me feel like I wanted to kill myself. I have MySpace and not Facebook, but a friend of mine has Facebook and there was a class photo that I was in, and this guy from my school that I don't even know wrote "isn't that eco girl i thought she left last rofl". I am really quiet in school, so I only speak to like 3 or 4 people but i thought that was offensive because i once liked green peace in 8th grade but what was written on fb was in 12th grade!!! then this other guy wrote "yeah it is and in the other photo she is smiling. i didn't even think she knew how. Very rare indeed" and another said "very rare indeed. my god". the whole time ppl would show me fb, no one had ever commented on anyone else so rudely. Ever. Thank god I graduated by now, but it still makes me upset and feel worthless. Sometimes I just think I should get plastic surgery or die my hair so that none of those jerks will ever recognize and hurt me again! Seriously.""  - 18 year-old girl from VA

""Ok well this is more like an ongoing thing. A month or so ago my girlfriend dumped me, ok that's nothing bad but she started to threaten me with the law over a t-shirt and a couple dvd's that i probably don't even have. She's been getting worse and worse ever since we broke up. I need to know what to do. it's getting way too far out of hand. I've asked her to leave me alone, never worked. I've tried to block her number somehow that didn't work either. If she can't text me she sends me emails, it's me, or messages me on my yearbook or MySpace. I'm normally a level headed person which is why I'm doing this. I just want it to stop.”"  - 16 year-old boy from MO

""I had just moved to a new school in san Antonio called Harlandale.It was my second day of school and all of a sudden people were calling me a bitch and taunting me all the time. Random girls woyld try to fight me, boys called me ugly and said I had an STI, and some girls even pulled my hair and puched me. It got worser as time passed. I told my teachers, peers, the counselor and even the principle, but no one cared. I was beyond depressed and tried several times to commit suicide. I had never felt such pain inmy life.""  - 11 year-old girl from San Antonio, TX

""I'm not going to lie, I'm not the prettiest girl out there, but when people tell me that online, it really hurts me. The fact that I don't know who they are extremely bothers me. It could be the girl next door, someone at school, or even my friends. For me, the internet is stressful. Thing shave been leaked out that I would not like people to know. This makes me on edge every time I share information with my best friends. In fact, after a while of this bullying, I stopped talking to people completely. Isolation seems to be the only remedy that helps. There have been many occasions where I have tried to confront my parents, but they're quite ignorant (not being mean) when it comes to the internet. I can't just quit getting online, because the internet is the only way to get away from everyone. I don't like being around people, due to my extreme cases of bullying on and offline. Only certain people do I feel comfortable around. Those most likely similar tome. I wish people would just have a sense of sensitivity. Maybe this would prevent some bullying. When teens do cruel and harmful things to others, it makes me feel as if they don't have much of a heart. I know they do, but they need to show compassion once in a while and take a minute to think if they are hurting others.""  - 14 year-old girl from IL

""On MySpace a friend of my friend sent a friend request to me, I accepted even though I didn't know her, if she was friends with one of my other friends she'd be OK. But the next time I got on MySpace I noticed I had a comment. It was the same girl I added earlier, and for no provoked reason, she commented on my picture that I was ugly. I denied the comment and deleted her from my friends list, but for the rest of the day that comment secretly bothered.""  - 14 year-old girl from IL

""I'm sure you've all heard about this new site formspring.me. It's a truly horrible site. It gives bullies a chance to verbally insult people without putting a face or a name to them. It wears people down after a while and only causes drama. I was harassed for a good amount of time on it when I had one. It caused drama between a good friend of mine and me. Thankfully we resolved it. People also thought it was their business to know about my boyfriend and I, and would constantly ask questions, and my parents also saw these too. Formspring.me should be deleted. It will only cause hurt for teenagers around the world.""  - 15 year-old girl from CA

""I was on a social networking site and I was invited to a group that was about me and how no one liked me. I am now in therapy.""  - 14 year-old girl from WA

""Being bullied is something I've had to deal with for a very long time. I learned that after a while you start to believe that what people are saying is true. Your ugly, you should go die, vampire, ghost, fatty, demon, your unwanted, you're not needed, no one cares about you, i wish you were gone then life would be so much better. I've gotten a few of those, the thing is though, and I've dealt with it since pre-k. Not many can say that now can they. The thing is though that you could go home and get away from that, but when you add the internet those hateful people find you even at home and then you can't escape those lies, and because you can't escape you start believe them. I probably wouldn't be here today if it weren't for my lack of strength to do something like that, and if it weren't for my only true friend that found me during the best possible time to save me from my withering mind. It still happens today, and every now and then i break down and cry thinking it would be better just to die but I'm too weak to do that.""  - 16 year-old girl from USA

""I had left a comment on a picture on Facebook one afternoon, saying nothing that could be possibly hurtful. About five minutes later, A girl replied telling me, "Shut up, no one cares about what you have to say." This was a good friend of mine, who supposedly liked me. I responded saying, "Uh, where in the world did that come from?" She told me she hated me, and that I was a fat slut. She of all people should have known that I'm no good at handling critics. I knew this girl could be harsh, but none of her other friends would stand up to her. Instead, they all ganged up on me! A boy I never spoke to in my life then started a HATE group, about me! People whom I've never spoken to joined, and this girl who I thought was my friend took my pictures from my profile, and uploaded them onto the group, using mean and hurtful captions. During this time, I was already dealing with horrible depression, OCD, and General Anxiety. It made everything worse, and I felt like my suicidal problems were coming back. I would be too scared to even log into my email, in fear of being harassed by strangers. Eventually, after at least a month, Facebook deleted the group, even though I reported it long before then. I will never be the same because of this experience. Now, I know how badly it hurts to be bullied, and feel as if no one is on your side anymore.""  - 13 year-old girl from NC

""This just happened recently. This girl i know keeps calling me flat chested and anorexic. I'm not either of them. She just does it to annoy me. It's getting old. Plus she is way skinnier and more flatter than me. She has no room to talk either. And then whenever i told her that what she was doing was immature, she still does it! And I will feel bad if i tell the teachers, because then a whole bunch of people will think I'm a baby. And I am confused about all of this.""  - 13 year-old girl from WI

""The website CollegeACB.com needs to stop receiving revenues from advertisers and be shut down, because the website has become a place for cyber bullying. My daughter is the recipient of cyber bullying from this website from University students. It is a site for name calling, derogatory comments, insults, and humiliating words. How can a student show face at a university when this site postings and threads are anonymous, open to anyone to read? The site is being misused, and the terms of use and laws allow this and the owner of the site written words "they do not monitor or are responsible for the content". Changes need to be made.""  - Mother of 21 year-old girl from CT

""My younger sister, a seventh grader, started getting texts from her so called "best friend." These texts consisted of "You're a whore." "No one likes you." "You can go die." My sister confronted these people and told them to stop, and then i said something to them also. She is proud she confronted them and they have stopped being meant to her. All of her friends stood up for her too, they knew it was wrong." "  - 17 year-old girl from ID

""My son is 15. Some kid at his high school has posted a hate page on Facebook. I reported it 2 days ago but it has not been removed. It's obviously created by high scholars so I don't know why not. A few kids signed on to it. My son would not have told me about it but his friend told me. He said my son said he would be suicidal if people signed on to a hate page and there it was. I don't think he is suicidal. I know he and his friends are having a hard time with adolescence. I have seen these boys through their growing years and seen many instances of bullying among them -- which I have challenged them to change. My son says the kid who made the page wants to date my son's ex-girlfriend and is angry because she still "sweats" my son. Also another boy slapped my son a few weeks ago. He did not retaliate because: a) he didn't want to get into trouble with the school (they didn't find out anyway) and b) rumor was that this kid had a gun and was on outskirts of a gang. My son is a popular kid on the whole. He is an athlete, thinks well of himself, socializes possibly too much. But he's not a kid with all the advantages: we are struggling for money and have never really had a middle class lifestyle despite my master's degree. Also my husband died one year ago. Schools never think my son is vulnerable because of his overt optimism and popularity by the way. ""  - Parent of 15 year-old boy from OR

""My son has been resiliently harassed, humiliated, insulted, and persecuted by a class mate and his friends due to my son's religious and political beliefs; he has also attacked my son due to his physical appearance and weight. The bully went as far as to use my son's picture and full name to post a false message in which my son was "coming on" to him as if he was a gay person. He actually published this fabricated conversation on Facebook and lobot 'for all to see. He has defamed my son's character at school. The school has not be able to contain or neutralize this student's actions. They suspended him for a few days, but the teen continues to post comments about my son. Facebook has done nothing to stop the harassment despite constant complaints from us. The school administrators fails to see the connection between the cyber bullying and the promotion of a hostile environment at school. The bullying is such that we are considering a civil suit against the bully. The behaviors has affected my son's self-esteem and desire to go to school. My son used to be an honor students but his grades are suffering. the Oregon Laws do not address cyber bulling. The school mandate to have a policy to address bullying only covers behaviors wile at school despite the fact that bullying behaviors at school and cyber bulling are heavily interconnected and are the continuation of each other.""  - Parent of 17 year-old boy from Salem, OR

""I am currently 18 years old, but most of the bullying in my life occurred when I was in elementary school all the way through most of high school. Growing up, I was one of the few Caucasian children in my school. I was bullied constantly about that. People would constantly try to push me around, and threaten me. I felt horrible about the fact that I was white, so much that I started to resent myself for it. I can remember back to the third grade when I got so depressed about having to go to school and face the other children that did nothing but belittle me. I stopped going to school for days at a time. On average I would miss about 8 or more days in a month. I moved to a different town, where I thought things would be different seeing as I was no longer the minority. Eight grade proved to be even worse than the school in my hometown. I moved from the ghetto to a suburban town. This made me an even bigger outcast than before. I got picked on, pushed around, and verbally abused. The teachers and principal refused to do anything to the girls that were constantly putting me down because of the deep pockets that their parents had. I became suicidal by the time I was 13, but at the same time my focus was also on revenge. Every time I got picked on I wanted to target the abuser, I wanted to get even. High school came, and it got worse my freshman year. I stopped going to school any chance I had. On average I attended maybe 1 full week at a time. It got so bad that I had to be pulled out of a regular high school and put into homeschooling.""  - 18 year-old girl from CA

""I've been cyber bullied for ages by different people. A lot of the people who I thought were my friends actually ended up stabbing me in the back, and hurting me. I couldn't go to school without thinking all day about these hurtful comments that they said about me. I just wish that I could be invisible from all of this sometimes, but I have nowhere to go in real life either since I'm a social outcast.""  - 15 year-old girl from USA

""After a dance recital I was in, this girl who also danced that day instant messaged me on AIM. I don't know how she got my screen name because I had never given it to her. The words she typed into that chat box still echo in my head, two years later. She called me a "frizzy haired freak," "fat," "ugly," and a number of other things. I blocked her but then she either made another screen name or had one already and IMed me yet again saying even worst things. I only told one close friend of mine what had happened. I responded back in the conversation a couple of times saying "Why are you doing this?" and after a couple things she had said I responded "You're not perfect, so why are you pointing out my imperfections?" and at the end of the conversation I said "Thank you very much for putting my down so much that I can't stop crying." Now I had not been one to even think about self-injury but it's what I resorted in for the last couple weeks of school and for the past couple of years. Bullying online is the worst because if you have your AIM settings set to log the chats, then if you accidentally click the conversation, it will pop up for you to see it. Now I have not read the conversation since that day, but the words are just haunting. Even now when I see her, I drop my head down to my chest and stop talking and walk away. It's the worst feeling to feel inferior to a fellow student, but that's what has happened to me.""  - 15 year-old girl from MA

""When I finished school my boyfriend and I broke up, he had been sleeping with another girl and after we broke up him, his friends and her friends would send me messages both on the phone and over the internet saying "you're fat" over and over. I got so many phone calls while I was at work and university. This continued for over 6 months and the police couldn't do anything. Aside from the cyber bullying I was also threatened with physical violence and my house and car were egged.""  - 18 year-old girl from Sydney, Australia

""A girl in the year under me sent me nasty messages via Facebook. They were quite unfriendly and really made me feel bad - I'd never even spoke to the girl before them. She didn't know anything about me, still, she judged me. It's hurtful when people judge you for no good reason, when people make up lies about you, and when they isolate you. I've learned this the hard way." "  - 15 year-old girl from UK

""My 11 year old daughter is in fifth grade and was called into the principal's office because a sixth grade girl had received a threatening email and the mother of that child had performed an internet search on the email and it came back with the name of my daughter and showed that she also had a Facebook account. My daughter has neither of these. They questioned her and believed that she was not involved. We found the Facebook accountant sent a friend request to it. The person accepted it. I asked this person, "who are you and where do you go to school?" They replied," your daughter and the name of her school" My daughter was standing next to me at the time, there is no way it could have been her. I was able to read the posts on the wall of this account and it had very vulgar language and even said "I love to have sex" What worries me the most is that this person has repeatedly added strange men to the site and when you pull up some of their pages they have pornography on them. Most claim to be from all over the world, but at least three list local addresses. I am very frightened for my daughter because now these strangers know where she lives and the name of her school. We have filed a police report, but until an actual crime has been committed, they will not investigate. The school has questioned several girls but was unable to find who is responsible. We have also sent Facebook complaints and a copy of the police report, but they have not responded and have not taken the site down. We were made aware of this over two weeks ago and the site just continues to grow. We are desperate to protect our daughter, but do not know what to do.""  - Parent of 11 year-old girl from TN

""I'm 15, and I've been bullied by this one girl who accuses me of talking behind her back, when I really didn't. She has no respect towards me OR my best friend. I sometimes talk behind her back with my best friend, but I know that isn't nice, and she does it as well. One day she came up to me, like she was up in my face saying ''SAY IT TO MY FACE!!'' and I was scared and didn't know what to do... thank god a teacher was nearby... we worked out the situation, and my final answer was to not be her friend anymore. She wanted to be mine, but after how she treated me, came up to me and almost hit me, talked about me online, I don't want that to be in my mind as we are 'friends', but all I can say is ''I'm done with her and how she treats me. She has no respect.'' and that I'm moving on. People who make you feel sad, stressed, and mad, and even worried... they really aren't your true friend... A true friend wouldn't make you feel uncomfortable now, would they? So don't let the small stuff get to you. Good Luck :)""  - 15 year-old girl from NY

""I went to check my e-mail and there was a message from some people in my old school sent these threatening e-mails some saying "we'll hunt you down at your NEW school and you'll never know what hit you" i felt very scared and at the same time i wondered how they knew my e-mail address. So i told a teacher at that school but then I remembered that at that school they do nothing about this stuff and they are still coming those e-mails.""  - 13 year-old girl from Canada

""I joined some forums and found out how quickly people dislike those with talent. The stuff they said made me want to off myself. But I never would do that it would give them too much satisfaction. Though I did cut myself. Cyber bullying is the real deal.""  - 17 year-old boy from NJ

""I posted a video of myself singing a song on YouTube, and then 5 days later I found a video that an "anonymous" person made that basically took my video, slowed it down, zoomed into my face, and this person made side comments in the video such as "she's so ugly" and "i hate her." It made me scared, because I didn't know who would do such a thing, because it looked like it took a lot of time and effort to make the hate video, so this person must hate me A LOT.""  - 15 year-old girl from CA

""I think people who bully should get a life. Seriously i mean what is the point. In life you are not going to like everyone you meet but that doesn't give you an excuse to hurt them. I was once bullied by my so called "friends" they made me feel like crap. I kept it to myself. About 6 months after they started I thought hay there must be a reason they are doing it. So that night i went outside and screamed my loudest 3 times to let all the hatred, guilt, empty feelings out it worked. The next day I had very good mental strength and when the bullies came up to me I said hay leave me alone you know the reason for your attempt to hurt me but why. They didn't answer they were so surprised they walked away after that they left me alone. The moral of this is to have a strong mental mind and you will have the best feeling and the bully/s will leave you be. to all the victims out there stay strong!""  - 13 year-old girl from Australia

""A friend of mine who is still in middle school is currently being harassed online. People are telling her daily to kill herself, and I can see her breaking down more and more. I told her to surround herself with friends and that it is perfectly okay to fall on them when times are hard. Unfortunately the messages she is receiving are anonymous, but her friends are keeping her strong.""  - 14 year-old girl from NY

""Apparently, I look like a panda so kids at my school took it upon themselves to refer to me as panda express and "enjoy" the skateboard brand. At first I would just brush it off but then it genuinely started to get to me. I would go home and cry about it. I was already going through major problems at home but, getting called a panda at school would just make things hell for me. Then I got a form spring where i received comments telling me to go kill myself and that every time i walk the whole earth shakes. I wanted to kill myself. One night i was sitting there on my computer just shaking and crying so bad that i was ready to kill myself. I felt like nothing else mattered and everyone hated me. I had never done anything to these people for them to hate me so much that i don't deserve to be alive and i didn't get it. One day, I went to a concert and met every person i wanted to meet i even got kissed by some band mates I realized that in 10 years these people won't matter at all. I realized they were going to become nothing and by them doing that to me was terrible and that karma would get back at them.""  - 15 year-old girl from NC

""It all started with a silly argument on 'windows live messenger'. Name calling us just it at first. Then they all added there older, tougher friends into the conversation. It began to become scary, the older kids were threatening them. Promising to kill them. They all left the conversation, hoping it was just a joke, and saying: they want touch us. The day after they all got texts, saying: were coming. That's when they started getting worried. More texts came through but just to one now. It's you that we want' it said. They picked the smallest out of the gang, everyone was scared. The walk home from school was normal. No trouble from anyone. They girl went to the park, but some went home. The next day at school she came in with a black eye. 'They got me' she said crying. Cyber bullying is serious." "  - 12 year-old girl from England

""Hello, I have this model called the iPod touch. Over the years i have been cyber bullied with this chatting game called ‘Tap Tap Revenge' i think this is very unacceptable behavior of the bully, I was very upset with this because this specific bully was making funny of my skin color, I personally think that was very mean and cruel.""  - 11 year-old girl from WA

""A boy my daughter has known for years left comments on her Facebook page that was extremely disturbing. He told her (and anyone else readingher wall) that the world would be a better place without him, that all of his pain would be gone and that he was sick and tired of bi--ches lying to him. He wrote several lines of extreme profanity and a graphic sexual comment. One of his last comments was "someone is going to die". Icontacted the local police who called the boy's home phone. The officer contacted me and told me what had happened and that because he could not locate the boy's home address there was nothing further that can be done. I spoke with my daughter and she removed his name from her 'friends' list and told me she would not text him or contact him again. My daughter told me she didn't want this boy to know someone in her family had called the police. She denies being afraid of this boy because she said he always says these kinds of things but he doesn't really mean them. Where do I go from here?""  - 15 year-old girl from WA

""Have been cyber bullied but at the same time sexually harassed online. It started off with things being instant messaged from a boy in my class that was inappropriate but then they got worse. There were vulgar pictures, videos, songs, etc. sent to me. I didn't report him for a year. That was wrong to do, so once they got more threatening and violating i reported him to a teacher and to the police. I had to go to a small trial and he was found guilty i turned out okay but always report cyber bullying.""  - 12 year-old girl from NY

""I had chosen to give my Facebook password to one of my "best friends" she was friends with a girl that i had been having some bullying problems with. One day my "best friend" was at my enemies house and decided to get on my Facebook and delete all my pictures and they took a picture of this boy that i really liked and put it as my profile picture. they wrote "i miss you" "i am in love with you" ";i cry over you all the time" all over my profile. So all my friends saw it. and they also posted a video about me on YouTube saying that i copied their hairstyle (i had it 4 months before them) it was all really stupid but it hurt me so bad.""  - 12 year-old girl from NC

""I was talking to one of my friends on Facebook and I had no idea what was going on. I thought she was my friend but I was wrong. I talked to my parents about it and they told me to do what I thought was right. So I decided to go to my school principal and she called her down we started to talk and she said it was all a lie and that it was her friend. Ever since I was little I have been getting bullied and It caused me to feel bad about myself. I still am getting the same treatment. I asked her if i did something wrong and she just looked at me and walked way. I heard her gossiping about me and saying rude things. I found out that my guy friend was also a part of this. He took one of my pictures off of Facebook and photo shopped it. It hurt me really bad. He shown it to all the guys at my school and all the guys called me a slut a bitch a hooker and a whore. One of the guys kept harassing me and I just did not know what to do.""  - 13 year-old girl from FL

""I'm being harassed nonstop by so called friends from my elementary school, and people I don't even know but somehow they got a hold of my number. I am keep getting name called such as fag, douche bag, small dick, etc.""  - 15 year-old girl from Mississauga, Ontario

""There were bad comments made about my daughter on topix.com that she had been sexually active with several people and she named listed as the topic in my small town. How can topic be stopped. They don't sensor anything that anyone says and this has given my daughter a bad reputation because it's not true.""  - 15 year-old girl from KY

""Well it was Halloween and i stayed at one of my friend's house we when chipy and her mum gave me 1 for a bag of chips. We fell out the next day because she had the same hair style as me. A few weeks later she was sending me text is saying i owe her money if i don't give it her back she will batter me. The money she was talking about was the 1 her mum gave me. She written on Facebook that i am a tramp and i eat like a pig and calling me names all my friends at school fell out with me till they found out the truth.""  - 11 year-old girl from Manchester, UK

""Being bullied makes me feel like I'm worthless i matter to no one everyday i deal with it doesn't get better and people find new ways to intentionally hurt you. Everyone should be aware. Mine started out with a rude comment in kindergarten and is continuing now in the ninth grade. People always have to say something mean to me its become a part of their day. My only regret is wishing i knew what i know now don't worry about what people say too much it will only drive you to who knows what. Bullies are getting smaller everyday i know of a bully who is only in the pre k level. Just because it's not life threat ending doesn't mean its harmless many people make the mistake of not listening to you that's how a problem can be ignored. because no one took my friend seriously, she now resides unknown all because of bullies." "  - 14 year-old girl from NC

""My daughter was not only cyber bullied but our cars in the driveway were defaced and keyed. Phone calls and cell phone texts and every day harassment from two girls in her High school. I spoke with the principal, two assistant principals and the guidance counselor of the school, nothing was done about it because my daughter had deleted the information on her Facebook and her phone so they had nothing, even after one of the bullies confessed to some of it. This caused her to make some choices that affected her future, she is doing better now but her self-esteem is still low.""  - Mother of 16 year-old girl from Boca Raton, FL

""Two of my friends didn't like one of our teachers, and we found out that she was on a dating website. So they created a fake guy that was perfect for the teacher and chatted with her and stuff. They even set up dates with her and then went to the meeting place to watch her get stood-up. They always had the guy come up with some excuse for not making it to the date in order to keep the harassment going. I felt really bad for the teacher when my friends told me what they had been doing, so I told her about it without telling her which students it was because I didn't want my friends to get into trouble. She was really hurt by it...I could see it in her reaction to me telling her. She thanked me and told me that telling her was the right thing to do, but she ended up quitting her job and we had a substitute for the rest of the year, who was absolutely terrible. My friends never got into trouble for it because they were never identified as the culprits. I sometimes think that I should have given up their names, but then they could have done something mean like that to me too. They didn't even know that I told the teacher or that they were the reason that she quit. It was terrible.""  - 14 year-old boy from WI

""I am 13 year old girl who got upset with her best friend and made a very nasty picture of her. it involved her doing untrue sexual things with another girl. i am very ashamed of what i did and i apologized. We are now best friends again and we try to never bring up the horrible incident." "  - 13 year-old girl from NJ

""Ok so i was in class and this girl beside me sent an email to everyone in my class and they were all laughing and i did not know why well people made all kinds of rumors but this girl said that i got a hotdog stuck in me which was so not true but ya know well they sent me emails about it and printed off pics of a hot dog and gave them to me it was the worst thing ever i was so upset and i told the principle and they did nothing is sucked so bad!!""  - 15 year-old boy from NC

""Well, I started a website about the principal and saying how much we hated him. No one ever threatened him but it hurt his feelings. Needless to say, even though I did no wrong, I got in trouble for making the website. Needless to say I don't regret making the website because everything on it was true. He really is a jerk. I do however wish the things that were said about him were said in a nicer way. Now instead of getting expelled I have to write a stupid paper on cyber-bullying. Which is how I got to this website.""  - Boy from USA

""Hi I'm a 13 year old girl and its 2009 this whole year of school i have been getting bullied o this website called Tagged it's a fun website to be on and chat with your friends but when older guys start asking you to put naked pictures on there or starts asking what your body looks like to me it's hard i told them to leave me alone and they have just been harassing me 24/7 it's like I'm a punching bag i hate it they call me slut and whore an I'm sick of it and they even say worse words than that and it makes me want to kill myself bad because i can't take it anymore and i don't think it will ever change sometimes i wish it did though."  - 13 year-old girl from Marysville, OH

""Sometimes I get insulted for no reason because i said my mind so then I get into a fight and feel good when i convince the person/change their perspective/prove I'm right because it shows I have an impact on people. Once I got into a huge fight because these girls were bullying one of my friends and I tried to tell them to stop resulting in them insulting me very badly but me getting insulting them all the same. They made threats to beat her up, what else could I do? They printed out what I said but not what they said and showed the principal. I got in a lot of trouble but talked my way out of it telling the TRUTH (something THEY didn't do) and got let off with a warning.""  - 20 year-old boy from VA

""I was at my house one day and i texted my friend well she said she hated me and she never waned to talk to me again and i asked why and she said because I'm a dumb bad word and had no friends and she said that i was lonely and hated by my parents my family and i got scared when she finally said either go kill yourself or she is going to come kill me by herself or someone else will for her so that night i want to bed my phone off and i turned it on in the morning and there were some more texts from her saying you need to die if you die no one care because everyone hates you finally it got to the point where i did want to kill myself so i blocked her number then got onto my email the next day and she sent me nasty messages and she hacked into my email and sent messages to guy that were so nasty i do not even want to say what she did and from then on i don't know what I'm going to do.""  - 13 year-old girl from Marysville, OH

""I was bullied by these mean girls and they would tell me i don't deserve to live and that was a bitch and they would do all this mean stuff to me at school too.one day when i couldn't take it anymore i thought about committing suicide.""  - 17 year-old girl from NY

""I get bullied every day and i just want to hang myself I'm thinking about it but i doubt i will.""  - 14 year-old boy from USA

""When i was a little bit younger me and my 10 yr. old sister were bullied online what had happened was the person who i though was my best friend had lied and said they were not on a chat room well she ended up giving our phone number to a guy who was way older than us and he called our house it was scary because he called our house asking for my sister." "  - 17 year-old girl from PA

""If you honestly feel that bad about yourself that you feel the need to harass other people...then you need to point blank get a life. If you're religious, then trust in God to give you some self-esteem. If you're not good luck with that. The bottom line is that saying mean things to make yourself good is malicious and idiotic. It only makes you look like a fool and be branded as an oppressor. So if you're one of them and have the AUDACITY to try and justify yourself. Save it for someone who cares because i know for a FACT none of the people here do. It may be wrong to judge but those who commit this crime can't possibly have ANY character whatsoever.""  - 17 year-old boy from USA

""I've never been bullied online, and I've never bullied anyone else online. People chose to use the internet for this because they're too cowardly to say it in front of you so they do it anonymously. If someone's going out of their way to do this, it's because something about you or something you have that they don't is making them so angry that they can't stand to see you happy, they're just compensating for something they don't have by trying to destroy it. E-mail addresses can be changed. Web site administrators can track IP addresses which can be used to locate the computer used to post that message. Keep log files of their offenses as evidence, report it to someone (parent, teacher, police), nobody will just stand by and allow this to happen and these people can be found and will be dealt with seriously. Don't let yourself just be a victim thinking nobody can do anything because it's online, don't do nothing in hopes it will go away. Don't give them the satisfaction of getting upset and yelling at them. Solve the problem in the real world, don't give them the satisfaction by responding to what they say.""  - 17 year-old boy from Canada

""My story begins when a mother of one of my daughter's friends called me concerning two girls bullying our daughters at school. She began to explain that other girls have said that there was stuff written about her daughter on MySpace, and since she had no internet, she asked if I could investigate. When I went into the MySpace pages and started to read some things, I discovered that this one girls (one who bully's) had written about killing my daughter! I copied all of this right away so I could be armed with the information when I took it to the police station! They didn`t make a report. They sent me to the school and now the wheels are in action (I hope) for something to be done to punish these girls. I need some information on the cyber bulling law (if there is one) so I my plan my next step of action. I feel this girl should be punished for threatening my daughter's life. This is NOT a case of "girls just being girls"!!! I need to know what to do and where to go from here.""  - Mother from USA

""My friends don't want me around and i have invaded their privacy by bebo and found out that they hate me but feel sorry for me and bitch about me. Everything i say to them goes around my school. They have taken over my bebo account more than once and sent messages around saying that i had a sex change when i went on holidays. They are the only people in my class that i hang around with and i don't want to lose them but i have become depressed and suicidal and am afraid that if I'm pushed over the edge then it will be too late.""  - 16 year-old girl from USA

""My daughter was the target of cyber bullying. Although it occurred only once on the computer, I still consider it bullying. A group of girls downloaded her MySpace pictures and wrote hateful and obscene comments about her. They then sent it out to all of their friends. People began calling our home and telling us about the site. As soon as I called one of the parents, the web page began deleting--but not before a friend printed a copy of the first page of it. I didn't get all of it, but I got enough. These same girls continue to make references to my daughter on line, without actually saying her name, but we know they are talking about her. The worst part is that none of the parents will hold their daughters accountable because only one actually did the typing. We are left angry, hurt, and paranoid about what these girls will do next. These people were supposed to be friends, but one got mad at my daughter and then a group of these girls just thought it would be funny to make this web page. What recourse is there? That's what I'd like to know.""  - Mother from USA

""Hi - someone in the chat room that I frequent has been sending instant messages to my friends, telling them false things about me - for instance, I was told I called a friend from the chat room a "drunk" and a "dope head" - I smoothed that one over, but, this person has also taken to calling people at HOME and telling them to put me on "Iggy" and to not talk to me - she has also accused me of stalking HER, of reporting people to yahoo (which I have NOT done) - of paying for a search for her and her husband (again, NOT done, I DID do my research on a chat engine, to cover MY bases in this issue - but, it was all out there and available on the internet, public information). What recourse do I have to STOP her from doing this all the time? I mean, I spend HOURS in pm's explaining to people what I have not done, I have people mad at me, this is getting ridiculous, I have been coming IN this certain chat room for almost six years, she has been coming in there for 2. Please help! Don't tell me to just put her on ignore, she just pm's people with more lies, and I still hear about it, I want her to STOP. ""  - 17 year-old girl from USA

""My child struggles with her weight. In whom she thought was two of her best friends she confided her weight during a sleep over and the next day it was posted on their bebo sight. How cruel can kids be. Anyhow, I see profanity and slam every day on the internet while kids are so called chatting, as a parent my kids know that i am going to step in and read what is going on at any given minute. More should do so.""  - Mother from USA

""This one time this girl that was a lot bigger than me made me cries when i talked to her online because she told me if she saw me in school she was going to stuff me in a locker and that no one was going to find me for a very long time. I faked sick for a week and a half until i found the courage deep inside me to go to school. Nothing bad even happened. I was really relieved.""  - 18 year-old boy from NY

""Cyber bullying sounds interesting and I wasn't aware of that until I learnt it in class so I did bully some kid because he had pissed me off. I didn't know the damages can be that severe but what I did served him right, keeping him on his toes as he seemed real tough and rude outside but inside he was nothing but a chicken and I did what he deserved although I personally don't support cyber bullying.""  - 14 year-old boy from USA

""Hello i came out of the closet and not have my parents bullied me but many of the people at my school and many of the nuns in my parish have cyber bullied me and said i was committing a sin. But it's not my fault i love her.""  - 13 year-old girl from USA

""I hate how AOL is a place for haters. I always go this certain chat room and I've been doing it since I was 14 years old. I don't know why I even started, because all I face is people who tease me, ex-boyfriends from online who side with my enemies and people who criticize my looks. I'm often told in real life that I'm very pretty, but when I go online people tell me otherwise, like I have a big nose or other things wrong with me. I finally know that none of this is true, and that the person doing it has issues with themselves.""  - 15 year-old girl from USA

""I would like my story to be anonymous. I am a 14 year old girl who has been called fat online for many years. One day i was talking to my friend that i was pregnant. She sent the conversation to everyone and soon enough everyone called me pregnant. I got kicked out of school and i started to cut myself. i was admitted to a hospital and spent 5 months in intensive care until my baby was born. Cyber bullying ruined my life.""  - 14 year-old girl from USA

""When i was 13, i started dating a boy from the next town over and apparently a girl from that town had a huge crush on him and was very upset with me when she found out that i was dating him. She started yelling at me and threatening me over msn instant messenger. She scared me so much and when i would try to block her address, she would just create a new profile and continue where she left off. It got to the point where i was scared to go to see my boyfriend in his town because i was scared of running into her and what she would do to me. I am from Ohio.""  - 14 year-old girl from OH

""Being bullied really upset me. I hated the fact that people started to turn against me when I did absolutely nothing. Now I am a stronger person and I do not let anyone bother me. I just am myself no matter what. Always know that God is with you.""  - 15 year-old boy from NY

""Please call me re:post on an ADULTs MySpace blog with a minor girls picture - with the word 'whore' written over it - it was up for approx. a week than the girls face was 'whited out' but still appears on site ""  - Adult woman from USA

""People tell me that i am not good enough for my boyfriend and they mail me saying that they are going to kill me if i don't break up with him and i really love him so i don't want to break up with him""  - 13 year-old girl from TN

""People get bullied on the net all the time, if you can call it that. Only a fool would be hurt by it, everyone knows it's all done for the lulz." "  - 16 year-old boy from USA

""I think it is wrong to be bullied over the computer. When I watched a movie in my health class a boy committed suicide by hanging himself from the shower i thought i was going to cry. And I didn't even know him but he was only 13 years old. My message is don't bully or hurt anybody else and don't commit suicide. If you are bullied tell somebody. Yes i was bullied over the internet and it hurt and i agree that sticks and stones make break my bones and names will never hurt me is a lie because names hurt especially when it is about your image like getting called fat. It is just wrong and i may have bullied but not on purpose and i regret everything i said so talk to someone if you're getting bullied and if you're a bully then STOP your hurting people!!!!!!!!!!!""  - 13 year-old boy from USA

""My name Monique i know how it feels to be bullied i have all my life but now I've became a peer mentor its where u give information out to people younger than u that needs your advice I'm aged 15 i wanted to help people like other people helped me i love what i do because I've experienced it myself""  - 15 year-old girl from Canada

""I know what it feels like to get bullied it is not fun and although people who get bullied bully people back it is still not right so please don't bully and keep safe 4-ever & always!!!!!!!!!!!!<3 love is the key not hate<3<3<3<3<3""  - 12 year-old from USA

""There is a website called www.g00ns.net and there objective is to do are Cyber Bullying Online, Destroying and Hacking other Server Properties. Is there any rule that we have the rights to sue them and bring them to court. If you read regards to the information is there objective is to do a lot of online terrorism. I have a Server and they just destroy all of the Menus. I set my security in to high. However, they can still get in my server and ruin everything.""  - 18 year-old boy from USA

""I guess somewhere around where i live some kid committed suicide because he was being cyber bullied. I can't imagine what was going through his mind. Then the other day my friend was being bullied around and getting her computer hacked into and people that think they need to prove something or get equal with someone need to rethink it. Just forget about their insecurities and try to understand what they are going through because one day your payback might cost them their lives.""  - 14 year-old boy from USA

""I remember it like it was yesterday, they called me names of which I could never feel comfortable with. It was already hard enough to deal with my sexuality but then they had to make it even tougher with names such as "fag", "gay boy", "Michael Jackson's b****". It was just too much to deal with and I even felt like killing myself at one point.""  - 17 year-old boy from USA

""My daughter came home from school yesterday with some very disturbing news. Someone had gotten the password to her Yahoo account and sent sexually explicit e-mails to her friends, teacher, and family members. This is the first time we have dealt with this so I'm not sure what actions to take, but we've got a meeting scheduled with the school and I have contacted the police and I'm waiting for the investigators to call me back. If anyone could give me some advice I would greatly appreciate it.""  - Father from USA

""Some people write mean things about me and they don't think I will find out, or they will make sure I will see it, it is so mean. They call me fat, ugly, nasty and i just hate how they treat me!!!"  - 13 year-old boy from USA

""I have never actually experienced anything having to do with cyber bullying directly, but from what examples and stories listed in various places, I can tell this problem grows with the intensity and consequences of all other problems surrounding young people today. I wholeheartedly support efforts to abolish these senseless, demeaning acts.""  - 16 year-old girl from USA

""I am now home schooled because i was so badly harassed for being bisexual I'm dealing with my problems now but it still sucks that i can't go to a normal high school because of my sexual orientation the worst part is that i would actually convenience myself that these people were right and it got to me so bad that i was 50 one 50ed for cutting my wrist i know now that there comments don't and didn't matter and i wish someone would have told me that a long time ago.""  - 18 year-old girl from USA

""My daughter was devastated to discover a website called the I hate....(her name ) website on Bebo. It took us 5 months for Bebo to acknowledge that the site was willful bullying because they have so many sites. As it was an overseas site her education dept. in Qld stated they could not order it to be removed. The contents were so disgusting that when Bebo kept asking for more details we pasted the entire webpage and sent it, within 28 hrs. it was removed. Why doesn't Bebo screen the contents of each page? Because there are too many, thus the bullies have found the perfect way to bully until someone dies over this (suicide or murder as my daughter wanted to do) then there'll be an enquiry! Why have these free websites anyway? What moral, ethical and uplifting purpose do they serve?""  - Adult woman from USA

""I never realized how dangerous MySpace could be...It was foolish of me to put that suggestive picture of me in my bikini up. One day a guy sent me a message saying that he wanted to "do it" with me, and if I didn't he would tell everyone at school that I'm a little whore...I called the police after crying all day and talking to my parents.""  - 15 year-old girl from Canada

""I use to be cyber bullied; it makes you feel cared and vulnerable. I didn't like the feeling at all. The girl that was doing it got all of her friends to gang up on me and harassed me at school and posted embarrassing pictures of me online. I believe children chose to cyber bully because you aren't really talking to the person, you are writing. It isn't as scary to write something and not to look at them. I believe cyber bullying should be stopped before it led to scary situations than the ones that we've heard of.""  - 18+ year-old girl from USA

""I'm Nicole I'm in 1st year / 10 grade i get bullied by these girls at school they found out my msn and bullied me every time i block them they found new ways to bully me one day i told someone and it changed everything the girls can't go on the computer anymore and I'm so happy that i told.""  - 14 year-old girl from USA

""My daughter was informed that a website was developed about her. When we visited this awful site, I sent her out of the room and read all the horrible comments and untrue stories they had made-up about her. She is ten years old and a sweet person with a big heart. She is trying not to let this bother her, but honestly how does one do that? It is difficult for me to understand how someone could be so hurtful. Why would you spend the time to create an entire webpage full of ugly things to hurt someone?""  - Adult woman from USA

""My friend started bullying me online ever since the summer had begun. She'd been calling me an ADD freak, sped ("special ed" for short), lesbian, and gave me credit for writing the worst songs ever made. She said she rocked, she was so good, and I was so terrible at guitar. Now the upcoming party on my schedule, might give me a chance to grab a microphone and give away the horrible secret of this girl.""  - 13 year-old girl from CA

""October 9, 2006 my 17-year old niece, Rachael Neblett, took her own life after being bullied and stalked on MySpace. Six months after her death, Rachael's close friend, Kristin Settles, also committed suicide from depression. So, in an indirect way the bully cause two teenage deaths and destroyed two families. The families, along with community members in Mt Washington, KY have created a non-profit organization to spread awareness of cyber bulling and suicide. Our website is www.makeadifferenceforkids.org""  - Father of 17 year-old girl from Mt. Washington, KY

""Whenever I speak my mind on the internet I am bullied for it. I have many hobbies that I like to share and I am put down for them. It makes me want to throw those hobbies away because it has been happening ever since I started posting my work on the internet. I get bullied for the way I look and for what I like to do. Just because I am not as good as some people out there at my hobby doesn't mean you have to bug me about it until I give up.""  - 22 year-old girl from Canada

""Being bullied, whether in person or online, can make you feel horrible. I know it made me feel terrible. It lowered my self-esteem, and I can still remember the painful words that were said to me. Personally, I don't know if I'll ever recover from the emotional blows. Other times, I would just become a target for speaking my mind, and receive instant messages with nasty comments. For a long time, I've believed that there's some good in everyone, but now I am not so sure.""  - 18 year-old girl from USA

""Well i was talking on MSN on time this girl msn me saying that I'm gay, ugly and worthless. That made me feel so horrible inside....like I'm actually worthless. But i talked to my mum about and she made me feel happy.""  - 14 year-old boy from New Zealand

""This one guy in my school was bothering me, it involved blackmail (once using the private messaging system in an MMORPG), extortion, threats, name calling, slander, and many other things.""  - 15 year-old boy from USA

""I was good friends with a boy before i moved, once i started to email him he began to be very cruel and i cried a lot because we were really close before i left ... i gathered up the courage to tell him how he made me feel and his response was that because he couldn't see me he felt more at ease saying what he really felt - let me tell everyone out there that in the outside world we don't sat things for a reason, people's feelings. If you can't say it to my face don't say it at all.""  - 14 year-old girl from USA

""I used to be best friends with these two girls. Let's call them B and C. One day, B emailed me and said to check out this cool website. I went on and found that it was all about me. It said that I was a loser, a bad friend, an idiot and a backstabber. When I emailed B back she started saying that she didn't write that, it was all C but that it was funny and all so true. I then emailed C and she said it was all B. At that point, I just said "Forget it" and I stopped hanging out with them. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.""  - 16 year-old girl from USA

""I am a 12 year old boy from Canada being bullied it makes me feel really sad and mad they call me names I need help I don't know what to do any more.""  - 12 year-old boy from Canada

""One person has been harassing me on my aim instant messages and she has been using seven different screen name I blocked all of them and she always kept put new screen name to aim me.... she even harassed on my daughter (12 years old) for no reason... What do I do? Should I report cop about that?""  - Adult woman from USA

""A kid was sending my son emails on MySpace and saying that we were going to kill u and they kept doing then someone broke in to our house but it was one of Billys friends.""  - 13 year-old boy from USA

""I have never been harassed but I'm scared it's going to happen...i heard that people get their pictures taken and videos are being made when you are changing in the locker room when you don't know it and I'm kind of paranoiac but that so now i go and change in the bathroom stalls. I hope I'm not going to get my picture taken when i don't know it...signed unknown from Cali...""  - 15 year-old girl from CA

""Hi i have been teased and gossiped about my weight and face and its really sad Because the Girls who bully me because they are jealous""  - 13 year-old girl from USA

""Yes, i am a mother of a 21 yr. Old daughter, who has 2 beautiful baby boys and a boyfriend. The oldest boy's dad is crazy and has been sending text containing verbal harm messages and even a text holding a gun and a message to the boyfriend and just wanted to know what we should do. i worry about the babies""  - 21 year-old girl from USA

""I got bullied for being popular. you wouldn't think it would happen and neither did i, but i got targeted for having boyfriends other girls wanted and for going out with guys other guys were jealous of. People disliked me because i was happy with myself. Looking back i guess they wanted the self-confidence i HAD. it hurt but i lay low. i guess it got better, but of course there is the event of them never forgetting what they said about you in the first place, i still deal with that today.""  - 14 year-old girl from Australia

""Being bullied on websites on YouTube makes me sick since they can post rude comments and make hate videos to humiliate you there nothing but a bunch of stupid high school jocks.""  - 23 year-old girl from NM

""When i was in first grade there was this girl who bother me a lot she call me names and also tell me that my mom was fat and a slut it makes me feel bad and every time she told me that i cry and the kids laugh at me." "  - 14 year-old girl from Middletown, NY

""I was talking to this girl on msn, we never met before but my cousin knew her. She started bullying me and saying I'm a spoilt brat, i need a new life, and my life is soooo miserable. I started to say things back to her, it really did NOT help. I'm not that strong in religion, so she started to say I'm going to go to hell and i will live an even horrible life if i don't believe in god. She was saying more stuff to me that i don't even think I should put down. It lowered my self-esteem, i couldn't stop think about it. I don't think i should have said anything back, it just made thing worse... But it is tempting to say something back. I suggest you block them straight away, even if you do really like them, because they will just do it again and again and again.""  - 11 year-old boy from Australia

""Well once i was on MySpace and this kid started saying bad words and he said that he was going to kill me i was scared.""  - 12 year-old girl from Goshen, IN

""My old friend KC cyber bullied me all the time she would cuss me out and say really hurtful thing one day she texted me and said she was going to tell everyone my secret i was scared outta my mind she was going to tell my friends i was on medication for HIV then i told my mom about it and she told her mom and she told me that she would never do it again but we were never friends again.""  - 15 year-old girl from Daytona Beach, FL

""My ex-friend was telling everyone online that i was a fag and said that i didn't deserve to live everyone made fun of me and wanted to kill myself it hurt so bad but i switched schools last year and gotten better.""  - 17 year-old boy from NY

""I think everyone has cyber bullied, with or without realizing. And that is okay...if it doesn't go too far and you learn from your mistakes. Well in truth, I was a cyber-bully. I thought it was just fun and harmless since they never seemed to be hurt. After a while though, I felt guilty and I didn't know why. Then I heard of cyber bullying and I knew I was doing it. I quit then and there, with apologies and left those websites. Later on though, I became the victim. I was on a website, and some people I didn't know seemed to just choose me to target. They weren't really threatening, just annoying. After a while it got worse and worse and worse, and finally I snapped and got them reported to the websites moderators, and then I left that website as well. What I have learned? You can use the internet for good and bad, but the worse you use it for, the worse you will feel.""  - 12 year-old boy from USA

""I don't like any form of bullying at all. I am bullied every day at my school and I don't even get a break. A few days ago I even got a trash can put over my head and then they started kicking it. I HAVE BULLIED ALL OF MY LIFE AND NEVER AMITTED IT. That hurts me more than the bully's because that is the main reason my self-esteem is very low." "  - 13 year-old girl from TX

""I've had my Facebook for 3 or so years. i woke up one morning and someone had clearly hacked it. My name was whora cum-stain, and there were some very hurtful things posted about me on there. The internet is a clear target for someone to get hurt. It's clearly very easy to access your information. I don't have a Facebook anymore and I'm starting to appreciate not having one. I never want to go through that again.""  - 16 year-old girl from Canada

""I was bullied at school all those years ago. I still feel powerless and afraid of those people, I still feel they are better than me, have more than me etc. I still feel like I'm a loser who is a doormat. I hope I can stop feeling like this one day, but I see these people and I feel afraid again.""  - 41 year-old man from Australia

""This happened a few months ago maybe early September. A friend of mine slept over my house and asked to use my cell phone. I gave it to her and she began texting someone. I took back my phone and began texting whoever it was thinking it was a guy. But no it was some girl. We began fighting through texts and she began calling me some nasty names. I felt so horrible i wanted to kill myself after what the girl said to me.""  - 13 year-old girl from PA

""Well i was best best friends with this girl and i never knew that she was bullying my other friends so i always hung around her and i had no idea what was going on behind the scenes and if my friends told me what was happening i would just tell them she doesn't do that she's nice then a few months later everyone got really mad at me and i was so sad then she ganged up on me and was hurting me in horrible ways i can't count how many times i cried, after i realized what was happening my friends stopped being mean to me but that ex-friend is still horrible and i always felt like saying something mean to her but my mum always said "write it and delete it " so i didn't ever send anything bad to her but she sends me nasty Emails, I have told lots of teachers but because she always acts like a goody-2-shoes they won't believe me and won't tell her this is wrong to be mean. So please everyone who has bullied think about this and what i have said.""  - 11 year-old girl from Australia

""My name is Donna Faye Witsell. My daughter is Hope Sterling Witsell. She of course as you already know made the BIG mistake of sending a nude photo of herself to a boy she liked and trusted. That was not the beginning of her being cyber bullied. There is much more to Hope's story than what has been public at this point. I appreciate what you are doing. If I can be of any help to you know that, I have a new mission for the rest of my life. That is to be Hope's Voice and do whatever I can to help others to know that there is Hope and suicide is NEVER the answer.""  - Parent of 13 year-old girl from FL

""About two years ago, I was cyber bullied. Former friends of mine posted hate blogs, and most recently I found a YouTube video of them burning my picture with the theme song of I hope you die. The funny thing is the video was posted nearly two years ago. The scary thing is, even though I survived it. I pray that my college professors will not look up my name. If they do they will find it. To me this is a serious concept. I flirted with the idea of taking my own life during the time. That's the thing. Information spreads fast. With me it was no different. I was being attacked in my own living room.""  - 16 year-old bo from USA

""I get a haircut. And I'm a cheerleader and i get lots of layers, i tease them and i thought that they looked really cool. The next day i go to school wearing skinny jeans and neon stuff you know, the works. About 3 days later, i get an email witch is making me want to die. It says quote, That doesn't mean cut yourself because of your pathetic ugliness. It means stop and be your old seventh grade self, not some raging popularity whore you think people like. I hate myself. i don't know how this happened. This isn't making any sense. I don't get how this happened; i don't even know this person. Now everyone hates me. I never did anything for this to happen. I just want to die. After hearing how ugly and stupid i am i never want to do anything anymore. I have no confidence and i have been broken down from head to toe.""  - 13 year-old girl from MN

""Well I've noticed that this kind of thing doesn't get that much notice it's sad. As of right now i am thinking about killing myself i created a twitter account and at first everything was fine until i ran across some people who don't like girls who consider themselves "Barbie's" at the time i didn't but they started using my @ name in everything saying that I was ugly and a lot of mean things i ended up blocking them and reporting them but i don't think they take this type of thing serious enough. i have a few screen shots of the things these guys started saying about me that was pretty much the last straw.. I'm trying to hold on but I'm pretty much done with this life. Jesus is taking too long and I'm ready to leave. I just don't want to take my own life and end up in hell.""  - 17 year-old girl from Clinton, NC

""Our daughter has been bullied since the 4th grade. Back then the bullying included everything from giving her the 'stare' down', giving her the silent treatment, (she would often eat lunch alone and go an entire day at school with not one girl in her grade speaking to her), and magnets placed on her school locker saying 'cry baby' stay home etc. It has progressively gotten worse over the years, and although I am so proud that she wasn't afraid of sharing her pain with me from the beginning, as soon as I contacted the school for support the bullying got worse. Recently, it has involved cyber-bullying in horrible hurtful ways through text messaging. Again, I have contacted the school because the text messages are being sent to other students about my daughter during the school day. I have asked to meet with the principal and have yet to have received a response. I also went on-line and pulled up the school policy manual. Sadly, it has not been updated since 2003. I think many school are at risk for potential serious lawsuits if they do not take this seriously, as my daughter is only one of thousands of young people who are being bullied. Has my daughter been affected by this? WITHOUT A DOUBT. She has been in therapy because like so many of you know and are aware; WORDS do affect people and often in extremely severe ways. Not everyone can 'brush it off' and move on, and they shouldn't have to. I know firsthand that if an anti-bullying committee would ever to be set up at this school, the girls doing the cyber-bullying would be sitting in the front row. I say these sarcastically because the one's doing the bullying are blindly loved by teachers who don't have a clue what is going on. Having procedures and punishments in school for using a cell phone or computer to bully other students should not be an option to school administrators, it should be required. I strongly think though in this small state that often is so slow in everything...that it sadly will take a suicide for something positive to happen.""  - Parent of 17 year-old girl from ND

""You people that are being bullied need to stop listening to other people i truly think it's not rite and the bullies need to stop... Because just in case they haven't notice there has been a major increase of teens suiciding them self's... It breaks my heart when i here that teens or even adults are suiciding them self's because, they are getting made fun of or are getting picked on whatever the reason it breaks my heart when i here that people have killed themselves because of it. Also because of the bulling people have gone to the extreme they have gone and killed people at their school like for example the columbine high school massacre... that occurred in 1998 i believe it was these 2 students that got picked on and they took matters the wrong way. Well you guys can research it if you guys are interested i recommend you guys do especially those bullies out there to see what that can cause people to do. But i believe that these two boys were crying out for help but no one would listen. Well there's much more i have to say but don't want to write a whole page on here but if you guys feel the need to talk to someone here's my email address we all have things we need to let go. It can be about anything problems with family anything I'm a person that is here to listen and help you" "  - 16 year-old girl from Corcoran, CA

""When i was in high school, i went through an extremely rough time. When i first arrived to high school on the first day of grade 8 i was excited, nervous and scared (in the end, i was scared for all the right reasons). My friends from primary school said that i would hang out with them on the first day. However when push came to shove, the girls that were so called my friends, found another group of girls on the first day to hang out with, and i was left with nobody. Just me, all alone on the first day of high school. I met up with a girl called Shannon* on that first day as she was in my home room class. She was nice and invited me to hang out with her and her group. Little did i know what i was getting myself into? Weeks went by and the girls were discussing topics i had not even discussed with my parents before.. Sex, boys (the things i just was not into at the time. Peer pressure got the better of me. They were all teasing me because i had not had sex and i didn't have my period. I wasn't classified as one of them, because i didn't have my period. I felt left out. So i pretended to have my period so the teasing stopped. That weekend i was invited out to a party, and i begged my parents to let me go, because i was struggling to make friends. "Yes as long as your home by ten". My heart raced with excitement. I met Shannon and the girls at this person place and i was amazed to see things i had never even imagined. Drugs, sex and a whole lot of craziness." Try some pot" Shannon said. "No thanks, not really interested". She punched me in the face, a range of anger bursted out of her. "Try it, or u mas well leave". (If i had known then what i know now, i would have just left. I tried it and the effects were that bad i was taken to hospital. Shannon had punched me so hard across the face, i had internal bleeding to my brain and the effects of the pot made me out of control. These girls made me cut my hair, try drugs, drink excessively and have sex early in life- just so i could be accepted. Girls, and boys, DONT FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO BE ACCEPTED WITHIN A GROUP, BE YOURSELF AND DO NOT LET PEER PRESSURE GET THE BETTER OF YOU. That is my story, and i am just hoping somebody out there can read this, and find that you don't have to do everything to suit everybody else. Be true to yourself.""  - 17 year-old girl from Australia

""I had a huge crush on this really popular guy. Shy, plump girl with glasses and acne. I started to contact him through AIM hoping for a magical ending. Then later I talked to his friends and to make a long story very short. I was harassed and teased through Facebook and AIM, told I was ugly, fat, no guy would ever like me, that I was a female dog, to go cut myself, and even received death threats. Granted, I reacted and said things I would never usually say, but since that year I always think a part of me has died and I will never be as I was before. Did the school do anything to help? Did my parents understand that Facebook was my connection to the rest of the school? An addiction? It's so stupid, as I look back on it, and I know I made mistakes, but no one deserves to be verbally and mentally abused via the internet or anywhere else.""  - 15 year-old girl from USA

""So it all started in the middle of my 8th grade year and everything seemed like it was going great. I met some friends from my dad's neighborhood and became really close friends with these boys. Some of my friends also began talking to them and we all became really good friends. On day at school one of my close friends came up to me and ask if the rumor about me was true? I told her i didn't know what she was talking about. She explained to me that the there was a rumor going around about me that I put peanut butter on my private parts and my dog licked it off. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever heard and I couldn't even bare the tears that were running down my face. That entire day people kept calling me "peanut butter girl" and asking if it was true. People even threw peanut butter crackers at my lunch table. That year was probably the worst and I cried most of that year. I didn't tell my parents at first because I was embarrassed and thought it would just blow over and everything would be fine next year at high school. Well I was wrong it was stuck with me for all 3 years of high school and it is just never ending. Yeah sure it has died down and people have forgotten about it but there are just some people who will never let it go. I am now in my 3 year of high school and it is half way over and people still tend to bring it up once in a while. And it has gotten to a point where there is nothing I can do about it and i just try to ignore them. I am almost finished with high school and hopefully it won't follow me to college. If anything like this happens to you don't be afraid to tell someone because hopefully you will be able to catch the person who started it. But that's the thing about cyber bullying no one really knows that started it. That's my story and it is horrifying and terrible but i have gotten through it and hopefully it will die down and people will be able to grow up.""  - 16 year-old girl from Ohio

""I had this boy who used to like me. But I never liked him. So one day I asked my friend to help get him off my back. We invited him into this chat room and started talking about him. And at first he was defensive, then angry, then sad. He soon logged off. A few months later I learned about the pain of cyber bullying...and he admitted that he was so depressed about that day that he thought on suicide.""  - 16 year-old girl from IL

""Miley a girl at my school. Posted something on MySpace that said "I'm going to bring a knife to school and kill Sarah" Later on that say the girl got arrested. She really brought a knife to school! A few days before this happened Miley and Sarah got into a fight and Sarah one. Throughout the day Sarah bragged about it. Then it lead to the comment on MySpace. Sarah would have died if someone hadn't stepped up! ALWAYS TELL SOMEONE IF YOU ARE BEING CYBER BULLIED! You might end up committing suicide! THESE NAME WERE NOT REAL I MADE THEM UP SO INFORMATION WOULDN'T GET PUTOUT!""  - 11 year-old girl from USA

""THERE WAS A PROBLEM WITH A GIRL STEALING MY iPod AND MY DAD DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ONCE I GOT THE iPod BACK THE GIRL GOT ME AFTER SKOOL THE BULLYING CONTINUES BUT I HOPE SOMTHING WIL BE DONE ABOUT IT ...THERE IS SOME CYBERBULLING INCLUDED.""  - 13 year-old girl from Orange County, CA

""Funny how sometimes you think the worse bullies are girls. Try guys. I spent my birthday with 3 of my guy-friends. All three of them are against me. I can't anything without being told I'm stupid, etc. I can respond sarcastically, I can't respond playfully, I can't respond seriously. Everything is open for interpretation and I'll always look bad, no matter what.""  - 17 year-old boy from Quebec

""When i first joined Facebook i went on an app called bathroom wall... i honestly thought it was just a place where people talked about random stuff, but boy was i wrong. It turns out it is a app designed specifically for gossip. I figured that out when i went on once and there was a chat group about me. it said up to 30 mean and hateful things, and at some points i just cried and cried, wondering what in the world i had ever done. the worst part was that it was all from " anonymous" senders. I remember quite clearly feeling horribly alone and i hope it'll never happen again.""  - 12 year-old girl from Canada

""When i first got Facebook my friend helped me get it . She already had it and told me a good password i used it. Big mistake. The first year of middle school. She told the guy she liked my password and he went on my Facebook and wrote things like "I'm lesbian" or " I like Robert Pattinson" and more hurtful things my mom checked my profile and saw someone wrote that, knowing that i would never would do that she told me and i changed my password and about a week later i found out it was her. The she convinced my other friend that they weren't going to be my friend anymore. They turned almost everyone against me and i am having a hard time.""  - 11 year-old girl from Canada

""This guy is really freaking me out; he says he wants to have sex with me on yahoo messenger. He keeps talking to me and i keep telling him to leave me alone. He goes to the other school, but my ex-friend is really mean and she told him where i live. I'm really scared that he is going to try to rape me now that he knows where I live. He really scares me on yahoo messenger and he won't leave me alone.""  - 15 year-old girl from USA

""There was this girl who would try and ruin my life everyday online. By creating a fake account and make up some horrible lies about me. We had been best friends for years until she got really jealous and back stabbed me. I told my parents about it right away and I had a little help from my sister and got her to leave me alone by having a my fake lawyer call her and tell her that she could really go to jail. Then she stopped doing it.""  - 17 year-old girl from ME

""Recently, I was very much hurt by cyberbullying. This guy I know, let's call him Tom, started to IM me. He said that his friend was over, let's call him Joe. And then, randomly, Joe starts insulting me. He calls me a loser and that I look like a potato. He curses and I feel like crying. The hurt was so real that I felt like throwing up. I hate IMing people now because I am scared of this kind of hurt.""  - 12 year-old girl from NY

""Well, I myself was never cyber-bullied, but I know that in most cases, it's from someone you know in either school or public. Also, I know that most kids online aren't even old enough to be on.""  - 14 year-old girl from PA

""My daughter was informed that a website was developed about her. When we visited this awful site, I sent her out of the room and read all the horrible comments and untrue stories they had made-up about her. She is ten years old and a sweet person with a big heart. She is trying not to let this bother her, but honestly how does one do that? It is difficlut for me to understand how someone could be so hurtful. Why would you spend the time to create an entire webpage full of ugly things to hurt someone?""  - Woman from unknown location

""Whenever I speak my mind on the internet I am bullied for it. I have many hobbies that I like to share and I am put down for them. It makes me want to throw those hobbies away because it has been happening ever since I started posting my work on the internet. I get bullied for the way I look and for what I like to do. Just because I am not as good as some people out there at my hobby doesn't mean you have to bug me about it until I give up." "  - 22 year-old girl from Canada

""Well I was talking on MSN one time...this girl messaged me saying that I'm gay, ugly and worthless. That made me feel so horrible inside....like I'm actually worthless." "  - Girl from New Zealand

""Being bullied, whether in person or online, can make you feel horrible. I know it made me feel terrible. It lowered my self-esteem, and I can still remember the painful words that were said to me. Personally, I don't know if I'll ever recover from the emotional blows. Other times, I would just become a target for speaking my mind, and receive instant messages with nasty comments. For a long time, I've believed that there's some good in everyone, but now I am not so sure.""  - 18 year-old girl from the Northwest

""I signed her up for a bunch of dating services and used my cell phone to take a picture of her in class and posted it on the web.""  - 16 year-old girl from NY

""When I was a little bit younger, me and my 10 year-old sister were bullied online. What had happened was the person who I thought was my best friend had lied and said they were not on a chat room. Well, she ended up giving our phone number to a guy who was way older than us and he called our house...and it was scary because he called our house asking for my sister.""  - 17 year-old girl from PA

""I was brought out for being a bisexual and made fun of, being told that I'm against God's will and am going to hell.""  - 17 year-old boy from Canada

""Someone sent me numerous emails with like two words in the email like 'your gay' 'your dumb' and that kind of stuff. When I am bullied (which is infrequently) I am called homosexual or gay so I'm used to it but it still hurts.""  - 14 year-old boy from Canada

""Sometimes I just feel ignored by my friends on chats. I'm sure it's just that they've got other people to talk to, and I totally understand that. It just makes me feel weird sometimes, but I'm a very talkative person, so that's probably why I felt a little sad. I'm passive though, so I probably won't say anything about it.""  - 15 year-old boy from NM

""This girl I used to have a crush on but later realized I didn't like her said some very rude things about me. She made a list of the bad things about me and the good things about her, and put it on her Livejournal (online journal) for me to see. She had moved away, so our only means of communication was computer. We argued because I am straight edge and she's does drugs. She said that all these people hated me and that I should do drugs. She said that because I once told her I felt sorry for her (she had a lot of family problems and I knew drugs weren't the answer) and she took it the wrong way.""  - 16 year-old boy from CA

""I was talking to someone in a chatroom and they started telling me things. Like was I really that stupid and making fun of me. I told them privately to please stop and they wouldn't. They then told me they were going to harm me and I was scared because I don't know how but they knew where I lived. I am scared sometimes. One time someone made me feel so bad that I wanted to kill myself because I believe those things that they said. My friends calmed me down and told me not to do anything dumb. I dislike it when people spread rumors online about you and it has happened to mostly everyone who chats.""  - 17 year-old boy from CA

""I have never been a victim of being bullied online, but I once had a friend who was being bullied online. He was so angry and sad and he had every right to be. The kid couldn't even go online without being bombarded with degrading messages. He didn't want to read e-mails because of all the degrading ones.""  - 

""One of my friends started hassling me on MSN messenger. She was sending me nasty messages and text messages and this carried on at school. I told my parents, my friends, and a teacher. She was spoken to a few times but it still carries on a bit now but not as bad because I have blocked her online. This really affected me at home and at school. I couldn't concentrate on school work and I was always upset and down. Now I just ignore it and get on with it. I have plenty more friends and I don't need her anymore. Maybe one day she will give up and grow up.""  - 15 year-old girl from Canada

""Random people I've never met before will flame my friends and I (that is, send is nasty, disrespectful messages) through the various different forms of online communication simply because they disagree with something I/we like (such as a webpage we made in honor of say... a certain character, or something).""  - 15 year-old girl from AZ

""I think that it is not right and that people need to have respect for other people as in the saying treat others how you would like to be treated. The people that do bully people just want to show of how much bigger and cooler they think they are. Bullying isn't just threatening or any thing else, it is spreading rumors and like sending mean messages with threats in them. If that does happen you should either block their email address, save them and call a local police to come and read it (they could serve time for hate mail). But one of the things you should not do is RESPOND TO THE HATE MAIL!""  - 11 year-old girl from TN

""Most people say it isn't bullying if you're not talking to them but it still is. It is annoying when people don't leave you alone or tease you. I think bullying is wrong because sometimes people get so down they think about suicide and some actually commit suicide.""  - 12 year-old girl from UK

""People told me I was retarded, that I didn't fit in. This girl said that I was bitch and say that she wished I was dead. I never did anything to her but I got really upset and depressed and started cutting myself and started seriously considering suicide. I just ignored them but it still really hurt.""  - 13 year-old girl from Australia

""I was online in a chatroom and this guy was sexually harassing me by saying stuff to me and wouldn't leave me alone. I had to exit the chat room and my email.""  - 14 year-old girl from Canada

""It happened on MSN Messenger about a year ago...A girl threatened to kill me...She said she knew my family and where I lived...She'd come at 1 o'clock to kill me...Then she logged off...I called my mum and told her, she said I should try to find out who if was, if it continued we'd call the police. I sent an email to the girl, telling her I'd call the police. She replied and said she was sorry and she was only kidding. In front of her email address, there was her name! It was a girl in my class.""  - 13 year-old girl outside of USA

""The last time I was bullied online, I was on MSN (instant messaging) talking to some people from school. Someone from my class who doesn't like me started talking sh** about me to everyone else. And a bunch of people that she had been talking to came and started harassing me. They were talking about how I had bad grades in math and how I bite my fingernails and other stupid stuff like that. They still say stuff about me at school and make things up about me and tell everyone.""  - 13 year-old girl from Canada

""I was talking to a friend and she kept calling me fat and ugly and I couldn't stand it anymore so I blocked her but she kept coming up on different screen names calling me the same thing so I just signed off for two days.""  - 13 year-old from CA

""I just tried to ignore her, but her e-mails kept getting even more threatening so I finally turned her into a teacher. I showed her all the e-mails and she was given a months detention.""  - 13 year-old girl from the USA

""I was talking to 2 girls who used to be my friends we where talking about me because that's what they both started on about then they started saying things about me then went on a chat I was also talking on and started saying horrible things about me they used my screen name and everything. They even told one of my guy friends that I liked him since the day we met and he stopped talking to me I was both depressed and angry. I wanted to die. I wanted to leave everything behind. I blocked them and signed off the internet.""  - 13 year-old girl from WV

""It was on a message/bulletin board where people chat. I had said something about my opinion and people thought I was stupid and immature. Also a photo of myself was somehow posted on there and there was severe tormenting and teasing by people of all ages. It was probably for fun but it made me feel terrible.""  - 13 year-old girl from UK

""Kids seem to like to use IM to say swears and words they would never usually say out loud.""  - 13 year-old girl from MA

""I was surfing the Internet and decided to look at my email. Kristina, a friend from school, said in a e-mail tomorrow watch your back we are coming for you. It made me feel so bad i started to cry. Nobody likes me.""  - 11 year-old girl from CA

""Sometimes I get insulted for no reason because i said my mind so then I get into a fight and feel good when i convince the person/change their perspective/prove I'm right because it shows I have an impact on people. Once I got into a huge fight because these girls were bullying one of my friends and I tried to tell them to stop resulting in them insulting me very badly but me getting insulting them all the same. They made threats to beat her up, what else could I do? They printed out what I said but not what they said and showed the principal. I got in a lot of trouble but talked my way out of it telling the TRUTH (something THEY didn't do) and got let off with a warning.""  - 15 year old girl from Canada

""Well the only reason I bullied is because the same person I was doing it to, did it to me like a week before. It wasn't the right thing to do but at the time it felt like I was getting revenge.""  - 15 year old boy from USA

""However, I feel powerless to do anything because I am scared for my own safety.""  - 12 year old girl from UK

""It's one thing when you get made fun of at school, but to be bullied in your own home via your computer is a disgusting thing for someone to do and I think anyone who gets kicks out of it is disgusting. It makes me feel badly about myself. It makes me wonder how people can be so rude and disrespectful of others and makes me lose faith in the human race. It decreases my self esteem and I often wonder what I did to make someone treat me that way.""  - 16 year old girl from AL

""The bullying and torment on [AOL Instant Messenger] and on my websites made me feel absolutely terrible.""  - 9th grader from SC

""When I still had AOL, this one guy asked me how I looked and wanted to know about my body and stuff and I just flat out told him leave me alone!!! I would "have reported him but AOL wouldn't even let me block him without parental permission so he bullied me and stuff online when ever I got on. I felt horrible. That was over four years ago and I still remember every thing he said to me. Every exact word. I felt awful. I hated it. I wanted to tell my parents but I was afraid that they would never let me chat again and I know that's how a lot of other kids feel. It is a bad feeling knowing that people that don't know you are judging you.""  - 13 year old gril from VA

""One of my friends started hassling me on msn messenger; she was sending me nasty messages and text messages and this carried on at school. I told my parents, my friends, and a teacher. she was spoken to a few times but it still carries on a bit now but not as bad because i have blocked her online. This really affected me at home and at school; I couldn't concentrate on school work and I was always upset and down now I just ignore it and get on with it, I have plenty more friends and i don't need her anymore. Maybe one day she will give up and grow up.""  - 15 year old girl from UK

""The internet is not a place to harass others or hurt them. The internet is supposed to be a place that is safe and fun for people, not a place to be criticized or harassed. I used to be bullied at school frequently and I was sometimes hurt so badly that I had to fake sick at school just so I could go home. One girl actually told me she would come and murder my parents and kill me personally. She made me cry so hard that I threw up. So, I know firsthand what its like to be bullied beyond your imagination.""  - 12 year old girl from MI

""I was online in a chat room and this guy was sexually harassing me by saying stuff to me and wouldn't leave me alone. i had to exit the chat room and my email.""  - 14 year old girl from Canada

""It makes me feel bad and rather depressed. Like I don't want to be a part of this world any more.""  - 14 year old girl from NY

""Some girl in my class emailed me calling me a freak and a loser. It made me feel really depressed because I had other things going on too at that time. I told my dad and he called her up and spoke to her. He told her that i didn't read it yet, that it would crush me and that she should think before she does anything like that again. Well, she never did it again so i guess it worked.""  - 15 year old girl from NY

""But I know because I have myself been bullied. It lowers my self-esteem. It makes me feel really crappy. It makes me walk around the rest of the day feeling worthless, like no one cares. It makes me very, very depressed.""  - 12 year old girl from MA

""I still cry when I think of what she said. After awhile you start believing all of the things people tell you that aren't true. When I look in the mirror I wonder if I'm fat (I'm not) after what my ex-friend said.""  - 14 year old girl from IL

""Being bullied besides over the internet is worse. It's torment and hurts. They say "sticks and stones may break my bones,but words will never hurt me." That quote is a lie and I don't believe in it. Sticks and stones may cause nasty cuts and scars, but those cuts and scars will heal. Insultive words hurt and sometimes take forever to heal.""  - 14 year old girl from NJ

""My friend's friend started to make fun of my ethnic background, so I told him to stop disrespecting me. He ignored my plead and started to get even more verbally abusive. I ignored him but he started talking to me saying that I shouldn't f***k with him because he would beat my a** down in front of his friends.""  - 15 year old boy from NJ

""I think most people who bully online just do it to act tough but since they're not saying it to someone's face makes them seem more of a wimp.""  - 15 year old girl from NY

""I had recently picked on a old friend of mine, for what I will not reveal because it was unusually cruel, however she had done something to me that was equally as wrong or if not worse. I was disappointed in her, and for that I decided not to be a friend any longer and spread her deepest secrets to everyone, which made her look like a complete fool. I felt somewhat guilty because I had known her for years, at the same time it was a pay back and I think she learned from it some when it comes to attempting to mess around with me.""  - 17 year old girl from Pennsylvania

""Being bullied makes me feel really bad, and I often get depressed later at home. I would also plot revenge and privately express my 'hatred' towards the bully, but I doubt I would really do anything about it...I don't usually go to adults to 'tattle' on people, even though I know it's not tattling, it's real.""  - 12 year old girl from CA

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• A Majority of Teens Have Experienced Some Form of Cyberbullying

59% of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online, and a similar share says it’s a major problem for people their age. At the same time, teens mostly think teachers, social media companies and politicians are failing at addressing this issue.

Table of contents.

• Acknowledgments
• Methodology
• Appendix A: Detailed tables

For the latest survey data on teens and cyberbullying, see “ Teens and Cyberbullying 2022 .”

Name-calling and rumor-spreading have long been an unpleasant and challenging aspect of adolescent life. But the proliferation of smartphones and the rise of social media has transformed where, when and how bullying takes place. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that 59% of U.S. teens have personally experienced at least one of six types of abusive online behaviors. 1

The most common type of harassment youth encounter online is name-calling. Some 42% of teens say they have been called offensive names online or via their cellphone. Additionally, about a third (32%) of teens say someone has spread false rumors about them on the internet, while smaller shares have had someone other than a parent constantly ask where they are, who they’re with or what they’re doing (21%) or have been the target of physical threats online (16%).

While texting and digital messaging are a central way teens build and maintain relationships, this level of connectivity may lead to potentially troubling and nonconsensual exchanges. One-quarter of teens say they have been sent explicit images they didn’t ask for, while 7% say someone has shared explicit images of them without their consent. These experiences are particularly concerning to parents. Fully 57% of parents of teens say they worry about their teen receiving or sending explicit images, including about one-quarter who say this worries them a lot, according to a separate Center survey of parents.

The vast majority of teens (90% in this case) believe online harassment is a problem that affects people their age, and 63% say this is a major problem. But majorities of young people think key groups, such as teachers, social media companies and politicians are failing at tackling this issue. By contrast, teens have a more positive assessment of the way parents are addressing cyberbullying.

These are some of the key findings from the Center’s surveys of 743 teens and 1,058 parents living in the U.S. conducted March 7 to April 10, 2018. Throughout the report, “teens” refers to those ages 13 to 17, and “parents of teens” are those who are the parent or guardian of someone in that age range.

Similar shares of boys and girls have been harassed online – but girls are more likely to be the targets of online rumor-spreading or nonconsensual explicit messages

When it comes to the overall findings on the six experiences measured in this survey, teenage boys and girls are equally likely to experience cyberbullying. However, there are some differences in the specific types of harassment they encounter.

Overall, 60% of girls and 59% of boys have experienced at least one of six abusive online behaviors. While similar shares of boys and girls have encountered abuse, such as name-calling or physical threats online, other forms of cyberbullying are more prevalent among girls. Some 39% of girls say someone has spread false rumors about them online, compared with 26% of boys who say this.

Girls also are more likely than boys to report being the recipient of explicit images they did not ask for (29% vs. 20%). And being the target of these types of messages is an especially common experience for older girls: 35% of girls ages 15 to 17 say they have received unwanted explicit images, compared with about one-in-five boys in this age range and younger teens of both genders. 2

Online harassment does not necessarily begin and end with one specific behavior, and 40% of teens have experienced two or more of these actions. Girls are more likely than boys to have experienced several different forms of online bullying, however. Some 15% of teen girls have been the target of at least four of these online behaviors, compared with 6% of boys.

In addition to these gender differences, teens from lower-income families are more likely than those from higher-income families to encounter certain forms of online bullying. For example, 24% of teens whose household income is less than $30,000 a year say they have been the target of physical threats online, compared with 12% whose annual household income is $75,000 or more. However, teens’ experiences with these issues do not statistically differ by race or ethnicity, or by their parent’s level of educational attainment. (For details on experiences with online bullying by different demographic groups, see Appendix A .)

The likelihood of teens facing abusive behavior also varies by how often teens go online. Some 45% of teens say they are online almost constantly , and these constant users are more likely to face online harassment. Fully 67% of teens who are online almost constantly have been cyberbullied, compared with 53% of those who use the internet several times a day or less. These differences also extend to specific kinds of behaviors. For example, half of teens who are near-constant internet users say they have been called offensive names online, compared with about a third (36%) who use the internet less frequently.

A majority of teens think parents are doing a good job at addressing online harassment, but smaller shares think other groups are handling this issue effectively

Today, school officials, tech companies and lawmakers are looking for ways to combat cyberbullying. Some schools have implemented policies that punish students for harassing messages even when those exchanges occur off campus. Anti-bullying tools are being rolled out by social media companies, and several states have enacted laws prohibiting cyberbullying and other forms of electronic harassment. In light of these efforts, Pew Research Center asked young people to rate how key groups are responding to cyberbullying and found that teens generally are critical of the way this problem is being addressed.

Indeed, teens rate the anti-bullying efforts of five of the six groups measured in the survey more negatively than positively. Parents are the only group for which a majority of teens (59%) express a favorable view of their efforts.

Young people have an especially negative view of the way politicians are tackling the issue of cyberbullying – 79% of teens say elected officials are doing only a fair or poor job of addressing this problem. And smaller majorities have unfavorable views of how groups such as social media sites (66%), other users who witness harassment happening online (64%) or teachers (58%) are addressing harassment and cyberbullying.

Teens’ views on how well each of these groups is handling this issue vary little by their own personal experiences with cyberbullying – that is, bullied teens are no more critical than their non-bullied peers. And teens across various demographic groups tend to have a similar assessment of how these groups are addressing online harassment.

About six-in-ten parents worry about their own teen getting bullied online, but most are confident they can teach their teen about acceptable online behavior

Parents believe they can provide their teen with the appropriate advice to make good online decisions. Nine-in-ten parents say they are at least somewhat confident they can teach their teen how to engage in appropriate online behavior, including 45% who say they are very confident in their ability to do so.

But even as most parents are confident they can educate their child about proper online conduct, notable shares are concerned about the types of negative experiences their teen might encounter online. Roughly six-in-ten parents say they worry at least somewhat about their teen being harassed or bullied online (59%) or sending or receiving explicit images (57%). In each case, about one-in-four parents say they worry a lot about one of these things happening to their child.

These parental concerns tend to vary by race and ethnicity, as well as by a child’s gender. Among parents, whites and Hispanics are more likely than blacks to say they worry about their teen being cyberbullied. Hispanic parents also are more inclined than black parents to say they worry about their child exchanging explicit images. At the same time, parents of teen girls are somewhat more likely than those with a teenage boy to say they worry about their teen being bullied online (64% vs. 54%) or exchanging explicit images (64% vs. 51%). (For details on these parental concerns by demographic group, see Appendix A .)

• Pew Research Center measured cyberbullying by asking respondents if they had ever experienced any of six online behaviors. Respondents who selected yes to one or more of these questions are considered to be targets of cyberbullying in this study. Throughout the report the terms “cyberbullying” and “online harassment” are used interchangeably. ↩
• A 2017 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults also found age and gender differences in receiving nonconsensual explicit images; women ages 18 to 29 are especially likely to encounter this behavior. ↩

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Get advice and insight from other parents.

Many parents have dealt with cyberbullying in different forms — from child-on-child abuse to misogyny. Their experience has helped them tackle online bullying and support their children.

Below, they’ve shared their stories, how bullying impacted their children and what support they got to move forward.

Explore other parents' experiences with cyberbullying

Learn from other parents when it comes to tackling online bullying. Choose a parent below to learn more.

Nicola: My child was a cyberbully

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Experiences from real families

Nicola’s story: my child was a cyberbully.

No parent wants to think of their child bullying someone else online. However, young people who may have never bullied anyone face-to-face can get drawn into cyberbullying easily, sometimes without realising that’s what they’re doing.

See Nicola’s story and how she dealt with her child’s actions.

How to tackle bullying behaviours

If your child shows bullying behaviour against others online, this guidance can help.

Emma’s story: Child-on-child abuse

Child-on-child abuse can happen in person and online, but many parents aren’t aware of what it actually is. Mum, Emma, shares her experience of online child-on-child abuse and what parents can do to help keep their children safe.

Learn more about child-on-child abuse

Featuring advice from psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos, learn how to keep kids safe from abuse online.

Barney’s story: Misogyny in sport

Barney’s teenage daughter first encountered misogyny online in a thread about the England women’s football team. Here, Barney shares the steps he took to counter sexism-based bullying online with his child.

Understand online misogyny

More than telling a child misogyny is wrong, this guide provides insight into the reasons behind the behaviour.

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Meet real families featuring children of different ages as they talk about their online experiences with bullying and other issues.

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Cyber Harassment

After a student defames a middle school teacher on social media, the teacher confronts the student in class and posts a video of the confrontation online.

In many ways, social media platforms have created great benefits for our societies by expanding and diversifying the ways people communicate with each other, and yet these platforms also have the power to cause harm. Posting hurtful messages about other people is a form of harassment known as cyberbullying. Some acts of cyberbullying may not only be considered slanderous, but also lead to serious consequences. In 2010, Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi jumped to his death a few days after his roommate used a webcam to observe and tweet about Tyler’s sexual encounter with another man. Jane Clementi, Tyler’s mother, stated:

“In this digital world, we need to teach our youngsters that their actions have consequences, that their words have real power to hurt or to help. They must be encouraged to choose to build people up and not tear them down.”

In 2013, Idalia Hernández Ramos, a middle school teacher in Mexico, was a victim of cyber harassment. After discovering that one of her students tweeted that the teacher was a “bitch” and a “whore,” Hernández confronted the girl during a lesson on social media etiquette. Inquiring why the girl would post such hurtful messages that could harm the teacher’s reputation, the student meekly replied that she was upset at the time. The teacher responded that she was very upset by the student’s actions. Demanding a public apology in front of the class, Hernández stated that she would not allow “young brats” to call her those names. Hernández uploaded a video of this confrontation online, attracting much attention.

While Hernández was subject to cyber harassment, some felt she went too far by confronting the student in the classroom and posting the video for the public to see, raising concerns over the privacy and rights of the student. Sameer Hinduja, who writes for the Cyberbullying Research Center, notes, “We do need to remain gracious and understanding towards teens when they demonstrate immaturity.” Confronting instances of a teenager venting her anger may infringe upon her basic rights to freedom of speech and expression. Yet, as Hinduja explains, teacher and student were both perpetrators and victims of cyber harassment. All the concerns of both parties must be considered and, as Hinduja wrote, “The worth of one’s dignity should not be on a sliding scale depending on how old you are.”

Discussion Questions

1. In trying to teach the student a lesson about taking responsibility for her actions, did the teacher go too far and become a bully? Why or why not? Does she deserve to be fired for her actions?

2. What punishment does the student deserve? Why?

3. Who is the victim in this case? The teacher or the student? Was one victimized more than the other? Explain.

4. Do victims have the right to defend themselves against bullies? What if they go through the proper channels to report bullying and it doesn’t stop?

5. How should compassion play a role in judging other’s actions?

6. How are factors like age and gender used to “excuse” unethical behavior? (ie. “Boys will be boys” or “She’s too young/old to understand that what she did is wrong”) Can you think of any other factors that are sometimes used to excuse unethical behavior?

7. How is cyberbullying similar or different from face-to-face bullying? Is one more harmful than the other? Explain.

8. Do you know anyone who has been the victim of cyber-bullying? What types of harm did this person experience? Why or why not? Does she deserve to be fired for her actions?

Related Videos

Causing Harm

Causing harm explores the types of harm that may be caused to people or groups and the potential reasons we may have for justifying these harms.

Bibliography

Teacher suspended after giving student a twitter lesson http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/12/world/americas/mexico-teacher-twitter/index.html

Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Classroom http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2012/01/19/Pros-and-Cons-of-Social-Media-in-the-Classroom.aspx?Page=1

How to Use Twitter in the Classroom http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2011/06/23/how-to-use-twitter-in-the-classroom/

Twitter is Turning Into a Cyberbullying Playground http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/08/08/twitter-turning-cyberbullying-playground

Can Social Media and School Policies be “Friends”? http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/policy-priorities/vol17/num04/Can-Social-Media-and-School-Policies-be-%C2%A3Friends%C2%A3%C2%A2.aspx

What Are the Free Expression Rights of Students In Public Schools Under the First Amendment? http://www.firstamendmentschools.org/freedoms/faq.aspx?id=12991

Teacher Shames Student in Classroom After Student Bullies Teacher on Twitter http://cyberbullying.us/teacher-shames-student-in-classroom-after-student-bullies-teacher-on-twitter/

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• v.60(1); Jan-Mar 2018

Cyberbullying: A virtual offense with real consequences

T. s. sathyanarayana rao.

Department of Psychiatry, JSS Medical College, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Formerly JSS University, Mysore, Karnataka, India

Deepali Bansal

Suhas chandran.

Technology, as we know, is a double-edged sword, where the users are continuously balancing between the risks and opportunities it offers. It is no longer just a cliché: we really are all connected, 24/7, no matter where in the world, we are mere one click away from our families, co-workers, classmates, idols, mentors, neighbors, and even strangers. On one side, the Internet has made the world a much smaller place full of opportunities to thrive for people with minimal resources along with bringing awareness to important sociopolitical movements and acting as a platform for fundraising for many noble causes; on the other side, it has exposed vulnerable people to a deep dark world of web and bullying while sitting safely in the vicinity of their homes.

A popular report by a US market research company in 2015[ 1 ] suggests that, at the time, there were more mobile devices on the planet than people –8.6 billion devices versus 7.3 billion people. And by the end of 2018, the number of mobile devices in world will exceed 12 billion – an average of nearly 2 devices per user. This rapid rise of electronic-based communication during the past decade has dramatically changed the social interactions, especially among teenagers. Adolescents are moving from using the Internet as an “extra” in everyday communication to using it as the “primary” mode of communication. This shift from face-to-face communication to online communication has created many unique and potentially harmful dynamics for social relationships – one such dynamic has recently been explored in the literature as cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying is defined by Smith et al . as an “aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend himself or herself.”[ 2 ] Most definitions of bullying rely upon three criteria; intent to harm, imbalance of power, and repetition of the act. Cyberbullying also can happen accidentally. The impersonal nature of text messages, instant messages, and e-mails makes it very hard to detect the sender's tone – one person's joke could be another's hurtful insult. However, a repeated pattern is rarely accidental. In case of cyberbullying, this becomes relatively easy, where the power of one click is immense and increases the audience by thousands, thus increasing the humiliation and impact of bullying exponentially. The scope of cyberbullying is vast, in terms of means as well as content. It includes bullying through text messages, phone calls, e-mails, instant messengers, social media platforms, or in chat rooms. It varies from posting hurtful words, derogatory comments, posting fake information on public forums or blogs, hacking accounts for personal vendetta to rape or death threats. It can be as ruinous as revenge porn, which is posting sexually explicit images or videos of a person on the Internet, typically by a former sexual partner, without the consent of the subject and in order to cause them distress or embarrassment. The impact of such acts can be catastrophic, especially for young adults, who feel so embarrassed and humiliated that they cannot imagine surviving the next morning, and end up taking extreme steps which include harm to self and occasionally, others. It deeply reflects the real-world problems arising out of the virtual cyberspace. No longer limited to schoolyards or street corners, it has now moved to WhatsApp, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, etc., where online polls are conducted to bodyshame the victim and groups are made to spread false rumours or share morphed pictures and videos, to a rather vast audience with the power of the Internet, which would not have been so easily possible in the physical world otherwise. Cyberbullying also differs from traditional bullying in offering potential anonymity to the bully and difficulty in identifying the victim. This combined with the obvious lack of monitoring and regulation in cyberspace makes the issue more intricate and strenuous to address.

On the basis of their online behavior, people can be categorized as cyber victim, cyber bully, and cyber victim/bully. The possible adverse effects of cyberbullying can be physical, psychological, or in academic performance, and these are most pronounced for the cyber bully/victim category.[ 3 ] Higher rates of depression and anxiety are noted among cyber victims along with refusal to school and declining academic performance. These students are also found to be more prone to report headache, stomach ache, bed wetting, and various other psychosomatic complaints. The type of cyberbullying tends to differ among both genders; girls are more likely to post mean comments online, while boys are more likely to post hurtful pictures or videos online.[ 4 ] As postulated by the USA-based Cyberbullying Research Centre, there are many reasons as to why dysphoric outcomes of cyberbullying are different and potentially more than traditional bullying. For example, the computer-based messages are more permanent as compared to the verbal statements as they are preserved in websites, internet archives, search engine caches, and user devices; it is easier to make hurtful, embarrassing, or threatening statements on the Internet because of comparative difficulty in detecting and identifying the misbehavior and offending party, proving or verifying the act of wrongdoing, and imposing a meaningful sanction; victimization through the Internet is omnipresent beyond the school, playground, or neighborhood due to the ubiquity of computers and cell phones and the “always-connected” lives that adolescents in todays’ world lead; the youth is increasingly embracing new mediums and devices of communication, and thus the number of potential victims and offenders is rapidly growing.[ 5 ] The repercussions of virtual and seemingly not real harassment are very evidently seen in the real world, in our schools, and even in our homes, the place where the child is supposed to feel the most safe.

In the Indian context, year by year, due to increasing access to technology, inexpensive internet plans, and politicians vehemently pursuing and pushing the dream of “Digital India,” the risk of cyberbullying is alarming and its assessment and prevention become even more urgent. Now, the overwhelming majority of population has access to the Internet through a computer, a tablet, or mostly on a mobile device. The most vulnerable of this population are our children and teenagers, who are being catapulted into cyberspace before they are actually capable of making sense of it psychologically. The Global Youth Online Behaviour Survey conducted by Microsoft ranked India third in cyberbullying, with 53% of the respondents, mainly children admitting to have experienced online bullying, falling behind only China and Singapore.[ 6 ]

Children and adolescents are naturally curious and, more often than not, more competent with technology than adults. Most of these children exploring the Internet are not old enough to detect or understand the risks online as well as the consequences of their own behavior online. Despite minimum age requirements for joining popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, many children join these platforms by misrepresenting their age mainly because these do not have any stringent guidelines for the age limit of joining. According to Intel Security Teens, Tweens and Technology Study conducted over a period of 5 years in India, the results published in 2015 claim that 81% of the children aged 8 to 16 years are already active on social media. Nearly 77% of these children had a Facebook account before they were 13 years of age. Almost 22% of these children, that is, one in five children, face online abuse.[ 7 ] These 2015 data are alarming and make us wonder what the figures might be now. Children become vulnerable to the dark underbelly of the Internet where an anonymous person sitting on a computer miles away can permanently scar their self-esteem by the power of a click, making cyberspace a dangerous and largely unmonitored playground. As a rule, Indian parents warn their children about strangers lurking on the street. There is a dire need of doing the same for online behavior as well, yet it is hardly done or even considered worrisome.

Recently, with the swiftly increasing number of stories pertaining to cyberbullying involving matters as serious as self-harm and suicide, and harrowing headlines in newspapers reading “Two preteens arrested for cyberbullying after student hangs herself” becoming a common sight, cyberbullying has come at the center of international conversation. For example, mainstream Australian politicians are putting forward ideas for an “anti-cyberbullying taskforce” on national agenda, and real-time discussion is happening in the parliament on policymaking and guidelines to put cyberbullying to an end.[ 8 ] On the other end of the spectrum, various cyber-psychologists and researchers are studying the phenomenon and relevant characteristics of cyberbullying extensively. One such example is Dr. Mary Aiken, who in her book The Cyber Effect [ 9 ] describes the psychological phenomenon of “Diffusion of Responsibility” in relation to cyberbullying. It is described that the greater the number of people who witness a crime of emergency, the less likely any of them will feel responsible to respond. It can also be called The Bystander Effect and, in case of cyberbullying, hundreds to thousands of people can witness bullying or harsh criticism online on a regular basis but do not step up and do anything. Two-thirds of teenagers who face online cruelty also witness others joining in, and more than one-fifth of the teens report to have joined the harassment themselves.[ 10 ]

Furthermore, just like most of the social media platforms use social analytics to make algorithms to estimate user's age, sex, and political leanings, there are actual mathematical algorithms to identify antisocial behavior, bullying, or harassment online. These algorithms use simple parameters to measure the content (words such as “bitch,”; “hate,” and “die”), direction, interval, and frequency of bullying. This kind of approach will help the law enforcement agencies, schools, as well as parents to keep their eyes open on whether the child is being bullied online.

Apart from children, adults also get bullied online on a regular basis. Cyberbullies, commonly referred as trolls on the internet, basking in anonymity have the power of abusing and harassing a person without fear of any ramification of their actions. Politicians, actors, and sportspersons get cyberbullied routinely and report the distress it causes to them. Yet, there are no clear laws or regulatory guidelines to handle this complex issue. Mainstream national TV channels are recognizing the relevance of this issue in the current scenario and are coming up with campaigns and programs such as “Troll Police.”[ 11 ]

In India, Section 66A of the amended IT Act deals with these crimes. Sending any message (through a computer or a communication device) that is grossly offensive or has menacing character – any communication which he/she knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing insult, annoyance, and criminal intimidation, under the current Indian IT/Cyber/Criminal laws – is punishable upto 3 years of imprisonment with a fine, but this law fails to deal with the intricacies of cyberbullying. It is high time that the mental health fraternity comes forward to address the issue of cyberbullying with more focused research and help the lawmakers in formulating policies and regulatory laws that will help to identify as well as curb the menace. Another important and effective broker in identifying and stopping cyberbullying is school, where the role of mental health professional becomes pivotal in formulating effective school-based anti-cyberbullying programs, which focus on individual psychotherapy as well as educate the students on cyber-ethics and the cyber laws. Cyberbullying is an online problem that needs to be dealt with offline, and like Theodore Roosevelt popularly said “Knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right,” merely acknowledging cyberbullying as a problem is not enough anymore. It is also imperative that mental health professionals use their critical expertise in formulating and implementing school- and community-wide approaches to cyberbullying prevention.

Cyberbully Detection by Using Machine Learning

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• Norazlinda Tamring 40 &
• Lai Po Hung 40 , 40  

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 1199))

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• International Conference on Advances in Computational Science and Engineering

Cyberbullying is a growing problem that affects mental health and academic achievement, especially among teenagers and young people. Detecting cyberbullying is challenging due to its complex and subjective nature, as well as the rapidly evolving technology and language. Victims have difficulty avoiding attacks, which can be as simple as malicious comments online. Effective models for detecting cyberbullying are needed to prevent such cases, but data extraction from social media is difficult due to privacy concerns and limited user information. The objective of this project is to enhance manual monitoring for cyberbullying on social networks and online platforms by researching and testing the most effective feature extraction method to be implemented. The project aims to achieve the following goals: preprocess the public dataset, design machine learning algorithm models with different feature extraction methods, evaluate the accuracy and performance of each algorithm, and create a simple interface to test sentences with the designed model. The classifiers used in the research are Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naive Bayes (NB) and Decision Tree (DT) that are optimized with two different feature extraction (TFIDF and Count Vectoriser). The classifier's evaluation is determined by accuracy, precision, recall, and f1-score. The classifier that obtained the highest performance is Linear SVM by using TFIDF.

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Tamring, N., Hung, L.P. (2024). Cyberbully Detection by Using Machine Learning. In: Thiruchelvam, V., Alfred, R., Ismail, Z.I.B.A., Haviluddin, H., Baharum, A. (eds) Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Advances in Computational Science and Engineering. ICACSE 2023. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 1199. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-2977-7_45

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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Cyberbullying among adolescents and children: a comprehensive review of the global situation, risk factors, and preventive measures.

• 1 School of Political Science and Public Administration, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
• 2 School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
• 3 College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom

Background: Cyberbullying is well-recognized as a severe public health issue which affects both adolescents and children. Most extant studies have focused on national and regional effects of cyberbullying, with few examining the global perspective of cyberbullying. This systematic review comprehensively examines the global situation, risk factors, and preventive measures taken worldwide to fight cyberbullying among adolescents and children.

Methods: A systematic review of available literature was completed following PRISMA guidelines using the search themes “cyberbullying” and “adolescent or children”; the time frame was from January 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2019. Eight academic databases pertaining to public health, and communication and psychology were consulted, namely: Web of Science, Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, ProQuest, Communication & Mass Media Complete, CINAHL, and PsycArticles. Additional records identified through other sources included the references of reviews and two websites, Cyberbullying Research Center and United Nations Children's Fund. A total of 63 studies out of 2070 were included in our final review focusing on cyberbullying prevalence and risk factors.

Results: The prevalence rates of cyberbullying preparation ranged from 6.0 to 46.3%, while the rates of cyberbullying victimization ranged from 13.99 to 57.5%, based on 63 references. Verbal violence was the most common type of cyberbullying. Fourteen risk factors and three protective factors were revealed in this study. At the personal level, variables associated with cyberbullying including age, gender, online behavior, race, health condition, past experience of victimization, and impulsiveness were reviewed as risk factors. Likewise, at the situational level, parent-child relationship, interpersonal relationships, and geographical location were also reviewed in relation to cyberbullying. As for protective factors, empathy and emotional intelligence, parent-child relationship, and school climate were frequently mentioned.

Conclusion: The prevalence rate of cyberbullying has increased significantly in the observed 5-year period, and it is imperative that researchers from low and middle income countries focus sufficient attention on cyberbullying of children and adolescents. Despite a lack of scientific intervention research on cyberbullying, the review also identified several promising strategies for its prevention from the perspectives of youths, parents and schools. More research on cyberbullying is needed, especially on the issue of cross-national cyberbullying. International cooperation, multi-pronged and systematic approaches are highly encouraged to deal with cyberbullying.

Introduction

Childhood and adolescence are not only periods of growth, but also of emerging risk taking. Young people during these periods are particularly vulnerable and cannot fully understand the connection between behaviors and consequences ( 1 ). With peer pressures, the heat of passion, children and adolescents usually perform worse than adults when people are required to maintain self-discipline to achieve good results in unfamiliar situations. Impulsiveness, sensation seeking, thrill seeking, and other individual differences cause adolescents to risk rejecting standardized risk interventions ( 2 ).

About one-third of Internet users in the world are children and adolescents under the age of 18 ( 3 ). Digital technology provide a new form of interpersonal communication ( 4 ). However, surveys and news reports also show another picture in the Internet Age. The dark side of young people's internet usage is that they may bully or suffer from others' bullying in cyberspace. This behavior is also acknowledged as cyberbullying ( 5 ). Based on Olweus's definition, cyberbullying is usually regarded as bullying implemented through electronic media ( 6 , 7 ). Specifically, cyberbullying among children and adolescents can be summarized as the intentional and repeated harm from one or more peers that occurs in cyberspace caused by the use of computers, smartphones and other devices ( 4 , 8 – 12 ). In recent years, new forms of cyberbullying behaviors have emerged, such as cyberstalking and online dating abuse ( 13 – 15 ).

Although cyberbullying is still a relatively new field of research, cyberbullying among adolescents is considered to be a serious public health issue that is closely related to adolescents' behavior, mental health and development ( 16 , 17 ). The increasing rate of Internet adoption worldwide and the popularity of social media platforms among the young people have worsened this situation with most children and adolescents experiencing cyberbullying or online victimization during their lives. The confines of space and time are alleviated for bullies in virtual environments, creating new venues for cyberbullying with no geographical boundaries ( 6 ). Cyberbullying exerts negative effects on many aspects of young people's lives, including personal privacy invasion and psychological disorders. The influence of cyberbullying may be worse than traditional bullying as perpetrators can act anonymously and connect easily with children and adolescents at any time ( 18 ). In comparison with traditional victims, those bullied online show greater levels of depression, anxiety and loneliness ( 19 ). Self-esteem problems and school absenteeism have also proven to be related to cyberbullying ( 20 ).

Due to changes in use and behavioral patterns among the youth on social media, the manifestations and risk factors of cyberbullying have faced significant transformation. Further, as the boundaries of cyberbullying are not limited by geography, cyberbullying may not be a problem contained within a single country. In this sense, cyberbullying is a global problem and tackling it requires greater international collaboration. The adverse effects caused by cyberbullying, including reduced safety, lower educational attainment, poorer mental health and greater unhappiness, led UNICEF to state that “no child is absolutely safe in the digital world” ( 3 ).

Extant research has examined the prevalence and risk factors of cyberbullying to unravel the complexity of cyberbullying across different countries and their corresponding causes. However, due to variations in cyberbullying measurement and methodologies, no consistent conclusions have been drawn ( 21 ). Studies into inconsistencies in prevalence rates of cyberbullying, measured in the same country during the same time period, occur frequently. Selkie et al. systematically reviewed cyberbullying among American middle and high school students aged 10–19 years old in 2015, and revealed that the prevalence of cyberbullying victimization ranged from 3 to 72%, while perpetration ranged from 1 to 41% ( 22 ). Risk and protective factors have also been broadly studied, but confirmation is still needed of those factors which have more significant effects on cyberbullying among young people. Clarification of these issues would be useful to allow further research to recognize cyberbullying more accurately.

This review aims to extend prior contributions and provide a comprehensive review of cyberbullying of children and adolescents from a global perspective, with the focus being on prevalence, associated risk factors and protective factors across countries. It is necessary to provide a global panorama based on research syntheses to fill the gaps in knowledge on this topic.

Search Strategies

This study strictly employed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We consulted eight academic databases pertaining to public health, and communication and psychology, namely: Web of Science, Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, ProQuest, Communication & Mass Media Complete, CINAHL, and PsycArticles. Additional records identified through other sources included the references of reviews and two websites, Cyberbullying Research Center and United Nations Children's Fund. With regard to the duration of our review, since most studies on cyberbullying arose around 2015 ( 9 , 21 ), this study highlights the complementary aspects of the available information about cyberbullying during the recent 5 year period from January 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2019.

One researcher extracted keywords and two researchers proposed modifications. We used two sets of subject terms to review articles, “cyberbullying” and “child OR adolescent.” Some keywords that refer to cyberbullying behaviors and young people are also included, such as threat, harass, intimidate, abuse, insult, humiliate, condemn, isolate, embarrass, forgery, slander, flame, stalk, manhunt, as well as teen, youth, young people and student. The search formula is (cyberbullying OR cyber-bullying OR cyber-aggression OR ((cyber OR online OR electronic OR Internet) AND (bully * OR aggres * OR violence OR perpetrat * OR victim * OR threat * OR harass * OR intimidat * OR * OR insult * OR humiliate * OR condemn * OR isolate * OR embarrass * OR forgery OR slander * OR flame OR stalk * OR manhunt))) AND (adolescen * OR child OR children OR teen? OR teenager? OR youth? OR “young people” OR “elementary school student * ” OR “middle school student * ” OR “high school student * ”). The main search approach is title search. Search strategies varied according to the database consulted, and we did not limit the type of literature for inclusion. Journals, conference papers and dissertations are all available.

Specifically, the inclusion criteria for our study were as follows: (a). reported or evaluated the prevalence and possible risk factors associated with cyberbullying, (b). respondents were students under the age of 18 or in primary, junior or senior high schools, and (c). studies were written in English. Exclusion criteria were: (a). respondents came from specific groups, such as clinical samples, children with disabilities, sexual minorities, specific ethnic groups, specific faith groups or samples with cross-national background, (b). review studies, qualitative studies, conceptual studies, book reviews, news reports or abstracts of meetings, and (c). studies focused solely on preventive measures that were usually meta-analytic and qualitative in nature. Figure 1 presents the details of the employed screening process, showing that a total of 63 studies out of 2070 were included in our final review.

Figure 1 . PRISMA flow chart diagram showing the process of study selection for inclusion in the systematic review on children and adolescents cyberbullying.

Meta-analysis was not conducted as the limited research published within the 5 years revealed little research which reported odds ratio. On the other hand, due to the inconsistency of concepts, measuring instruments and recall periods, considerable variation could be found in research quality ( 23 ). Meta-analysis is not a preferred method.

Coding Scheme

For coding, we created a comprehensive code scheme to include the characteristics. For cyberbullying, we coded five types proposed by Willard ( 24 – 26 ), which included verbal violence, group violence, visual violence, impersonating and account forgery, and other behaviors. Among them, verbal violence is considered one of the most common types of cyberbullying and refers to the behavior of offensive responses, insults, mocking, threats, slander, and harassment. Group violence is associated with preventing others from joining certain groups or isolating others, forcing others to leave the group. Visual violence relates to the release and sharing of embarrassing photos and information without the owners' consent. Impersonating and account forgery refers to identity theft, stealing passwords, violating accounts and the creation of fake accounts to fraudulently present the behavior of others. Other behaviors include disclosure of privacy, sexual harassment, and cyberstalking. To comprehensively examine cyberbullying, we coded cyberbullying behaviors from both the perspectives of cyberbullying perpetrators and victims, if mentioned in the studies.

In relation to risk factors, we drew insights from the general aggression model, which contributes to the understanding of personal and situational factors in the cyberbullying of children and adolescents. We chose the general aggression model because (a) it contains more situational factors than other models (e.g., social ecological models) - such as school climate ( 9 ), and (b) we believe that the general aggression model is more suitable for helping researchers conduct a systematic review of cyberbullying risk and protective factors. This model provides a comprehensive framework that integrates domain specific theories of aggression, and has been widely applied in cyberbullying research ( 27 ). For instance, Kowalski and colleagues proposed a cyberbullying encounter through the general aggression model to understand the formation and development process of youth cyberbullying related to both victimization and perpetration ( 9 ). Victims and perpetrators enter the cyberbullying encounter with various individual characteristics, experiences, attitudes, desires, personalities, and motives that intersect to determine the course of the interaction. Correspondingly, the antecedents pertaining to cyberbullying are divided into two broad categories, personal factors and situational factors. Personal factors refer to individual characteristics, such as gender, age, motivation, personality, psychological states, socioeconomic status and technology use, values and perceptions, and other maladaptive behaviors. Situational factors focus on the provocation/support, parental involvement, school climate, and perceived anonymity. Consequently, our coders related to risk factors consisting of personal factors and situational factors from the perspectives of both cyberbullying perpetrators and victims.

We extracted information relating to individual papers and sample characteristics, including authors, year of publication, country, article type, sampling procedures, sample characteristics, measures of cyberbullying, and prevalence and risk factors from both cyberbullying perpetration and victimization perspectives. The key words extraction and coding work were performed twice by two trained research assistants in health informatics. The consistency test results are as follows: the Kappa value with “personal factors” was 0.932, and the Kappa value with “situational factors” was 0.807. The result shows that the coding consistency was high enough and acceptable. Disagreements were resolved through discussion with other authors.

Quality Assessment of Studies

The quality assessment of the studies is based on the recommended tool for assessing risk of bias, Cochrane Collaboration. This quality assessment tool focused on seven items: random sequence generation, allocation concealment, blinding of participants and personnel, blinding of outcome assessment, incomplete outcome data, selective reporting, and other sources of bias ( 28 ). We assessed each item as “low risk,” “high risk,” and “unclear” for included studies. A study is considered of “high quality” when it meets three or more “low risk” requirements. When one or more main flaw of a study may affect the research results, the study is considered as “low quality.” When a lack of information leads to a difficult judgement, the quality is considered to be “unclear.” Please refer to Appendix 1 for more details.

This comprehensive systematic review comprised a total of 63 studies. Appendices 2 , 3 show the descriptive information of the studies included. Among them, 58 (92%) studies measured two or more cyberbullying behavior types. The sample sizes of the youths range from several hundred to tens of thousands, with one thousand to five thousand being the most common. As for study distribution, the United States of America, Spain and China were most frequently mentioned. Table 1 presents the detail.

Table 1 . Descriptive information of studies included (2015–2019).

Prevalence of Global Cyberbullying

Prevalence across countries.

Among the 63 studies included, 22 studies reported on cyberbullying prevalence and 20 studies reported on prevalence from victimization and perpetration perspectives, respectively. Among the 20 studies, 11 national studies indicated that the prevalence of cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration ranged from 14.6 to 52.2% and 6.3 to 32%, respectively. These studies were conducted in the United States of America ( N = 4) ( 29 – 32 ), South Korea ( N = 3) ( 33 – 35 ), Singapore ( N = 1) ( 36 ), Malaysia ( N = 1) ( 37 ), Israel ( N = 1) ( 38 ), and Canada ( N = 1) ( 39 ). Only one of these 11 national studies is from an upper middle income country, and the rest are from highincome countries identified by the World Bank ( 40 ). By combining regional and community-level studies, the prevalence of cyberbullying victimization and cyberbullying perpetration ranged from 13.99 to 57.5% and 6.0 to 46.3%, respectively. Spain reported the highest prevalence of cyberbullying victimization (57.5%) ( 41 ), followed by Malaysia (52.2%) ( 37 ), Israel (45%) ( 42 ), and China (44.5%) ( 43 ). The lowest reported victim rates were observed in Canada (13.99%) and South Korea (14.6%) ( 34 , 39 ). The reported prevalence of cyberbullying victimization in the United States of America ranged from 15.5 to 31.4% ( 29 , 44 ), while in Israel, rates ranged from 30 to 45% ( 26 , 42 ). In China, rates ranged from 6 to 46.3% with the country showing the highest prevalence of cyberbullying perpetration (46.30%) ( 15 , 43 , 45 , 46 ). Canadian and South Korean studies reported the lowest prevalence of cyberbullying perpetration at 7.99 and 6.3%, respectively ( 34 , 39 ).

A total of 10 studies were assessed as high quality studies. Among them, six studies came from high income countries, including Canada, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and South Korea ( 13 , 34 , 39 , 46 – 48 ). Three studies were from upper middle income countries, including Malaysia and China ( 37 , 43 ) and one from a lower middle income country, Nigeria ( 49 ). Figures 2 , 3 describe the prevalence of cyberbullying victimization and perpetration respectively among high quality studies.

Figure 2 . The prevalence of cyberbullying victimization of high quality studies.

Figure 3 . The prevalence of cyberbullying perpetration of high quality studies.

Prevalence of Various Cyberbullying Behaviors

For the prevalence of cyberbullying victimization and perpetration, the data were reported in 18 and 14 studies, respectively. Figure 4 shows the distribution characteristics of the estimated value of prevalence of different cyberbullying behaviors with box plots. The longer the box, the greater the degree of variation of the numerical data and vice versa. The rate of victimization and crime of verbal violence, as well as the rate of victimization of other behaviors, such as cyberstalking and digital dating abuse, has a large degree of variation. Among the four specified types of cyberbullying behaviors, verbal violence was regarded as the most commonly reported behaviors in both perpetration and victimization rates, with a wide range of prevalence, ranging from 5 to 18%. Fewer studies reported the prevalence data for visual violence and group violence. Studies also showed that the prevalence of impersonation and account forgery were within a comparatively small scale. Specific results were as follows.

Figure 4 . Cyberbullying prevalence across types (2015–2019).

Verbal Violence

A total of 13 studies reported verbal violence prevalence data ( 15 , 26 , 34 , 37 – 39 , 42 , 43 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 ). Ten studies reported the prevalence of verbal violence victimization ranging from 2.8 to 47.5%, while seven studies claimed perpetration prevalence ranging from 1.5 to 31.8%. Malaysia reported the highest prevalence of verbal violence victimization (47.5%) ( 37 ), followed by China (32%) ( 43 ). China reported that the prevalence of verbal violence victimization ranged from 5.1 to 32% ( 15 , 43 ). Israel reported that the prevalence of verbal violence victimization ranged from 3.4 to 18% ( 26 , 38 , 42 ). For perpetration rate, Malaysia reported the highest level at 31.8% ( 37 ), while a study for Spain reported the lowest, ranging from 3.2 to 6.4% ( 51 ).

Group Violence

The prevalence of group violence victimization was explored within 4 studies and ranged from 5 to 17.8% ( 26 , 34 , 42 , 43 ), while perpetration prevalence was reported in three studies, ranging from 10.1 to 19.07% ( 34 , 43 , 47 ). An Israeli study suggested that 9.8% of respondents had been excluded from the Internet, while 8.9% had been refused entry to a group or team ( 26 ). A study in South Korea argued that the perpetration prevalence of group violence was 10.1% ( 34 ), while a study in Italy reported that the rate of online group violence against others was 19.07% ( 47 ).

Visual Violence

The prevalence of visual violence victimization was explored within three studies and ranged from 2.6 to 12.1% ( 26 , 34 , 43 ), while the perpetration prevalence reported in four studies ranged from 1.7 to 6% ( 34 , 43 , 47 , 48 ). For victimization prevalence, a South Korean study found that 12.1% of respondents reported that their personal information was leaked online ( 34 ). An Israel study reported that the prevalence of outing the picture was 2.6% ( 26 ). For perpetration prevalence, a South Korean study found that 1.7% of respondents had reported that they had disclosed someone's personal information online ( 34 ). A German study reported that 6% of respondents had written a message (e.g., an email) to somebody using a fake identity ( 48 ).

Impersonating and Account Forgery

Four studies reported on the victimization prevalence of impersonating and account forgery, ranging from 1.1 to 10% ( 15 , 42 , 43 ), while five studies reported on perpetration prevalence, with the range being from 1.3 to 9.31% ( 15 , 43 , 47 , 48 , 51 ). In a Spanish study, 10% of respondents reported that their accounts had been infringed by others or that they could not access their account due to stolen passwords. In contrast, 4.5% of respondents reported that they had infringed other people's accounts or stolen passwords, with 2.5% stating that they had forged other people's accounts ( 51 ). An Israeli study reported that the prevalence of being impersonated was 7% ( 42 ), while in China, a study reported this to be 8.6% ( 43 ). Another study from China found that 1.1% of respondents had been impersonated to send dating-for-money messages ( 15 ).

Other Behaviors

The prevalence of disclosure of privacy, sexual harassment, and cyberstalking were also explored by scholars. Six studies reported the victimization prevalence of other cyberbullying behaviors ( 13 , 15 , 34 , 37 , 42 , 43 ), and four studies reported on perpetration prevalence ( 34 , 37 , 43 , 48 ). A study in China found that 1.2% of respondents reported that their privacy had been compromised without permission due to disputes ( 15 ). A study from China reported the prevalence of cyberstalking victimization was 11.9% ( 43 ), while a Portuguese study reported that this was 62% ( 13 ). In terms of perpetration prevalence, a Malaysian study reported 2.7% for sexual harassment ( 37 ).

Risk and Protective Factors of Cyberbullying

In terms of the risk factors associated with cyberbullying among children and adolescents, this comprehensive review highlighted both personal and situational factors. Personal factors referred to age, gender, online behavior, race, health conditions, past experiences of victimization, and impulsiveness, while situational factors consisted of parent-child relationship, interpersonal relationships, and geographical location. In addition, protective factors against cyberbullying included: empathy and emotional intelligence, parent-child relationship, and school climate. Table 2 shows the risk and protective factors for child and adolescent cyberbullying.

Table 2 . Risk and protective factors of cyberbullying among children and adolescents.

In terms of the risk factors associated with cyberbullying victimization at the personal level, many studies evidenced that females were more likely to be cyberbullied than males ( 13 , 26 , 29 , 38 , 43 , 52 , 54 , 55 , 58 ). Meanwhile, adolescents with mental health problems ( 61 ), such as depression ( 33 , 62 ), borderline personality disorder ( 63 ), eating disorders ( 41 ), sleep deprivation ( 56 ), and suicidal thoughts and suicide plans ( 64 ), were more likely to be associated with cyberbullying victimization. As for Internet usage, researchers agreed that youth victims were probably those that spent more time online than their counterparts ( 32 , 36 , 43 , 45 , 48 , 49 , 60 ). For situational risk factors, some studies have proven the relationship between cyberbullying victims and parental abuse, parental neglect, family dysfunction, inadequate monitoring, and parents' inconsistency in mediation, as well as communication issues ( 33 , 64 , 68 , 73 ). In terms of geographical location, some studies have reported that youths residing in city locations are more likely to be victims of cyberbullying than their peers from suburban areas ( 61 ).

Regarding the risk factors of cyberbullying perpetration at the personal level, it is generally believed that older teenagers, especially those aged over 15 years, are at greater risk of becoming cyberbullying perpetrators ( 55 , 67 ). When considering prior cyberbullying experiences, evidence showed that individuals who had experienced cyberbullying or face-to-face bullying tended to be aggressors in cyberbullying ( 35 , 42 , 49 , 51 , 55 ); in addition, the relationship between impulsiveness and cyberbullying perpetration was also explored by several pioneering scholars ( 55 , 72 , 80 ). The situational factors highlight the role of parents and teachers in cyberbullying experiences. For example, over-control and authoritarian parenting styles, as well as inharmonious teacher-student relationships ( 61 ) are perceived to lead to cyberbullying behaviors ( 74 , 75 ). In terms of differences in geographical locations, students residing in cities have a higher rate of online harassment than students living in more rural locations ( 49 ).

In terms of the protective factors in child and adolescent cyberbullying, scholars have focused on youths who have limited experiences of cyberbullying. At the personal level, high emotional intelligence, an ability for emotional self-control and empathy, such as cognitive empathy ability ( 44 , 55 ), were associated with lower rates of cyberbullying ( 57 ). At the situational level, a parent's role is seen as critical. For example, intimate parent-child relationships ( 46 ) and open active communication ( 19 ) were demonstrated to be related to lower experiences of cyberbullying and perpetration. Some scholars argued that parental supervision and monitoring of children's online activities can reduce their tendency to participate in some negative activities associated with cyberbullying ( 31 , 46 , 73 ). They further claimed that an authoritative parental style protects youths against cyberbullying ( 43 ). Conversely, another string of studies evidenced that parents' supervision of Internet usage was meaningless ( 45 ). In addition to conflicting roles of parental supervision, researchers have also looked into the role of schools, and posited that positive school climates contribute to less cyberbullying experiences ( 61 , 79 ).

Some risk factors may be protective factors under another condition. Some studies suggest that parental aggressive communication is related to severe cyberbullying victims, while open communication is a potential protective factor ( 19 ). Parental neglect, parental abuse, parental inconsistency in supervision of adolescents' online behavior, and family dysfunction are related to the direct or indirect harm of cyberbullying ( 33 , 68 ). Parental participation, a good parental-children relationship, communication and dialogue can enhance children's school adaptability and prevent cyberbullying behaviors ( 31 , 74 ). When parental monitoring reaches a balance between control and openness, it could become a protective factor against cyberbullying, and it could be a risk factor, if parental monitoring is too low or over-controlled ( 47 ).

Despite frequent discussion about the risk factors associated with cyberbullying among children and adolescents, some are still deemed controversial factors, such as age, race, gender, and the frequency of suffering on the internet. For cyberbullying victims, some studies claim that older teenagers are more vulnerable to cyberbullying ( 15 , 38 , 52 , 53 ), while other studies found conflicting results ( 26 , 33 ). As for student race, Alhajji et al. argued that non-white students were less likely to report cyberbullying ( 29 ), while Morin et al. observed no significant correlation between race and cyberbullying ( 52 ). For cyberbullying perpetration, Alvarez-Garcia found that gender differences may have indirect effects on cyberbullying perpetration ( 55 ), while others disagreed ( 42 , 61 , 68 – 70 ). Specifically, some studies revealed that males were more likely to become cyberbullying perpetrators ( 34 , 39 , 56 ), while Khurana et al. presented an opposite point of view, proposing that females were more likely to attack others ( 71 ). In terms of time spent on the Internet, some claimed that students who frequently surf the Internet had a higher chance of becoming perpetrators ( 49 ), while others stated that there was no clear and direct association between Internet usage and cyberbullying perpetration ( 55 ).

In addition to personal and situational factors, scholars have also explored other specific factors pertaining to cyberbullying risk and protection. For instance, mindfulness and depression were found to be significantly related to cyber perpetration ( 76 ), while eating disorder psychopathology in adolescents was associated with cyber victimization ( 41 ). For males who were familiar with their victims, such as family members, friends and acquaintances, they were more likely to be cyberstalking perpetrators than females or strangers, while pursuing desired closer relationships ( 13 ). In the school context, a lower social likability in class was identified as an indirect factor for cyberbullying ( 48 ).

This comprehensive review has established that the prevalence of global childhood and adolescent victimization from cyberbullying ranges from 13.99 to 57.5%, and that the perpetration prevalence ranges from 6.0 to 46.3%. Across the studies included in our research, verbal violence is observed as one of the most common acts of cyberbullying, including verbal offensive responses, insults, mocking, threats, slander, and harassment. The victimization prevalence of verbal violence is reported to be between 5 and 47.5%, and the perpetration prevalence is between 3.2 and 26.1%. Personal factors, such as gender, frequent use of social media platforms, depression, borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, sleep deprivation, and suicidal tendencies, were generally considered to be related to becoming a cyberbullying victim. Personal factors, such as high school students, past experiences, impulse, improperly controlled family education, poor teacher-student relationships, and the urban environment, were considered risk factors for cyberbullying perpetration. Situational factors, including parental abuse and neglect, improper monitoring, communication barriers between parents and children, as well as the urban environment, were also seen to potentially contribute to higher risks of both cyberbullying victimization and perpetration.

Increasing Prevalence of Global Cyberbullying With Changing Social Media Landscape and Measurement Alterations

This comprehensive review suggests that global cyberbullying rates, in terms of victimization and perpetration, were on the rise during the 5 year period, from 2015 to 2019. For example, in an earlier study conducted by Modecki et al. the average cyberbullying involvement rate was 15% ( 81 ). Similar observations were made by Hamm et al. who found that the median rates of youth having experienced bullying or who had bullied others online, was 23 and 15.2%, respectively ( 82 ). However, our systematic review summarized global children and adolescents cyberbullying in the last 5 years and revealed an average cyberbullying perpetration rate of 25.03%, ranging from 6.0 to 46.3%, while the average victimization was 33.08%, ranging from 13.99 to 57.5%. The underlying reason for increases may be attributed to the rapid changing landscape of social media and, in recent years, the drastic increase in Internet penetration rates. With the rise in Internet access, youths have greater opportunities to participate in online activities, provided by emerging social media platforms.

Although our review aims to provide a broader picture of cyberbullying, it is well-noted in extant research that difficulties exist in accurately estimating variations in prevalence in different countries ( 23 , 83 ). Many reasons exist to explain this. The first largely relates poor or unclear definition of the term cyberbullying; this hinders the determination of cyberbullying victimization and perpetration ( 84 ). Although traditional bullying behavior is well-defined, the definition cannot directly be applied to the virtual environment due to the complexity in changing online interactions. Without consensus on definitions, measurement and cyberbullying types may vary noticeably ( 83 , 85 ). Secondly, the estimation of prevalence of cyberbullying is heavily affected by research methods, such as recall period (lifetime, last year, last 6 months, last month, or last week etc.), demographic characteristics of the survey sample (age, gender, race, etc.), perspectives of cyberbullying experiences (victims, perpetrators, or both victim and perpetrator), and instruments (scales, study-specific questions) ( 23 , 84 , 86 ). The variety in research tools and instruments used to assess the prevalence of cyberbullying can cause confusion on this issue ( 84 ). Thirdly, variations in economic development, cultural backgrounds, human values, internet penetration rates, and frequency of using social media may lead to different conclusions across countries ( 87 ).

Acknowledging the Conflicting Role of the Identified Risk Factors With More Research Needed to Establish the Causality

Although this review has identified many personal and situational factors associated with cyberbullying, the majority of studies adopted a cross-sectional design and failed to reveal the causality ( 21 ). Nevertheless, knowledge on these correlational relationships provide valuable insights for understanding and preventing cyberbullying incidents. In terms of gender differences, females are believed to be at a higher risk of cyberbullying victimization compared to males. Two reasons may help to explain this. First, the preferred violence behaviors between two genders. females prefer indirect harassment, such as the spreading of rumors, while males tend toward direct bullying (e.g., assault) ( 29 ) and second, the cultural factors. From the traditional gender perspective, females tended to perceive a greater risk of communicating with others on the Internet, while males were more reluctant to express fear, vulnerability and insecurity when asked about their cyberbullying experiences ( 46 ). Females were more intolerant when experiencing cyberstalking and were more likely to report victimization experiences than males ( 13 ). Meanwhile, many researchers suggested that females are frequent users of emerging digital communication platforms, which increases their risk of unpleasant interpersonal contact and violence. From the perspective of cultural norms and masculinity, the reporting of cyberbullying is also widely acknowledged ( 37 ). For example, in addition, engaging in online activities is also regarded as a critical predictor for cyberbullying victimization. Enabled by the Internet, youths can easily find potential victims and start harassment at any time ( 49 ). Participating in online activities directly increases the chance of experiencing cyberbullying victimization and the possibility of becoming a victim ( 36 , 45 ). As for age, earlier involvement on social media and instant messaging tools may increase the chances of experiencing cyberbullying. For example, in Spain, these tools cannot be used without parental permission before the age of 14 ( 55 ). Besides, senior students were more likely to be more impulsive and less sympathetic. They may portray more aggressive and anti-social behaviors ( 55 , 72 ); hence senior students and students with higher impulsivity were usually more likely to become cyberbullying perpetrators.

Past experiences of victimization and family-related factors are another risk for cyberbullying crime. As for past experiences, one possible explanation is that young people who had experienced online or traditional school bullying may commit cyberbullying using e-mails, instant messages, and text messages for revenge, self-protection, or improving their social status ( 35 , 42 , 49 , 55 ). In becoming a cyberbullying perpetrator, the student may feel more powerful and superior, externalizing angry feelings and relieving the feelings of helplessness and sadness produced by past victimization experiences ( 51 ). As for family related factors, parenting styles are proven to be highly correlated to cyberbullying. In authoritative families, parents focus on rational behavioral control with clear rules and a high component of supervision and parental warmth, which have beneficial effects on children's lifestyles ( 43 ). Conversely, in indulgent families, children's behaviors are not heavily restricted and parents guide and encourage their children to adapt to society. The characteristics of this indulgent style, including parental support, positive communication, low imposition, and emotional expressiveness, possibly contribute to more parent-child trust and less misunderstanding ( 75 ). The protective role of warmth/affection and appropriate supervision, which are common features of authoritative or indulgent parenting styles, mitigate youth engagement in cyberbullying. On the contrary, authoritarian and neglectful styles, whether with excessive or insufficient control, are both proven to be risk factors for being a target of cyberbullying ( 33 , 76 ). In terms of geographical location, although several studies found that children residing in urban areas were more likely to be cyberbullying victims than those living in rural or suburban areas, we cannot draw a quick conclusion here, since whether this difference attributes to macro-level differences, such as community safety or socioeconomic status, or micro-level differences, such as teacher intervention in the classroom, courses provided, teacher-student ratio, is unclear across studies ( 61 ). An alternative explanation for this is the higher internet usage rate in urban areas ( 49 ).

Regarding health conditions, especially mental health, some scholars believe that young people with health problems are more likely to be identified as victims than people without health problems. They perceive health condition as a risk factor for cyberbullying ( 61 , 63 ). On the other hand, another group of scholars believe that cyberbullying has an important impact on the mental health of adolescents which can cause psychological distress consequences, such as post-traumatic stress mental disorder, depression, suicidal ideation, and drug abuse ( 70 , 87 ). It is highly possible that mental health could be risk factors, consequences of cyberbullying or both. Mental health cannot be used as standards, requirements, or decisive responses in cyberbullying research ( 13 ).

The Joint Effort Between Youth, Parents, Schools, and Communities to Form a Cyberbullying-Free Environment

This comprehensive review suggests that protecting children and adolescents from cyberbullying requires joint efforts between individuals, parents, schools, and communities, to form a cyberbullying-free environment. For individuals, young people are expected to improve their digital technology capabilities, especially in the use of social media platforms and instant messaging tools ( 55 ). To reduce the number of cyberbullying perpetrators, it is necessary to cultivate emotional self-regulation ability through appropriate emotional management training. Moreover, teachers, counselors, and parents are required to be armed with sufficient knowledge of emotional management and to develop emotional management capabilities and skills. In this way, they can be alert to the aggressive or angry emotions expressed by young people, and help them mediate any negative emotions ( 45 ), and avoid further anti-social behaviors ( 57 ).

For parents, styles of parenting involving a high level of parental involvement, care and support, are desirable in reducing the possibility of children's engagement in cyberbullying ( 74 , 75 ). If difficulties are encountered, open communication can contribute to enhancing the sense of security ( 73 ). In this vein, parents should be aware of the importance of caring, communicating and supervising their children, and participate actively in their children's lives ( 71 ). In order to keep a balance between control and openness ( 47 ), parents can engage in unbiased open communication with their children, and reach an agreement on the usage of computers and smart phones ( 34 , 35 , 55 ). Similarly, it is of vital importance to establish a positive communication channel with children ( 19 ).

For schools, a higher priority is needed to create a safe and positive campus environment, providing students with learning opportunities and ensuring that every student is treated equally. With a youth-friendly environment, students are able to focus more on their academic performance and develop a strong sense of belonging to the school ( 79 ). For countries recognizing collectivist cultural values, such as China and India, emphasizing peer attachment and a sense of collectivism can reduce the risk of cyberbullying perpetration and victimization ( 78 ). Besides, schools can cooperate with mental health agencies and neighboring communities to develop preventive programs, such as extracurricular activities and training ( 44 , 53 , 62 ). Specifically, school-based preventive measures against cyberbullying are expected to be sensitive to the characteristics of young people at different ages, and the intersection of race and school diversity ( 29 , 76 ). It is recommended that school policies that aim to embrace diversity and embody mutual respect among students are created ( 26 ). Considering the high prevalence of cyberbullying and a series of serious consequences, it is suggested that intervention against cyberbullying starts from an early stage, at about 10 years old ( 54 ). Schools can organize seminars to strengthen communication between teachers and students so that they can better understand the needs of students ( 61 ). In addition, schools should encourage cyberbullying victims to seek help and provide students with opportunities to report cyberbullying behaviors, such as creating online anonymous calls.

Conclusions and Limitations

The comprehensive study has reviewed related research on children and adolescents cyberbullying across different countries and regions, providing a positive understanding of the current situation of cyberbullying. The number of studies on cyberbullying has surged in the last 5 years, especially those related to risk factors and protective factors of cyberbullying. However, research on effective prevention is insufficient and evaluation of policy tools for cyberbullying intervention is a nascent research field. Our comprehensive review concludes with possible strategies for cyberbullying prevention, including personal emotion management, digital ability training, policy applicability, and interpersonal skills. We highlight the important role of parental control in cyberbullying prevention. As for the role of parental control, it depends on whether children believe their parents are capable of adequately supporting them, rather than simply interfering in their lives, restricting their online behavior, and controlling or removing their devices ( 50 ). In general, cyberbullying is on the rise, with the effectiveness of interventions to meet this problem still requiring further development and exploration ( 83 ).

Considering the overlaps between cyberbullying and traditional offline bullying, future research can explore the unique risk and protective factors that are distinguishable from traditional bullying ( 86 ). To further reveal the variations, researchers can compare the outcomes of interventions conducted in cyberbullying and traditional bullying preventions simultaneously, and the same interventions only targeting cyberbullying ( 88 ). In addition, cyberbullying also reflects a series of other social issues, such as personal privacy and security, public opinion monitoring, multinational perpetration and group crimes. To address this problem, efforts from multiple disciplines and novel analytical methods in the digital era are required. As the Internet provides enormous opportunities to connect young people from all over the world, cyberbullying perpetrators may come from transnational networks. Hence, cyberbullying of children and adolescents, involving multiple countries, is worth further attention.

Our study has several limitations. First, national representative studies are scarce, while few studies from middle and low income countries were included in our research due to language restrictions. Many of the studies included were conducted in schools, communities, provinces, and cities in high income countries. Meanwhile, our review only focused on victimization and perpetration. Future studies should consider more perspectives, such as bystanders and those with the dual identity of victim/perpetrator, to comprehensively analyze the risk and protective factors of cyberbullying.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

Author Contributions

SH, CZ, RE, and WZ conceived the study and developed the design. WZ analyzed the result and supervised the study. CZ and SH wrote the first draft. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.634909/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords: cyberbullying, children, adolescents, globalization, risk factors, preventive measures

Citation: Zhu C, Huang S, Evans R and Zhang W (2021) Cyberbullying Among Adolescents and Children: A Comprehensive Review of the Global Situation, Risk Factors, and Preventive Measures. Front. Public Health 9:634909. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.634909

Received: 29 November 2020; Accepted: 10 February 2021; Published: 11 March 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Zhu, Huang, Evans and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Wei Zhang, weizhanghust@hust.edu.cn

† These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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• Published: 11 September 2024

Disease prediction with multi-omics and biomarkers empowers case–control genetic discoveries in the UK Biobank

• Manik Garg   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0453-2058 1   na1 ,
• Marcin Karpinski 1   na1 ,
• Dorota Matelska 1 ,
• Lawrence Middleton   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0002-2789-7244 1 ,
• Oliver S. Burren 1 ,
• Fengyuan Hu 1 ,
• Eleanor Wheeler   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8616-6444 1 ,
• Katherine R. Smith   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0329-5938 1 ,
• Margarete A. Fabre 1 , 2 , 3 ,
• Jonathan Mitchell 1 ,
• Amanda O’Neill 1 , 4 ,
• Euan A. Ashley   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9418-9577 5 ,
• Andrew R. Harper   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5327-0328 1 , 6 ,
• Quanli Wang 7 ,
• Ryan S. Dhindsa   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8965-0813 7 ,
• Slavé Petrovski   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1527-961X 1 , 8 &
• Dimitrios Vitsios   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8939-5445 1  

Nature Genetics volume  56 ,  pages 1821–1831 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

• Computational biology and bioinformatics
• Genetics research

The emergence of biobank-level datasets offers new opportunities to discover novel biomarkers and develop predictive algorithms for human disease. Here, we present an ensemble machine-learning framework (machine learning with phenotype associations, MILTON) utilizing a range of biomarkers to predict 3,213 diseases in the UK Biobank. Leveraging the UK Biobank’s longitudinal health record data, MILTON predicts incident disease cases undiagnosed at time of recruitment, largely outperforming available polygenic risk scores. We further demonstrate the utility of MILTON in augmenting genetic association analyses in a phenome-wide association study of 484,230 genome-sequenced samples, along with 46,327 samples with matched plasma proteomics data. This resulted in improved signals for 88 known ( P  < 1 × 10 −8 ) gene–disease relationships alongside 182 gene–disease relationships that did not achieve genome-wide significance in the nonaugmented baseline cohorts. We validated these discoveries in the FinnGen biobank alongside two orthogonal machine-learning methods built for gene–disease prioritization. All extracted gene–disease associations and incident disease predictive biomarkers are publicly available ( http://milton.public.cgr.astrazeneca.com ).

Identifying individuals at high risk of developing disease is a priority for preventative medicine. Most traditional risk assessment tools rely on clinical parameters such as age, sex and family history, and a reduced set of basic biomarkers tailored to the disease under study 1 , 2 , 3 . However, these tools may not capture the full spectrum of biological processes that underlie complex diseases. The advent of large-scale biobanks that integrate electronic health records and multi-omics data—such as standard blood tests, proteomics and metabolomics—provide an unprecedented opportunity to discover novel biomarkers and collections of biomarkers to better predict disease onset.

The UK Biobank (UKB; https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk ) is one of the largest biobank cohorts, including health record and genetic sequencing data from half a million individuals aged between 40 and 69 at recruitment. There is a rich catalog of phenotype data for each participant, including continuously updated health record data, biometric measurements, lifestyle indicators, blood and urine biomarkers, and imaging. This biobank has revealed a variety of new genetic associations and candidate therapeutic targets 4 , 5 , 6 . Because of its scale, the UKB also offers an opportunity to identify combinations of biomarkers that may better predict disease onset than any single biomarker alone. For example, a recent paper used ~1,500 plasma protein measurements from over 50,000 UKB participants to identify a handful of proteins that could accurately predict dementia even 10 years before diagnosis 7 . This suggests that a systematic approach across the phenotypes well-represented in the UKB could uncover many other accurate disease risk prediction models.

Beyond disease prediction and biomarker discovery, biomarker-based predictions of individuals with disease could also augment case–control genetic discovery analyses. More specifically, one limitation of most biobanks is that phenotype definitions often rely on billing codes and self-reporting, introducing potential misclassification of participants, missing data and variability in defining case–control cohorts 8 . Identifying individuals who may, in fact, be or become cases but are either not coded properly or have not yet been clinically diagnosed (that is, ‘cryptic cases’) remains an open challenge and opportunity.

Here, we introduce a systematic approach—MILTON—that aims to predict disease using commonly measured clinical biomarkers, plasma protein levels and other quantitative traits. We found these models predicted a range of different diseases with high accuracy. These results not only provide candidate biomarkers and combinations of biomarkers, but also clearly help augment and thus empower case–control analyses in some disease settings. Using these validated predictions, we performed augmented gene- and variant-level phenome-wide association studies (PheWASs) 8 on 3,213 phenotypes and 484,230 UKB genomes 9 . This identified several putative novel gene–phenotype associations that did not achieve significance in the baseline PheWAS from the same test cohort.

Clinical biomarkers have a key role in diagnosing and evaluating many diseases, as they provide measurable indications of the presence and/or severity of a condition. In the setting of PheWASs, they also provide an opportunity to identify cryptic or misclassified cases. Here, we introduce a machine-learning method, MILTON, that uses quantitative biomarkers to predict disease status for 3,213 disease phenotypes (Fig. 1 and Methods ). MILTON first learns a disease-specific signature given a set of already diagnosed patients and then predicts putative novel cases among the original controls (Fig. 1 and Methods ). The augmented cohorts are used to repeat rare-variant collapsing analysis 4 and compare the results against the baseline cohorts used to train the models (Fig. 1 ).

Individuals diagnosed with certain ICD10 codes in the UKB are herein referred to as ‘cases’ and all remaining individuals as ‘controls’ for that ICD10. Both cases and controls can have QVs, such as protein truncating variants, in a given gene. The objective of rare-variant collapsing analysis is to identify genes in which QVs are enriched in either cases or controls. Some controls may not yet be diagnosed with a given ICD10 code or are incorrectly classified. MILTON aims to identify these individuals by checking if they share similar biomarker profiles to known cases (represented by the shades of green). The predicted cases are eventually merged with the known cases to form an ‘augmented case cohort’ (ranging from ‘L0’ to ‘L3’), which is analyzed along with a revised control set in an updated PheWAS on whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data.

Defining models based on sample collection and diagnosis dates

In the UKB, samples for biomarker measurement may have been collected as much as ~16.5 years before or 50 years after the corresponding individual was diagnosed with a disease (Fig. 2a ). To determine the effect of this time-lag on predictive performance, we trained MILTON models on cases selected according to three different time-models: prognostic, diagnostic and time-agnostic (Fig. 2a ), and five different time-lags ( Methods ). The prognostic model uses all individuals who received a diagnosis up to 10 years after biomarker sample collection; the diagnostic model uses all individuals who received a diagnosis up to 10 years before biomarker sample collection; and the time-agnostic model uses all diagnosed individuals for model development ( Methods ). We note that for the prognostic model, missing diagnoses may be attributed either to the disease not being present/diagnosed yet or to missing records in the biobank. The 10-year cut-off was selected as optimal after a biomarker sensitivity analysis on the effect of sample collection and diagnosis time-lag across 400 randomly selected ICD10 (International Classification of Diseases 10th revision 10 ) codes ( Methods and Supplementary Fig. 1 ).

a , Schematic showing how different time-models are defined and the frequency of individuals that had biomarker sample collection certain years before or after diagnosis date. Diagnosis dates recorded in UKB fields 41280, 40000 or 40005 were taken for each individual ( Methods ). b , MILTON AUC performance across all ICD10 codes, five ancestries and three time-models. c , Comparison of median AUC and sensitivity performance of MILTON models across ten replicates trained on 1,466, 73 and 56 ICD10 codes under EUR, SAS and AFR ancestries, respectively, and different time-models. MWU, two-sided P values are shown. Each box plot shows the median as center line, 25th percentile as lower box limit and 75th percentile as upper box limit, and whiskers extend to 25th percentile − 1.5 × interquartile range at the bottom and 75th percentile + 1.5 × interquartile range at the top; points denote outliers. d , Distribution of median AUC across ten replicates with increasing number of training cases per ICD10 code across different time-models and ancestries. Error-bar represents 95% confidence interval with center representing mean statistic. Pearson correlation coefficients ( r ) and two-sided P values ( P ) for each time-model are provided.

Source data

Milton disease prediction performance.

In the first instance, MILTON was trained using 67 features including 30 blood biochemistry measures, 20 blood count measures, four urine assay measures, three spirometry measures, four body size measures, three blood pressure measures, sex, age and fasting time. After running MILTON across the phenome and multiple ancestries separately (Table 1 ), there were 3,200, 2,423 and 1,549 ICD10 codes based on time-agnostic, prognostic and diagnostic models, respectively, that satisfied our minimum set of robustness criteria (Supplementary Table 1b ). Utilizing the area under the curve (AUC) to assess model performance, MILTON achieved AUC ≥ 0.7 for 1,091 ICD10 codes, AUC ≥ 0.8 for 384 ICD10 codes and AUC ≥ 0.9 for 121 ICD10 codes across all time-models and ancestries (Fig. 2b , Supplementary Table 2a–e and Supplementary Notes ). MILTON achieved an AUC > 0.6 for more than half of studied ICD10 codes per ICD10 chapter across 13 out of 18 chapters and all three time-models for individuals of European (EUR) ancestry (Supplementary Fig. 2a ).

We found that diagnostic models generally had higher performance across 1,466 ICD10 codes, with results available for all three time-models in EUR ancestry participants (median AUC diagnostic versus AUC prognostic : 0.668 versus 0.647, Mann–Whitney U- test (MWU) two-sided P  = 2.86 × 10 −8 ; median sensitivity diagnostic versus sensitivity prognostic : 0.586 versus 0.570, MWU two-sided P  = 2.31 × 10 −14 ; Fig. 2c and Supplementary Table 2a–e ). Overall, as the number of cases available for training per ICD10 increased, AUC, sensitivity and specificity remained stable for EUR and African (AFR) ancestries, whereas they increased for South Asian (SAS) diagnostic models (AUC: Pearson’s r  = 0.41, P  = 2.27 × 10 −4 ; sensitivity: Pearson’s r  = 0.48, P  = 1.29 × 10 −5 ; specificity: Pearson’s r  = 0.31, P  = 0.0065; Fig. 2d and Supplementary Fig. 2b ).

MILTON successfully predicts disease before onset

To assess the effectiveness of MILTON in predicting genuine cases, we sought to determine whether individuals assigned a high case probability (0.7 ≤  P case  ≤ 1) by MILTON under the prognostic model were eventually diagnosed with those ICD10 codes in subsequent UKB phenotype refreshes. To investigate this, we trained MILTON models solely on cases diagnosed before 1 January 2018, and analyzed the predicted probability scores for cases diagnosed after this date (capped analysis, Fig. 3a ).

a , Overview of capped analysis. Here, all individuals diagnosed until 1 January 2018 were used during model training and all individuals diagnosed thereafter were used as the test set for predictions. A 2 × 2 contingency table was constructed to capture whether known cases and controls were eventually correctly predicted by MILTON. b , Distribution of odds ratio obtained from Fisher’s exact test (FET) in capped analysis on 1,748 ICD10 codes across multiple prediction probability thresholds, indicating the power of MILTON to predict known cases hidden from the training set. Results with predicted probability threshold ≥ 0.6 are filled with orange color and those corresponding to threshold = 0.7 are highlighted in black boundary. c , Performance comparison of MILTON time-agnostic models when trained on 67 traits versus disease-specific PRSs across 151 ICD10 codes. d , Box plots comparing the performance of MILTON time-agnostic models when trained on 67 traits versus all 36 PRSs across 499 ICD10 codes. e , Performance comparison of MILTON time-agnostic models when trained on protein expression data + covariates ± 67 traits versus 67 traits across 1,574 ICD10 codes ( Methods ). f , AUC differences when MILTON is trained on different feature set combinations for 1,299 ICD10 codes (time-agnostic model). Left, x axis represents median AUC 3k proteins+67 traits − median AUC 67 traits for matched ICD10 codes. Right, x axis represents median AUC 3k proteins+67 traits − median AUC 3k proteins for matched ICD10 codes. In b – f , each box plot shows median as center line, 25th percentile as lower box limit and 75th percentile as upper box limit; whiskers extend to 25th percentile − 1.5× interquartile range at the bottom and 75th percentile + 1.5× interquartile range at the top; points denote outliers. MWU, two-sided P values are shown in c – e .

Among 1,740 ICD10 codes with a minimum of 30 individuals diagnosed after 1 January 2018, and AUC ≥ 0.6 (Supplementary Tables 1b and 2f ), 1,695 codes (97.41%) were significantly enriched in participants who had P case  ≥ 0.7. This observation was supported by an odds ratio greater than 1 (Fisher’s exact test one-sided P  < 0.05) which persisted across prediction probability thresholds ≥ 0.3 (Fig. 3b and Supplementary Table 3 ). These results validate MILTON’s ability to predict emerging cases from a pool of at the time undiagnosed participants, emphasizing its value for disease risk prediction and its potential for augmenting existing positive case labels for genetic association analyses.

MILTON outperforms polygenic risk scores for disease prediction

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) are extensively researched to potentially aid disease diagnosis in clinics 11 , 12 . We compared the performance of MILTON models trained on 67 quantitative traits ( Methods ) with those trained on the respective disease-specific PRS 13 of a given phenotype, or all 36 standard PRSs available in the UKB. We used all 36 PRSs here to also consider the effects of non-disease-specific PRSs, such as PRSs for total cholesterol, PRSs for height and so on, on prediction of various diseases.

We observed that MILTON time-agnostic models trained on 67 quantitative traits significantly outperformed those trained on a single disease-specific PRS (including sex and age as covariates) for 111 out of 151 ICD10 codes (median AUC 67 traits versus AUC disease-specific PRS : 0.71 versus 0.66, MWU two-sided P  = 2.71 × 10 −8 ; Table 1 , Fig. 3c , Supplementary Fig. 3a and Supplementary Table 4a ). We observed the same trend for both prognostic and diagnostic models ( Supplementary Notes ). Of note, PRSs for breast cancer (C50), melanoma (C43, D03) and prostate cancer (C61) performed better than the 67 quantitative traits in all three time-models (Supplementary Fig. 3a ), likely due to the blood- and urine-based biomarkers used by MILTON carrying less predictive values for these solid cancers. In an additional analysis, we trained MILTON models including all 36 standard PRSs provided in the UKB and again observed that models trained on the 67 traits significantly outperformed those trained on PRSs for 499 randomly selected ICD10 codes (median AUC 67 traits versus AUC all PRSs : 0.64 versus 0.54, MWU two-sided P  = 2.17 × 10 −82 ; Table 1 , Fig. 3d , Supplementary Fig. 3c and Supplementary Table 4b ).

Plasma proteomics data improve performance for several diseases

In addition to standard clinical biomarkers, the availability of other omics modalities provides additional features for predicting cases. Recently, the UKB Pharma Proteomics Project consortium profiled 2,923 plasma proteins in a subset of 49,736 UKB participants 14 , 15 . Using the EUR ancestry subset ( n  = 46,327) of the UKB cohort, we retrained MILTON incorporating the proteomics data, both in isolation and in combination with the other 67 biomarkers already analyzed ( Supplementary Notes ). This led to slightly improved overall performance (median AUC 3k proteins + 67 traits versus AUC 67 traits : 0.68 versus 0.65, MWU two-sided P  = 3.24 × 10 −9 ; Table 1 , Fig. 3e,f and Supplementary Table 4c–e ), with 52 phenotypes having an AUC improvement of ≥ 0.1 (Fig. 3f ). Several phenotypes benefited considerably from the inclusion of plasma proteomics data (Supplementary Fig. 3d and Supplementary Notes ), including C90 (multiple myeloma and malignant plasma cell neoplasms), with AUC improving from 0.63 to 0.85. This was largely driven by the addition of TNF receptor superfamily member 13B (TNFRSF13B or TACI) and member 17 (TNFRSF17 or BCMA) protein measurements 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 (Fig. 3f , Supplementary Fig. 4b and Supplementary Table 5f–h ). Likewise, for C61 (prostate cancer), the AUC improved from 0.54 to 0.76 due to the addition of the known prostate cancer antigen (KLK3; Figs. 3f and 4c ). Other examples included G12 (spinal muscular atrophy and related syndromes), with AUC improving from 0.57 to 0.70, likely due to the addition of neurofilament light chain (NEFL) protein 20 , 21 (Fig. 4c ). These results highlight the value of adding additional features for certain diseases, and, in particular, the power of proteomics data in boosting predictions.

a , Number of top seven biomarkers shared between each pair of ancestries for all 149 ICD10 codes with AUC > 0.6. MWU, two-sided P values are shown. No multiple testing correction was performed. Box plot shows median as center line, 25th percentile as lower box limit and 75th percentile as upper box limit; whiskers extend to 25th percentile − 1.5× interquartile range at the bottom and 75th percentile + 1.5 × interquartile range at the top; points denote outliers. b , Features with the highest FISs for E10 (type 1 diabetes mellitus), N18 (chronic renal failure) and I50.0 (congestive heart failure) for each ancestry. § Biomarkers that were also listed by an expert for given disease area 22 . LDL, low-density lipoprotein; FEV1, forced expiratory volume in 1 s. c , Top predi c tive features for C61 and G12 when using UKB proteomics data to train MILTON (time-agnostic model). Dashed, orange bar plots indicate average FIS of corresponding feature across all ICD10 codes for time-agnostic model. Bar plots comparing AUC between models trained on proteomics data along with 67 traits versus 67 traits only are shown on the right. d , Number of ICD10 codes that do not share the top N features as a function of N , indicating a quasi-unique biomarker signature per disease, comprising N  ≥ 7 features when models are trained on 67 features only and N  ≥ 5 features when models are trained on proteomics data only. e , The t -distributed stochastic neighbor embedding ( t -SNE) projection of diseases across the phenome based on their MILTON-derived FISs. Each point corresponds to an ICD10 code, colored by Louvain clustering.

MILTON identifies predictive features and disease clusters

MILTON enables us to infer the importance of each feature in defining disease phenotypes (Supplementary Figs. 4 , 5 and 6 ) as well as their concordance across ancestries (Fig. 4a and Supplementary Notes ). We observed that MILTON assigned high feature importance scores (FISs) to at least one of the listed biomarkers for the corresponding disease chapter 22 (Supplementary Fig. 6 and Supplementary Table 5a–e ). For example, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and glucose ranked as the top two features for type 1 diabetes mellitus (E10: AUC all three ancestries, time-agnostic model  = 0.93 ± 0.04; Fig. 4b ), which is expected as they are used for the clinical diagnosis of diabetes. Cystatin C, microalbumin in urine and creatinine ranked within the top five in chronic renal failure, and sex was one of the top features for predicting chronic renal failure across all ancestries 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 (ICD10: N18; Fig. 4b ). This indicates that MILTON can distinguish between male- and female-specific cut-offs across the different biomarkers, as in certain diseases reference ranges for some biomarkers may be sex-specific.

We looked at the top features for those ICD10 codes where MILTON showed improved performance upon addition of proteomics data (Fig. 4c and Supplementary Fig. 4a,b ), and, as a positive validation, we confirmed that MILTON ranks biomarkers known to be associated with certain diseases as top predictive features 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 (Fig. 4b,c and Supplementary Fig. 4b ). We also explored the number of features required to uniquely characterize a phenotype, identifying the top seven or eight most important features per disease as sufficient to provide a close to unique signature for each disease (based on <5% change in the number of ICD10 codes that share top N and top N  − 1 features; Fig. 4d ). Similarly, 5–6 top features out of ~3,000 proteins + clinical covariates may be sufficient to distinguish one ICD10 from another (Fig. 4d ). Eventually, we generated groups of phenotypes enriched for similar biomarker profiles (Fig. 4e and Supplementary Table 6a ) which allow us to explore comorbidity profiles across patient cohorts (Supplementary Table 6b and Supplementary Notes ). We have made all top predictive features per disease and the disease clusters available in our public portal ( http://milton.public.cgr.astrazeneca.com ).

PheWAS on MILTON-augmented cohorts reveals putative novel signals

MILTON’s power on disease risk prediction opens an additional potential: to augment existing positive case labels for genetic association analyses. We extracted MILTON-augmented cohorts (‘L0’–’L3’; Supplementary Fig. 7a , Methods and Supplementary Notes ) for 2,371 ICD10 codes with AUC > 0.6 for EUR ancestry, 271 for SAS ancestry, 179 for AFR ancestry, nine for East Asian (EAS) ancestry and two for American (AMR) ancestry. Here, MILTON-augmented cohorts contain all known cases along with an increasing number of MILTON-predicted cases as we go from L0 (conservative) to L3 (more inclusive) predictions ( Methods ). Rare-variant collapsing analysis on whole genomes derived from these augmented cohorts from EUR ancestry resulted in 2,905 significant gene–ICD10 associations ( P MILTON  < 1 × 10 −8 ) between 1,207 ICD10 codes and 165 genes, 99.93% of which have lowest P values in nonsynonymous qualifying variant (QV) 4 models (Supplementary Table 7a ).

To benchmark the MILTON results with a reference dataset, we performed binary PheWAS analysis on the baseline cohorts for each ICD10 code and recovered 236 out of 270 gene–disease associations from baseline analyses in the augmented cohorts with the same direction of effect ( P MILTON , P baseline  < 1 × 10 −8 ), labeling them as ‘known binary’ (Table 2 , Supplementary Fig. 7b and Supplementary Notes ). For several known signals, evaluated as positive controls 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , MILTON achieved enhanced PheWAS results (Fig. 5a and Supplementary Notes ). When characterizing putative novel signals, we sought to detect signals that may be reflecting correlation with a biomarker rather than independent disease association. To this end, we consider any genes achieving genome-wide significance with a biomarker in a baseline quantitative PheWAS and assess whether they rank among the top predictors for a given phenotype in the MILTON cohorts ( Methods and Supplementary Notes ). These accounted for 1,047 significant gene–disease associations which we do not consider as putative novel ( Supplementary Notes ).

a , Examples of known gene–disease associations from literature that reached genome-wide significance via MILTON. b , c Manhattan plots showing the distribution of gene–ICD10 associations with odds ratio (OR) < 1 ( b ) and OR > 1 ( c ) across different chromosome positions. For a – c , FET was used to calculate P values and odds ratios (two-sided, unadjusted).

Finally, we labeled the remaining 182 gene–disease associations ( P MILTON  < 1 × 10 −8 , P baseline  > 1 × 10 −8 and P quantitative PheWAS for FIZ > 1.2  > 1 × 10 −8 ; Table 2 ) as ‘putative novel’ (Fig. 5b,c and Supplementary Notes ). FIZ refers to the feature importance Z -score of highly predictive biomarkers per ICD10 code. To characterize an association as ‘putative novel’, we require that for any biomarker achieving FIZ > 1.2 during MILTON training (for a particular ICD10 code), the respective quantitative PheWAS associations are non-significant ( P quantitative PheWAS > 1 × 10 − 8 ). This filtering is applied to ensure any putative novel signals do not reflect correlations with biomarkers but instead represent independent disease associations ( Supplementary Notes ). Overall, MILTON reported 231 putative novel hits across all ICD10 codes (Table 2 ), 76.37% of which also reached nominal significance ( P  < 0.05) in baseline PheWASs. These putative novel hits achieved significantly lower P values in baseline cohorts across all phenotypes compared with randomly selected genes of the same size (Supplementary Fig. 8 ). As a positive control observation, chapters XXI (health services) and XVIII (lab findings) were ranked as the top chapters with putative novel associations as they inherently capture individuals with atypical biomarker levels, which is the primary focus of MILTON (Supplementary Fig. 7g ).

We then applied PheWAS to non-EUR ancestries, which represent a smaller proportion of UKB, and observed genome-wide significant associations only in SAS ancestry (eight associations between three genes and eight ICD10 codes; Supplementary Table 7b ). One gene–phenotype association was shared between EUR and SAS, which was the hemoglobin subunit beta ( HBB )–D56 thalassemia baseline association. After combining binary PheWAS results corresponding to protein truncating variants from all ancestries using Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel test, we identified nine associations in MILTON-augmented cohorts that achieved genome-wide significance ( P  < 1 × 10 −8 ) in pan-ancestry analysis but had P  > 1 × 10 −8 in EUR ancestry-specific analysis (Supplementary Fig. 9 and Supplementary Table 7c ). An example is apolipoprotein B ( APOB ) – E05 thyrotoxicosis (hyperthyroidism) association which achieved P  = 9.02 × 10 −9 in pan-ancestry analysis but had borderline significance ( P  = 1.77 × 10 −8 ) in EUR-specific analysis. An intronic variant, rs12720793 , in APOB gene is also associated with thyrotoxicosis in the FinnGen Biobank ( P  < 0.008). Conversely, we identified 33 associations in baseline cohorts and 274 associations in augmented cohorts that were genome-wide significant in EUR-specific analysis but not in pan-ancestry analysis (Supplementary Fig. 9 and Supplementary Table 7c ).

Exome-wide association studies on MILTON-augmented cohorts

To assess whether there is added benefit from using MILTON extended cohorts for common variant association studies, we applied MILTON to variant-level enrichment analysis (exome-wide association study (ExWAS)) across all phenotypes ( n  = 2,259 with AUC > 0.6), employing our ExWAS pipeline from previous work 4 . Based on the allelic ExWAS model, we observed that the odds ratio for >99% of variant–ICD10 associations ( P  < 0.05) remained consistent in the direction of effect between MILTON cohorts and baseline cohorts (Supplementary Fig. 12a ). The percentage of associations with boosted P values compared with baseline increased from L0 to L3 cohorts (53.94% to 65.25%; Supplementary Fig. 12b ), as did the number of genome-wide significant associations (Supplementary Fig. 12c ). Overall, we recovered with MILTON 6,321 out of 8,013 variant-level baseline associations (78.9%; P  < 1 × 10 −8 ) and observed 15,490 ‘known quantitative’ along with 9,882 putative novel associations (Fig. 6c , Supplementary Fig. 13 and Supplementary Table 7d ). Among the 9,882 putative novel ExWAS associations, 61.94% ( P  = 6,121) achieved P  < 0.05 in baseline cohorts (Fig. 6c ). For further granularity, we also performed common variant genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on 20 ICD10 codes and for each of the MILTON-augmented as well as baseline cohorts, again confirming that we achieve a good enrichment of true cases in the MILTON cohorts (Supplementary Table 9b , Methods and Supplementary Notes ).

a , Left, flowchart depicting the stepwise hypergeometric tests performed to test enrichment of top predictions between MILTON-based PheWAS results (FET, two-sided, unadjusted P  < 0.05) and top gene–disease associations predicted by Mantis-ML (v.2.0; Methods ). Right, box plots comparing the enrichment AUC between MILTON-augmented cohorts and baseline cohorts across all three time-models and across all nonsynonymous QV models or exclusively on the synonymous QV model. Number of samples shown refers to these cases. Comparison is done for 14 HPO terms that could be manually mapped to ICD10 codes. b , Breakdown of AMELIE-aggregated scores by ICD10 chapter (sorted by chapter median) for putative novel targets per three-character ICD10 code. Negative controls were generated through ten samplings of random gene sets, equal in size to the respective MILTON gene sets. Points are plotted only for boxes where n  < 10. c , Validation of MILTON ExWAS results, and putative novel hits compared with baseline ExWAS analysis. P values are from FET (two-sided, unadjusted). d , Validation of variant–ICD10 code associations in FinnGen Biobank (release 10 for ExWAS comparison and release 11 for GWAS comparison). FinnGen release 10 P values are from GWAS SAIGE 38 (two-sided, unadjusted) while release 11 P values are from GWAS REGENIE (two-sided, unadjusted). UKB ExWAS P values are from FET (two-sided, unadjusted) and UKB GWAS P values are from REGENIE–Firth (two-sided, unadjusted). Percentages with respect to imputed genotypes and mapped phenotypes with available FinnGen GWAS summary statistics file are given at the top of each bar plot. Box plots show the median as center line and top and bottom quartiles as box limits; whiskers extend to points within 1.5 interquartile ranges of the box limits; points denote outliers. No multiple testing correction was performed.

Validation with FinnGen Biobank

We aimed to identify support for the MILTON ExWAS-based putative novel hits in external datasets, and specifically in the FinnGen Biobank 38 , which has variant-level enrichment results available ( Supplementary Notes ). Among all MILTON putative novel ExWAS associations that can be tested in FinnGen, 54.76% ( n  = 2,002) achieved P  < 0.05 in FinnGen 38 release 10 (Fig. 6d and Supplementary Table 9a ). For reference, among the genome-wide significant hits inferred in baseline PheWASs, 88.76% ( n  = 4,525) had supporting evidence in FinnGen ( P  < 0.05; Fig. 6d ).

For validation of common variant–ICD10 associations obtained from GWASs, we investigated 14 ICD10 codes that can be mapped to summary statistics results in FinnGen Biobank 38 release 11 (Supplementary Table 8 ). Among the unique baseline associations ( P  < 1 × 10 −8 ) that could be tested in FinnGen, 93.10% ( n  = 81) had P  < 0.05 in FinnGen with same direction of effect (Fig. 6d and Supplementary Table 9b ). Also, 94.81% ( n  = 73) of MILTON ‘known binary’ associations had supporting evidence ( P  < 0.05 with the same direction of effect). Among the 167 MILTON putative novel associations that could be mapped to FinnGen results, 38.92% ( n  = 65) achieved P  < 0.05 in FinnGen with the same direction of effect (Fig. 6d and Supplementary Table 9b ).

Putative novel hits rank highly in two orthogonal artificial intelligence-based tools

We then sought to validate the putative novel hits inferred by PheWASs on MILTON-augmented cohorts, using two independent machine-learning tools, Mantis-ML (v.2.0) 39 , 40 and AMELIE (Automatic Mendelian Literature Evaluation) 41 , 42 . Mantis-ML (v.2.0) is trained phenome-wide, leveraging publicly available gene-centric resources such as the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO), Open Targets and Genomics England as well as knowledge graphs to assign ranks for each gene in the human exome across thousands of phenotypes. Stepwise hypergeometric tests were performed to compare Mantis-ML (v.2.0) 39 , 40 predictions and associations identified by MILTON (Fig. 6a , Methods and Supplementary Notes ). Notably, genes identified in L3 cohorts for nonsynonymous QV models ( P  < 0.05) were significantly enriched in top-ranking genes from Mantis-ML (v.2.0) compared with the baseline cohort across all three time-models (Fig. 6a ; comparison per phenotype shown in Supplementary Fig. 20a ). Furthermore, all phenotypes were enriched in top-ranking genes under the ultra-rare damaging QV model (UKB minor allele frequency ≤ 0.005%; ref. 4 in MILTON-augmented cohorts compared with the synonymous QV model, followed by the ultra-rare variants according to the missense tolerance ratio model (URmtr 4 ) and the protein truncating variant model (ptv 4 ; Supplementary Fig. 20b,c ).

AMELIE (v.3.1.0) 41 , 42 performs an automated literature search, integrating nightly updates from the entire PubMed corpus, to estimate gene rankings for disease causality among a pool of gene candidates. AMELIE requires diseases to be organized within the HPO. Thus, we first identified the five most semantically similar HPO diseases out of a pool of 17,451 phenotypes to each ICD10 code and queried AMELIE for disease–gene associations for those diseases ( Supplementary Notes ). We observed that for 13 out of 16 ICD10 chapters, putative novel targets (Supplementary Table 7a ) had significantly higher AMELIE score ( P  < 0.05) than negative controls generated through ten samplings of random gene sets of the same length (Fig. 6b and Supplementary Fig. 21 ).

These validations pinpoint the power of MILTON to highlight putative novel signals also supported by comprehensive artificial intelligence-based gene-prioritization methods, which leverage large amounts of biological evidence from literature and hundreds of public data resources.

We present here MILTON, a machine-learning framework for multi-omics and biomarker-based disease prediction, and for empowering case–control studies across five UKB ancestries. Despite the feature set employed in this study being fairly broad and diverse and not disease-specific, MILTON achieved relatively high to high predictive power in a considerable number of phenotypes (AUC > 0.7 for 1,091 ICD10 codes, AUC > 0.8 for 384 ICD10 codes and AUC > 0.9 for 121 ICD10 codes). The lack of predictive power in the rest of the phenotypes indicates that not all phenotypes may have a distinctive biomarker fingerprint, at least not in the currently used biomarker set. There are certain disease chapters where models could be improved by inclusion of more informative features across all ancestries and time-models, such as chapter II (neoplasms), chapter VIII (ear) and chapter XII (skin) (Supplementary Fig. 2a and Supplementary Table 2a–e ). For example, addition of macromolecular expression data of already known markers of breast cancer (C50) 43 can help improve the model’s performance. It is important to note that while MILTON outperformed PRSs for most diseases, for certain diseases, such as melanoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer and primary open-angle glaucoma, PRSs had higher predictive power (AUC improvement ≥ 0.1) than the 67 quantitative traits employed by MILTON. We currently used standard PRSs generated by Thompson et al. 13 instead of enhanced PRSs 13 because the latter scores were available for only 20.75% ( n  = 104,231) of individuals. Perhaps models trained using enhanced PRSs or PRSs derived from other formulations may lead to improved performance, especially for diseases where clear prognostic or diagnostic biomarkers are unavailable. Inclusion of proteomics data also helped to achieve improved performance (ΔAUC ≥ 0.1) for 52 phenotypes. We thus encourage exploring other feature spaces that could further improve performance of our models in additional phenotypes.

On some occasions, applying MILTON reduced the power for signal discovery by diluting gene–disease signals from the baseline analysis which was naive to MILTON. However, overall, 87.41% of the known signals from baseline PheWAS either had an improved signal or retained their genome-wide significance with the same direction of effect. Thus, MILTON more often leads to improved signal detection and discovery yield than to diminished signals, providing strong confidence that this approach is truly augmenting the traditional (baseline) association tests relying solely on positively labeled case definitions in large biobanks. An additional 182 signals were putative novel gene–disease signals that were not discovered by either the baseline case–control or quantitative trait PheWAS. These putative novel associations need to be further experimentally validated.

Recently, advanced deep-learning-based methods for feature imputation have emerged 44 , which may help overcome some of the recurrent challenges biobank datasets face around data missingness and imputation. MILTON is distinct from methods that focus on feature imputation 44 of missing binary or quantitative traits (that is, of the independent variables), and instead focuses on augmenting the predicted disease phenotypes (that is, the dependent variable) by leveraging a wealth of input features. Specifically, MILTON first learns a disease signature, given a set of binary and quantitative traits, and then predicts undiagnosed individuals sharing the learnt signature per disease, effectively refining the original case–control cohort definitions. Future improvements of MILTON could include a flexible time-lag, time-model selection for each ICD10 code to reflect variable dynamics of disease development and the biomarker profiles that characterize these prodromes ( Supplementary Notes ).

Furthermore, MILTON provides a way to enhance rare-variant collapsing analysis while bridging the gap between clinical biomarkers and diseases. In cases where the top predictive biomarkers currently lack known biological connection with a disease while the predictive model achieves good performance (AUC > 0.8), we suggest these links to be explored further as our knowledge of disease-specific biomarkers continues to grow. Experts are advised to exercise caution while looking at downstream association studies in such cases. The MILTON-inferred biomarker sets may provide insights into defining minimal sets of biomarkers, irrespective of diagnosis, to be collected as part of future biobanks, and to be made available to registered researchers. Finally, MILTON provides the power to characterize disease-specific blood-based feature sets that can define and predict a wide range of human pathologies and provide potential related mechanistic insights. This has implications for future strategies for prevention and early detection of disease.

Our research complies with all relevant ethical regulations. Both biobanks have been approved by the relevant board or committee. Ethics approval for the UKB study was obtained from the North West Centre for Research Ethics Committee (11/NW/0382) 45 .

The Coordinating Ethics Committee of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa approved the FinnGen study protocol (number HUS/990/2017) 38 . The FinnGen study is approved by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (approval numbers THL/2031/6.02.00/2017, amendments THL/1101/5.05.00/2017, THL/341/6.02.00/2018, THL/2222/6.02.00/2018, THL/283/6.02.00/2019 and THL/1721/5.05.00/2019), the Digital and Population Data Service Agency (VRK43431/2017-3, VRK/6909/2018-3 and VRK/4415/2019-3), the Social Insurance Institution (KELA) (KELA 58/522/2017, KELA 131/522/2018, KELA 70/522/2019 and KELA 98/522/2019) and Statistics Finland (TK-53-1041-17).

The UKB comprises data from 502,226 participants aged 37–73 years at the time of recruitment with median age being 58 years 46 . Of these, 54.4% are female. The data collected from these participants include, but are not limited to, up-to-date diagnosis information, body size measures, blood count measures, blood biochemistry measures, genomics data 45 as well as proteomics data 14 , 15 (for 10% of participants). All participants provided informed consent and participation was voluntary.

FinnGen cohort

FinnGen comprises data from 412,181 individuals (55.9% female) with median age of 63 years 38 . All participants provided informed consent and participation was voluntary. We did not apply for access to patient-level data and used only FinnGen GWAS summary statistics to validate our findings.

Population descriptors in UKB

We used peddy 47 and 1000 Genomes Project data to classify genetic ancestries at a broad continental level (peddy_prob ≥ 0.9). We additionally removed participant samples where principal component values were more than 4 s.d. from the mean for the first four principal components, for the large EUR ancestry population only.

Defining cases in UKB

All the participants diagnosed with a given ICD10 code across four different UKB fields (UKB v.673123, released in April 2023) were considered as cases. These UKB fields are 41270 diagnosis: ICD10; 40001 underlying (primary) cause of death: ICD10; 40002 Contributory (secondary) cause of death: ICD10; and 40006 type of cancer: ICD10. Out of 13,942 ICD10 codes, 12,081 codes already had entries for greater than 50% of cases in the field ID 41270 (Supplementary Fig. 23a ). When analyzing a parent node such as N18, patients diagnosed with any of its sub-nodes: N18.0, N18.1, N18.2, N18.3, N18.4, N18.5, N18.8, N18.9, were included as well. If, after taking a union, there were at least 100 known cases for each ICD10 code, that ICD10 code was processed further (Supplementary Fig. 24 ). This resulted in 3,213 unique disease phenotypes analyzed by MILTON across all ancestries (Supplementary Table 1a ), 2,392 of which achieved an AUC > 0.60 and are being reported in our public MILTON portal. The following additional filtering steps were applied to these cases when applicable.

Filtering based on lag between sample collection and diagnosis

To assess the impact of time-lag between biomarker sample collection and diagnosis dates for all ICD10 codes with at least 100 known cases, cases were filtered based on given (time-model, time-lag) pairs: (1) time-agnostic (no lag): include all cases irrespective of any time difference between biomarker sample collection and diagnosis; (2) prognostic (‘ t ’ years lag): only include those cases who received diagnosis between 0 years and ‘ t ’ years (inclusive) after biomarker sample collection; (3) diagnostic (‘ t ’ years lag): only include those cases who received diagnosis between 0 years and ‘ t ’ years (inclusive) before biomarker sample collection.

Therefore, if time-model = prognostic and time-lag = 5 years, then the MILTON pipeline will be trained on all known cases who were diagnosed ≤5 years of biomarker collection (Supplementary Fig. 24 ). In the case of multiple lag values per subject, the shortest time-lag was used for analysis. This will happen when analyzing a parent node such as ‘N18’ and the patient has already been diagnosed with its sub-nodes such as N18.1 and N18.3 at two different time-points. As the diagnosis information can be retrieved from any of the four UKB fields (41270, 40001, 40002 and 40006), the corresponding date field was used to retrieve time for diagnosis: date of first in-patient diagnosis (41280), date of death (40000) and date of cancer diagnosis (40005). Please note that the time-lag was calculated as the difference between biomarker collection date (or biomarker sample collection date in case biomarker was measured from blood or urine samples) and diagnosis date. This difference was converted to days and divided by 365, rounding to closest integer, to obtain time-lag in years.

We performed a sensitivity analysis for the effect of the sample collection and diagnosis time-lag on 400 randomly selected ICD10 codes. Within each time-model, no significant difference in performance was observed across time-lags (two-sided MWU: P  > 0.05; Supplementary Fig. 1a ). Furthermore, diagnostic models had consistently higher performance than prognostic models across all time-lags tested (two-sided MWU: P  < 0.05; Supplementary Fig. 1a ). This difference remained consistent across all ICD10 chapters (Supplementary Fig. 1b ) and increased with increasing time-lag (Supplementary Fig. 1c ). However, for time-lags ≥ 5 years, diagnostic models had significantly lower cases for training than prognostic models (two-sided MWU: P  ≤ 1 × 10 −3 ; Supplementary Fig. 1d ). Additionally, the number of cases available for training increased with increasing time-lag (Supplementary Fig. 1d ). This is also evident from the lag distribution across all UKB individuals irrespective of specific diagnosis (Fig. 2a ). A longer time-lag resulted in more ICD10 codes satisfying the minimum 100-cases criterion for training MILTON models ( Methods ). Therefore, we selected 10 years as the optimal time-lag, since: (1) median performance of prognostic models started dropping after the 10-year time-lag; (2) it had comparable performance to other time-lags for diagnostic models; and (3) the number of cases attained with a 10-year time-lag was significantly higher compared with the 1- or 5-year time-lags (Supplementary Fig. 1d ).

Filtering based on sex-specificity of an ICD10 code

Some diseases might affect the opposite sex on rare occasions or not at all, given anatomical differences between men and women. To have sufficiently clean data for training a machine-learning model, cases from the opposite sex were filtered out if an ICD10 code was deemed to dominantly affect one sex (Supplementary Fig. 24 ). To find a suitable threshold for filtering, 117 male-specific and 606 female-specific ICD10 codes were shortlisted by keyword search. For male-specific diseases, ‘male’, ‘prostate’, ‘testi’ and ‘patern’ keywords were used. For female-specific diseases, keywords ‘female’, ‘breast’, ‘ovar’, ‘uter’, ‘pregnan’ and ‘matern’ were used. Only those ICD10 codes with at least 100 cases in total were considered for this analysis, resulting in 31 male-specific and 201 female-specific ICD10 codes (Supplementary Table 10 ). As shown in Supplementary Fig. 23b , 231 out of 232 diseases had proportion of dominant sex above 0.9, with highest number of women = 12 for N40 hyperplasia of prostate ( n male = 26,033) and highest number of men = 128 for C50.9 breast, unspecified ( n female = 15,311). The ICD10 code N62 hypertrophy of breast ( n male = 317, n female = 864) did not satisfy the ±0.9 threshold and includes a condition called gynecomastia, which causes abnormal enlargement of breasts in men. Therefore, N62 was not considered to be a female-specific phenotype in our analysis.

Defining controls in UKB

All the remaining UKB participants who were not diagnosed with any of the ICD10 codes in the entire chapter that the current ICD10 code belongs to were considered as ‘potential controls’ (Supplementary Fig. 24 ). To maintain similar case to control ratio across different ICD10 codes, the number of controls was restricted to be a maximum of control-case ratio (ctrl_ratio) times the number of cases, where ctrl_ratio max  = 19 for robust results when sufficient data were available (mean Pearson’s r between each replicate pair > 0.9; Supplementary Fig. 25a,b ) or ctrl_ratio max  = 9 otherwise (Supplementary Fig. 25c ). These ‘controls’ were randomly selected from the list of ‘potential controls’ and further filtering was applied when applicable. The final ctrl_ratio may be less than ctrl_ratio max depending on how many controls remained after applying all filters.

Filtering to match baseline characteristics of cases

According to the UKB field ID 31: Sex, there are 54.40% female ( n  = 273,326) and 45.60% male ( n  = 229,086) across the entire UKB cohorts. This imbalance was significant ( P  < 1 × 10 −3 ) across multiple age groups (Supplementary Fig. 23c ) as well as multiple ICD10 codes with varying case numbers (Supplementary Fig. 23d ). To maintain similar distributions of age (UKB field 21003) and sex (UKB field 31) across cases and controls, age was divided into four bins. Across these four bins, the distribution of women (and men) in controls was matched with the distribution of women (and men) in cases. For example, if ten women and five men were diagnosed with a given ICD10 code and their hypothetical distribution across four age bins is given in Supplementary Table 11 , then the controls were sampled to match the case distribution as given in Supplementary Table 11 . This criterion meant that sometimes cases were dropped to get the matching distribution between cases and controls (Supplementary Fig. 24 ).

UKB 67 traits

For each participant, quantitative traits ( n  = 67) collected from blood assays ( n  = 50), urine assays ( n  = 4) and physical measures ( n  = 10) along with covariates fasting time, sex and age were used as features for training the machine-learning models (Supplementary Table 12 ).

If a feature was collected during multiple assessment visits (instances 0–3 in UKB), only the first non-null values for each trait were used. The correlation between these features is shown in Supplementary Fig. 26 . Low-density lipoprotein direct was highly correlated with apolipoprotein B (Pearson’s correlation coefficient = 0.96) and cholesterol (Pearson’s correlation coefficient = 0.95). Similarly, HDL cholesterol was highly correlated with apolipoprotein A (Pearson’s correlation coefficient = 0.92) and negatively correlated with triglycerides (Pearson’s correlation coefficient = −0.44) and waist circumference (Pearson’s correlation coefficient = −0.48).

Despite taking the first non-null value across multiple instances, rheumatoid factor and estradiol had more than 80% values missing (Supplementary Fig. 22 ). It has been recommended by the UKB to treat these missing values as ‘naturally low’ instead of missing 48 . Furthermore, we observed that the amount of missingness correlated among features obtained from the same assay category, suggesting that these participants did not have the corresponding tests taken (Supplementary Fig. 27 ). It is unclear why microalbumin in urine had 68.84% missing values while other features obtained from urine assays only had around 3.50% missing values. Its missingness pattern was also similar to those of estradiol and rheumatoid factor.

It is important to note that UKB was designed for research purposes, and the same measurements were collected during baseline visits of each patient to one of the available recruitment centers, regardless of any underlying diagnoses/conditions. These measurements have been collected uniformly (except for some missing data for a small number of patients) and in a standardized manner by UKB for all patients. No additional measurements from any other labs, for example, from in-patient hospitalization visits, have been included. Thus, there is no mixture of research-based measurements with uncommon clinical measurements that would require further harmonization.

UKB plasma proteomics data

Normalized protein expression values for 2,923 proteins were available for 46,327 UKB individuals of EUR ancestry 14 , 15 . If a single protein was recorded across multiple panels, the column with the lowest proportion of missing values was used. Age, sex, body mass index, smoking status (20116), alcohol intake (1558), paternal history (20107), maternal history (20110) and blood type (23165) were added as covariates.

UKB date fields for calculating time-lags

Blood sample collection dates and urine sample collection dates were recorded in UKB fields 21842 and 21851, respectively. The dates for recording physical measures, fasting time, sex and age were assumed to be the date when a participant visited the assessment center (UKB field 53). As the difference between these dates is 0 for most of the participant IDs (Supplementary Table 13 ), blood sample collection dates were used for all features when calculating time-lag between sample collection date and diagnosis date ( Methods section ‘Filtering based on lag between sample collection and diagnosis’).

Feature pre-processing

UKB has taken extensive measures to ensure quality of values ( https://biobank.ctsu.ox.ac.uk/crystal/crystal/docs/biomarker_issues.pdf ). To account for any missing values and transform the data for machine-learning pipelines, the following pre-processing steps were applied on the training data and then on the testing data: (1) Missing values in each feature (except rheumatoid factor, estradiol and testosterone) were imputed with median value of that feature (Supplementary Table 12 ). As it is recommended to treat missing values in rheumatoid factor and estradiol as ‘naturally low’ instead of missing 48 : rheumatoid factor was imputed with 0 IU ml −1 ( https://www.ouh.nhs.uk/immunology/diagnostic-tests/tests-catalogue/rheumatoid-factor.aspx ) and estradiol was imputed with values 36.71 pmol l −1 for men and 110.13 pmol l −1 for women ( https://www.southtees.nhs.uk/services/pathology/tests/oestradiol/ ). Also, the testosterone feature was imputed with respective median values for men and women. (2) Categorical features were one-hot encoded. (3) All features were standardized to have zero mean and unit variance.

Model training

In MILTON, we first select cases and controls for each ICD10 code 10 (Data-Coding 19), and then extract biomarker values for each participant to derive a disease-specific signature. Next, we use an eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost 49 ) model on a single balanced case–control set to find the optimal hyperparameters for a given ICD10 code. We train an ensemble model with fivefold cross-validation using up to four balanced case–control sets (bound defined by the initial number of cases and total UKB cohort size) and repeat for ten stochastic iterations to ensure the entire control set is fed to the model. We then apply the final model to the entire UKB cohort to predict the probability of each UKB participant being a case for that given disease. We then assign individuals as ‘cases’ based on four different probability thresholds (named L0–L3). The L0 class includes the strictest cut-off whereas L3 uses the most lenient, including the largest number of predicted cases. Finally, we repeat rare-variant collapsing analysis 4 on each of the augmented cohorts and compare the results against the baseline cohorts used to train the models, as well as against the original PheWAS results that relied exclusively on positive labeled cases 4 .

Further, the training of the XGBoost classifier was divided into either: (1) two steps when training on 67 traits: hyperparameter tuning and model prediction; or (2) three steps when training on UKB protein expression data: feature selection, hyperparameter tuning and model prediction.

Package requirements

For development of the MILTON pipeline, the following python packages were used: python (v.3.10.13), pandas (v.2.1.4), numpy (v.1.22.4), scipy (v.1.11.4), scikit-learn (v.1.3.0), scikit-image (v.0.22.0), xgboost (v.1.7.3), pyarrow (v.14.0.2), holoviews (v.1.18.3), matplotlib (v.3.8.0), pytest (v.7.4.0), Jinja2 (v.3.1.3), pyparsing (v.3.0.9), dask (v.2023.11.0), dask-ml (v.2023.3.24), dask-jobqueue (v.0.8.1), numba (v.0.56.0), tqdm (v.4.65.0), beautifulsoup4 (v.4.12.2), boruta_py (v.0.3).

For data analysis and visualization, the following python packages were used: python (v.3.10.13), pandas (v.2.1.4), numpy (v.1.22.4), matplotlib (v.3.8.0), seaborn (v.0.12.2), statannotations (v.0.5.0), upSetPlot (v.0.8.0), missingno (v.0.5.1), scipy (v.1.11.4).

Feature selection (for proteomics data only)

Training cases were divided into 50% for feature selection and 50% for hyperparameter tuning and model prediction. The Boruta feature selection algorithm with random forest classifier was trained on this subset of training cases and an equal number of randomly sampled controls ( Methods section ‘Defining controls in UKB’). This process was repeated nine times and a set union of ‘confirmed’ features from all iterations were used for further analysis.

Hyperparameter tuning

The number of XGBoost trees (‘n_estimators’) was tuned for each ICD10 code. For this, equal numbers of age–gender matched controls as cases were shortlisted for each ICD10 code. The XGBoost classifier was then fit on the entire dataset using each of the n_estimators values {50, 100, 200, 300} and its performance was recorded in terms of area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). The n_estimators value giving the highest AUROC for each ICD10 code was then used for further analysis.

Model prediction

Once the optimal number of n_estimators was determined for each ICD10 code, the next step was to predict the probability for each UKB participant of being a case given their biomarker profile. A predicted probability value closer to 1 denotes higher chances of a participant being a case while a value closer to 0 denotes higher chances of being a control. To obtain these predicted probabilities, steps outlined in the paragraph below were repeated ten times and average prediction probability across these ten iterations was calculated for each participant in the entire UKB.

In each iteration, all the cases ( n ) diagnosed with that ICD10 code were taken ( Methods section ‘Defining cases in UKB’) and controls (ctrl_ratio ×  n ) were randomly sampled ( Methods section ‘Defining controls in UKB’). Fivefold cross-validation was performed, where in each fold, four-fifths of the data (cases =  n  × 4/5, controls = ctrl_ratio ×  n  × 4/5) were used for training a ‘Balanced Ensemble Classifier’ and the remaining one-fifth (cases =  n  × 1/5, controls = ctrl_ratio ×  n  × 1/5) were used for testing model performance. A Balanced Ensemble Classifier trains an XGBoost classifier on an equal number of cases ( n  × 4/5) and controls ( n  × 4/5) by random subsampling from ctrl_ratio ×  n  × 4/5 controls without replacement and repeats the training process ctrl_ratio times to include all controls. The average performance from these four Balanced Ensemble Classifier repeats is reported as the performance of each cross-validation fold and the average performance across all five folds is reported as the performance of each overall iteration. An XGBoost classifier is then fitted on the entire training dataset (cases =  n , controls = ctrl_ratio ×  n ) to generate prediction probabilities for all UKB participants.

We also compared the predictive performance of XGBoost with other classification models, such as logistic regression (LR) and the autoencoder DL model. We observed that XGBoost gave a better performance than LR and comparable performance to DL (AUC XGBoost versus AUC LR : 0.655 ± 0.09 versus 0.646 ± 0.09, MWU two-sided P  = 0.000012; AUC XGBoost versus AUC DL : 0.655 ± 0.09 versus 0.656 ± 0.08, MWU two-sided P  = 0.025; Supplementary Fig. 28 ).

Additionally, we compared performance reported on cross-validation set (averaged across five folds before calculating median across ten replicates) with performance reported on a held-out test set when only 85% of data were used for training MILTON models and the remaining 15% of unseen data were used for testing model performance. Across 100 ICD10 codes, we observed performance measures to be comparable (mostly within ±0.1 difference range; Supplementary Fig. 29 ) across the two sets and decided to use all available data for training MILTON while reporting performance measures from cross-validation sets.

MILTON-augmented case cohort generation

For each ICD10 code, four novel case ratio (NCR)-based cohorts, namely ‘L0’, ‘L1’, ‘L2’ and ‘L3’, were generated. Here, NCR is defined as 1 + ((number of new cases)/(number of known cases)). The distribution of sex for each new cohort was matched with that of known cases.

To generate NCR-based MILTON cohorts with known and new cases for each ICD10 code, all known cases were assigned an average prediction probability of 1 and any not-known participant with probability less than 0.7 was filtered out. All the remaining not-known participants were ranked in decreasing order of their average prediction probability, that is, a participant with highest prediction probability will have rank 1, second highest prediction probability will have rank 2 and so on. These ranks were then divided by the number of known cases to obtain an (NCR − 1) score per participant. Therefore, if the total number of known cases is ten, then adding all not-known participants with rank less than or equal to 3 will give an NCR of 1 + (3/10) = 1.3. The range of NCR was clipped between 1 (no new cases) and 10 (number of new cases = 9 × number of known cases), and it was divided into four quantiles: NCR q1 , NCR q2 , NCR q3 , NCR q4 . All not-known cases with rank less than equal to (NCR q1  − 1) × (number of known cases) were added to ‘L0’ cohort, all not-known cases with rank less than equal to (NCR q2  − 1) × (number of known cases) were added to ‘L1’ cohort and so on for the ‘L2’ and ‘L3’ cohorts. All known cases were then added to each of these NCR-based case cohorts.

To assess the suitability of using dichotomized MILTON-augmented cohorts, that is, considering an individual as a case or control, we also repeated rare-variant collapsing analysis by taking the MILTON-predicted probability scores as continuous measures ( Supplementary Notes ). Upon comparing gene–ICD10 associations ( P  < 10 −8 ) obtained from this new approach with those obtained using dichotomized cohorts, only 30.37% ( n  = 82) of baseline associations were recovered in this approach having the same direction of effect, compared with 87.41% ( n  = 236) recovered when using the dichotomized cohorts (Supplementary Fig. 10 and Supplementary Table 14 ). Furthermore, we noticed that while we recovered 99.62% ( n  = 1,043) of known quantitative and 73.63% ( n  = 134) of putative novel associations with the new approach, it also led to a staggeringly high number of putative novel associations ( n  = 7,365). Given the low sensitivity achieved when using prediction scores as a continuous phenotype, we expect a very large number of false positives among the putative novel hits. We believe that these signals may be contributed by the genetic architecture of individuals with lower probability scores and, therefore, decided to proceed with the original dichotomized cohorts.

PheWAS collapsing analysis on case–control cohorts

The PheWAS collapsing analysis was performed on each {ICD10 code, case cohort, QV model} combination using whole-genome sequencing data from UKB participants of different ancestries (EUR = 419,391; SAS = 8,577; AFR = 7,731; EAS = 2,312; AMR = 706). All noncases according to each {ICD10 code, case cohort} pair were taken as controls and matched with sex distribution of cases. A 2 × 2 contingency table was generated between cases and controls with or without QVs in each gene 4 . Fisher’s exact test (two-sided) was performed with the null hypothesis being that there is no difference in the number of QVs in each gene between cases and controls 4 . All genes with a P value less than 1 × 10 −8 were considered to be significantly associated with the given ICD10 code for a given QV model and case–control cohort.

Clonal hematopoiesis is the presence of clonal somatic mutations in the blood of individuals without a hematologic malignancy 50 , and these somatic variants can be detected with germline variant callers 51 . To avoid conflating somatic with germline variants, and age-confounded disease associations, we removed from further analysis 16 genes we previously identified in the UKB as carrying clonal somatic mutations 15 , 52 ( ASXL1 , BRAF , DNMT3A , GNB1 , IDH2 , JAK2 , KRAS , MPL , NRAS , PPM1D , PRPF8 , SF3B1 , SRSF2 , TET2 , TP53 and CALR ). A few other problematic genes as listed in ref. 4 have also been removed from further investigation.

GWAS analysis on case–control cohorts

We selected 20 binary phenotypes for common variant GWAS analysis by randomly selecting one ICD10 code from each of the four AUC-specific and five training case-specific bins obtained from time-agnostic, EUR ancestry models (Supplementary Table 15 ). We used UKB imputed genotypes (UKB Field 22828) to perform GWAS across baseline and L0–L3 MILTON cohorts using REGENIE (v.3.1) 53 with sex, age, age × sex, age 2 , age 2  × sex, array batch and ancestry principal components (principal components 1–10, as supplied by the UKB). For step 1, we used high-quality genotyped (UKB field 22000) variants with minor allele frequency (MAF) > 0.01, minor allele count (MAC) > 100, missing genotype fail rate < 1% and P Hardy–Weinberg > 1 × 10 −15 , which we pruned based on linkage disequilibrium (LD) using PLINK2 ( R 2  < 0.8, using a 1-Mb window with 100-kb step size). For step 2, we included all imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms with an INFO score > 0.7 and a minimum MAC of 400 with the same covariates as for step 1 and used approximate Firth regression to adjust for case–control imbalance.

To define association loci for each trait, we first selected all variants with P  < 5 × 10 −8 across ‘known’ and L0–L3 cohorts. We then iteratively clumped these variants based on the 2-Mb region regardless of the cohort defining the variant with the smallest P value to index the locus across all cohorts. We annotated the closest gene using Ensembl (GRCh37) Biomart using the biomaRt package.

FIS calculation

During model training, the XGBoost classifier was enabled to return the relative biomarker (feature) importance scores (FISs) for each feature. FIS was calculated for each ‘n_estimator’ in XGBoost using the Gain measure, which quantifies average performance improvement when a given feature is used for making a decision split. This process was repeated for all ‘n_estimators’ and average FISs were reported for each trained XGBoost model. Because we used a balanced Ensemble classifier to train 19 XGBoost models on 19 different subsamples of controls (ctrl_ratio parameter; Methods section ‘Model prediction’) within fivefold cross-validation for each of ten replicates, the mean of those 19 × 5 × 10 average FISs was reported for each ICD10 code and feature as the final importance score.

Finding optimal FIS cut-off

For each time-model, nonzero FISs per ICD10 code were first log-transformed and then standardized to have zero mean and unit standard deviation. Transformed FISs for top features per ICD10 code per time-model were extracted and compared with the median AUC of ICD10 codes across ten replicates. It was observed that transformed FISs of top features highly correlated with AUC performance of ICD10 codes (Pearson’s correlation coefficient > 0.80; Supplementary Fig. 7e ). This suggested that high-performing models with AUC > 0.80 identified dominating features and assigned high FISs to them (>4 s.d. away from the mean FIS). A threshold of 1.2 was therefore chosen for further analysis because it captured dominating features for most ICD10 codes with median AUC > 0.6 for which we made results available. This value comes from rounding up to the first decimal place the 25th percentile of feature importance Z -scores for top features of ICD10 codes with AUC 0.60–0.65 (Supplementary Fig. 7e ). By selecting this cut-off, we confirmed as a positive control for PKD1 (which had a relatively large number of putative novel associations in the unfiltered set of results) that the number of putative novel associations remained below the number of known binary associations, while it started exceeding them for higher FIS Z -score cut-offs (Supplementary Fig. 7f ).

Comparison with Mantis-ML (v.2.0)

Stepwise hypergeometric tests proceed through identifying a ranked list of genes (ordered from most to least associated according to Mantis-ML (v.2.0) 39 , 40 ) and a set of genes ‘known’ to be associated. The latter may be a list of tentatively associated genes, provided, for example, by a PheWAS with a relaxed P value threshold. The test then iteratively goes through the ranked list, marking the N , N  + 1, N  + 2 and so on genes as associated in the ranked list, and quantifies the overlap between this and the latter (the set of known associated genes) using Fisher’s exact test. In this way, we may observe whether there is substantial overlap, not by chance, between the two without specifying a threshold for the ranked list. The output of this exercise is a sequence of P values that can be converted to scores using −10log 10 P transformation. Finally, to provide a simple summary statistic for the test we may take the AUC, where the curve is defined as max(−10log 10 (0.05), −10log 10 P ), that is, the area exceeding α  = 0.05 significance. Requiring that the curves exceed 0.05 significance allows for a certain degree of noise to be filtered out. In this setting, genes from MILTON with a weak significance were used and the top 5% of Mantis-ML (v.2.0)-associated genes were used as the ranked list. Of note, Mantis-ML (v.2.0) uses HPO while MILTON uses ICD10 codes, and thus manual HPO-to-ICD10 mapping was first performed (Supplementary Table 16 ).

Comorbidity enrichment analysis

The comorbidity enrichment analysis performs a Fisher’s exact test for all distinct ICD10 diagnoses within the selected cohort of UKB participants to find diseases that have significantly higher incidence in the cohort as compared with the general population (the rest of the UKB participants). ICD10 codes are scored according to the results of their Fisher’s tests to highlight the most relevant ones. Fisher’s exact test produces by default two numbers: P value and odds ratio. The former is a measure of how significant the disease enrichment in the selected cohort is, while the latter corresponds to the effect size, that is, how much more likely the participants from the selected cohort are to be diagnosed with the disease. The score then is taken to be the log of odds ratio, capped at a high value, and normalized to 100 to facilitate visualization of results.

Statistics and reproducibility

Data distribution was assumed to be normal, but this was not formally tested. N  = 484,230 whole-genome sequencing samples from the UKB were derived after quality control checks and filtering for relatedness.

Those ICD10 codes that had less than 100 diagnosed cases were excluded from analysis ( Methods section ‘Defining cases in UKB’). Under prognostic or diagnostic time-models, those individuals who were diagnosed after or before sample collection were excluded, respectively ( Methods section ‘Filtering based on lag between sample collection and diagnosis’). For ICD10 codes inferred to be sex-specific, any individuals from the opposite sex were excluded from analysis ( Methods section ‘Filtering based on sex-specificity of an ICD10 code’). For a given ICD10 code, those individuals who were diagnosed with any code within the same ICD10 chapter were excluded from the control set ( Methods section ‘Defining controls in UKB’).

Randomization was performed ten times to select case-matched controls for each ICD10 code (Supplementary Fig. 24 and Methods section ‘Model prediction’).

The investigators were not blinded to allocation during experiments and outcome assessment. Data collection and analysis were not performed blind to the conditions of the experiments.

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

All the biomarker information, diagnosis information along with relevant dates and whole-genome sequencing data can be obtained from the UKB ( http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/register-apply ). The list of 67 quantitative traits along with their UKB field IDs is given in Supplementary Table 10 and can be found on the UKB showcase portal ( https://biobank.ndph.ox.ac.uk/showcase/search.cgi ). UKB plasma proteomics data can also be found here: https://biobank.ndph.ox.ac.uk/showcase/label.cgi?id=1838 . Data for this study were obtained under Resource Application Numbers 68601 and 26041. FinnGen GWAS summary statistics results can be downloaded from here: https://www.finngen.fi/en/access_results . Baseline quantitative PheWAS results can be accessed through the AZ PheWAS portal: https://www.azphewas.com . Ensembl Human GRCh37: https://grch37.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Info/Index . All results produced in this study are available in the supplementary tables and can be visualized on the MILTON web-portal ( http://milton.public.cgr.astrazeneca.com ). PheWAS/ExWAS (allelic model) results for each gene/variant as well as FISs for each ICD10 code can also be downloaded from the MILTON public portal. To aid with visualization, PheWAS/ExWAS results are shown for 67 biomarkers while FISs are shown for 67 biomarkers with or without UKB protein expression data. All results on the portal are for EUR ancestry only, which composed the majority of results (see the supplementary tables for all ancestries). Source data corresponding to all main figures are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The MILTON source code and example data are publicly available at Zenodo 54 ( https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13134143 ) and GitHub ( https://github.com/astrazeneca-cgr-publications/milton-release ), under the Mozilla Public License v.2.0. MILTON accesses UKB individual-level data; therefore, users first need to apply to UKB to request access to the UKB input files. Detailed documentation is included in our MILTON repository to convert those files into an appropriate format, ready to be used by the MILTON package. Mock data files with the expected format are already provided in our repository for reference and testing. All results are also publicly available at http://milton.public.cgr.astrazeneca.com .

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Acknowledgements

We thank the UK Biobank team and participants for making this valuable resource possible. We thank the participants and investigators of the FinnGen study. We also thank the AstraZeneca Centre for Genomics Research Analytics and Informatics teams for their feedback and help with accessing certain datasets. The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Author information

These authors contributed equally: Manik Garg, Marcin Karpinski.

Authors and Affiliations

Centre for Genomics Research, Discovery Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK

Manik Garg, Marcin Karpinski, Dorota Matelska, Lawrence Middleton, Oliver S. Burren, Fengyuan Hu, Eleanor Wheeler, Katherine R. Smith, Margarete A. Fabre, Jonathan Mitchell, Amanda O’Neill, Andrew R. Harper, Slavé Petrovski & Dimitrios Vitsios

Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Margarete A. Fabre

Department of Haematology, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK

Clindatapark Ltd, Babraham, Cambridge, UK

Amanda O’Neill

Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Euan A. Ashley

Clinical Development, Research and Early Development, Respiratory and Immunology (R&I), BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK

Andrew R. Harper

Centre for Genomics Research, Discovery Sciences, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, Waltham, MA, USA

Quanli Wang & Ryan S. Dhindsa

Department of Medicine, Austin Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Slavé Petrovski

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Contributions

D.V. and S.P. conceptualized and designed the study. M.K., M.G. and D.V. developed the method and generated phenome-wide results. M.G., M.K., D.M., L.M., O.S.B., F.H., E.W., K.R.S., A.O’N., Q.W., A.R.H., R.S.D., S.P. and D.V. contributed to the methods and analytical strategies. D.M., M.K. and D.V. developed the web-portal. L.M., M.G., M.K. and O.S.B. performed validation analyses. M.G., M.K., L.M., O.S.B., J.M., A.R.H., R.S.D., S.P. and D.V. contributed to exploration and interpretation of results. M.G., L.M., J.M., M.A.F., E.A.A., A.R.H., R.S.D., S.P. and D.V. wrote the paper. All authors provided input and revisions for the final paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Slavé Petrovski or Dimitrios Vitsios .

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Competing interests.

M.G., M.K., D.M., L.M., O.S.B., F.H., E.W., K.R.S., M.A.F., J.M., A.O’N., E.A.A., A.R.H., Q.W., R.S.D., S.P. and D.V. are current employees and/or stockholders of AstraZeneca. E.A.A. is a founder of Personalis, Inc., DeepCell, Inc. and Svexa Inc.; a founding advisor of Nuevocor; a nonexecutive director at AstraZeneca; and an advisor to SequenceBio, Novartis, Medical Excellence Capital, Foresite Capital and Third Rock Ventures.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary information.

Supplementary Notes, references and Figs. 1–30.

Reporting Summary

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Supplementary Tables 1–20.

Source Data Fig. 2

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Source Data Fig. 4

Statistical source data used for reproducing main Fig. 4. Each tab contains data for each figure panel.

Source Data Fig. 5

Statistical source data used for reproducing main Fig. 5. Each tab contains data for each figure panel.

Source Data Fig. 6

Statistical source data used for reproducing main Fig. 6. Each tab contains data for each figure panel.

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Garg, M., Karpinski, M., Matelska, D. et al. Disease prediction with multi-omics and biomarkers empowers case–control genetic discoveries in the UK Biobank. Nat Genet 56 , 1821–1831 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-01898-1

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Published : 11 September 2024

Issue Date : September 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-01898-1

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A Case Study Assessing the Cumulative Effects of Deepwater Horizon Restoration Projects on Barrier Island/Barrier Shoreline Ecosystem Resilience in the North-central Gulf of Mexico

USGS and partners will assess the potential cumulative effects of restoration projects on the resiliency of barrier islands and barrier shorelines in the north-central Gulf of Mexico.

The Science Issue and Relevance:   The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) mobile drilling unit explosion and associated oil spill in April 2010 substantially impacted northern Gulf of Mexico coastal ecosystems, exacerbating existing acute and chronic stressors. As part of the  Natural Resource Damage Assessment process, along with civil and criminal claims, and imposed fines and penalties, over $15 billion (USD) in funding was dedicated to addressing environmental and economic restoration. Since DWH, hundreds of projects have been planned and implemented across the coast with the overall goal of restoring ecosystem function and services. Given the unprecedented temporal, spatial, and funding scales associated with the DWH oil spill restoration effort, the need for robust monitoring was identified early on to help inform adaptive management and provide a means to assess restoration outcomes. Many restoration projects provide project-specific monitoring data (for example,  DIVER website ), which offer insight into project-specific outcomes. However, these data alone fall short of informing outcomes at the ecosystem or regional level that may incorporate cumulative, synergistic or antagonistic effects across a habitat type or geographic area. 

A recent  National Academies of Sciences Report focused on the need to develop approaches that specifically assess cumulative impacts of restoration across a geographic- or ecosystem-level scale. Such an approach requires understanding not just project-level outcomes, but also understanding the cumulative effects of multiple restoration projects on an ecosystem, and their interaction with impacts of on-going acute and chronic stressors (for example, sea-level rise). Over 85 restoration projects have been implemented across the north-central Gulf of Mexico coast as part of the DWH restoration response. These restoration activities provide an opportunity to examine cause and effect related to restoration actions, and more specifically, how on-going trends in the resilience and ecological changes in the barrier island/barrier shoreline (BI/BS) systems may differ from expected or predicted trends for this region.

Methodology for Addressing the Issue: The Louisiana State University, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USGS, and the Water Institute of the Gulf are collaborating on a case study to assess the potential cumulative effects of DWH restoration projects on the resiliency of the BI/BS in the north-central Gulf of Mexico. The area of interest for this study will span from Dauphin Island in Alabama (Fig. 1) to Alligator Point in Florida (Point Bald State Park; Fig. 2). To achieve this objective, we will: 1) develop a conceptual model of BI/BS that identifies drivers, stressors, and outcome metrics to track BI/BS resiliency; 2) document changes in BI/BS resiliency indicators using available project and remotely sensed data; and 3) explore metrics to assess potential changes in these resiliency indicators in response to DWH restoration projects. 

Future Steps: The next steps include the assessment of potential cumulative effects of BI/BS and dissemination of results. This effort could be expanded via future updates with new or planned restoration activities and remote sensing data.

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Business school teaching case study: Turning off carbon while keeping the lights on

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Morris Mthombeni and Albert Wocke

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Read the professors’ business school-style case study before considering the issues raised in the box at the end.

At the end of last year, Dan Marokane became the 12th chief executive of Eskom in the past decade alone. He returned to the embattled South African state-owned utility monopoly, which he had left in 2015, to tackle the tensions between fixing the company to ensure energy security in South Africa and meeting its “just energy transition” commitments to lower emissions.

At COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, in December 2021, the US, EU, UK, France and Germany pledged $8.5bn to help South Africa shut its coal-fired powered stations. Eskom generates more than 90 per cent of electricity used in South Africa and the Southern African Development Community region, of which 85 per cent is produced from fossil fuels.

Overall, the energy sector contributes 41 per cent of South Africa’s CO₂ emissions, according to the World Bank , earning Eskom the dubious honour of being called “the world’s worst polluting power company” by some environmental groups. Eskom also finds itself at odds with climate activists and academics such as those from University College London and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, who argue that “no more fossil fuel projects are needed as renewable energy sources take up the demand”.

In addition, since 2008, Eskom has struggled with debilitating national blackouts euphemistically known as “load shedding”. These were caused by insufficient generation to meet demand for power as a result of poor management, corruption and bad political decisions. Electricity prices spiked and the lack of power further weakened the South African economy, costing as much as £40mn per day.

The authors

Morris Mthombeni and Albert Wocke are professors at the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria in South Africa; Professor Mthombeni is also dean at Gibs

During the first half of 2024, the situation appeared finally to be stabilising, following the appointment of Mteto Nyati as Eskom chairman. Nyati had a successful track record in the technology and telecommunication sectors. Marokane, as a new chief executive with a supportive board chair, is also able to draw on his prior experience at Eskom, when he was in charge of generation.

Marokane has cautioned that, while there has been no load shedding for several months, “South Africa is not out of the woods yet”. His strategy includes carrying out extensive maintenance at underperforming coal-fired power stations that had been poorly maintained, and dismissing corrupt or incompetent managers. The turnaround is complicated by a new business model and the need for Eskom to move to cleaner energy production as part of the just transition programme.

Eskom was a vertically integrated business since its inception in 1923 but, in 2019, the South African government began a process of unbundling the company into separate subsidiaries for generation, transmission and distribution. The objective was to tackle the problems that led to load shedding and improve efficiency and transparency, reduce rent seeking, and protect capital providers interests.

The first division to be spun off in July this year was transmission, now an Eskom subsidiary known as the National Transmission Company South Africa, which operates with a separate board and management team. This has the potential to be the most profitable of the subsidiaries and will run the transmission system and buy electricity from multiple generators, not only Eskom. It will eventually provide a platform for generators, consumers, retailers and traders to trade with each other, as happens in a number of other countries. But Marokane might want to push back the timing of the spin-off for two related reasons.

First, Eskom ought to protect its less profitable generation division, currently dominated by fossil-fuel energy sources. In July, Eskom spoke out against government plans to issue licences allowing private generators to sell directly to customers, and to permit the import of energy into South Africa. The company was concerned that applicants would be able to cherry-pick customers, leaving existing small users without the present cross-subsidy from larger consumers.

Second, to meet its carbon emission reduction targets, Eskom must find a way to address a continuing reliance on fossil fuels as the main source of energy in its generation division. The company had pledged at COP26 to reduce emissions from 442mn tons a year to between 350mn and 420mn tons by 2030. Retaining transmission capability within Eskom could help support a sustainable restructure, leading to a better funded just transition plan.

Marokane was confident Eskom would reduce about 71mn tons of CO₂ from generation by 2030, as it aggressively built a renewable energy portfolio. Yet it has failed to repurpose its 63-year-old 1,000MW Komati power station, east of Pretoria — it was finally decommissioned in October 2022.

Owing to the social consequences of the loss of hundreds of jobs at the fossil-fuelled Komati, which were replaced by many fewer focusing on social entrepreneurship initiatives, Marokane described it as an “ atomic bomb scenario in terms of social discord”.

Despite partnering with the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to redeploy the hundreds of people who lost jobs after the closure of Komati, Eskom has found that the path to a just energy transition is not a smooth one.

Discussion points

See the FT video above, and:

ft.com/eskom-case1

ft.com/eskon-case2

Considering the current strategy to unbundle Eskom into generation, distribution and transmission subsidiaries, how can the company make its generation business comfortably profitable?

Is the organisational restructure a crucial part of Eskom’s plan to achieve its emission reduction targets? If Eskom believed the restructure was unnecessary for it achieve its 2030 emissions reduction targets, could Marokane and his team consider retaining the current structure for the foreseeable future?

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