10 percent of Osaka school children complain of online harassment

The Mainichi Shimbun
March 13, 2008
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080313p2a00m0na007000c.html

OSAKA -- More than one in 10 junior and senior high school students in the city of Osaka have been harassed or bad mouthed on Internet bulletin boards, blogs or via e-mail, according to a survey.

The municipal board of education will report the results of the survey to a council of intellectuals and will look into strengthening measures to support students so that they can seek advice when they were exposed to online harassment.

The survey, conducted by the Osaka Municipal Board of Education, covered about 70,000 students at all the municipal junior and senior high schools in of the city of Osaka between December and January. Some 62,690 students responded.

The results have shown that 13 percent of junior high school students who own either a personal computer or a mobile phone have been harassed or bad mouthed on the Net, while the figure stood at 14 percent for high school equivalents.

The poll asked the students what kind of harassment they were subjected to, allowing them to give multiple answers. About 70 percent said they were spoken ill of on Internet bulletin boards or blogs, while about 30 percent said their name was used by others without their approval. Another 30 percent said e-mails defaming them were distributed to other people.

More than 50 percent of both junior and senior high school students said they knew who harassed them. However, about 30 percent of the victims had never consulted anyone about the harassment.

Meanwhile, 8 percent of both junior and senior high respondents said they have harassed others. Their reasons centered on either not liking the people they harassed or they simply paid back their harassers.

The poll also showed that 61 percent of junior high school students own a personal computer that is connectable to the Internet, while 69 percent of the high school counterparts responded the same.

Some 68 percent of junior high respondents and 91 percent of senior high pollees said they own a mobile phone.

Of them, 28 percent of junior high and 40 percent of senior high respondents said they use the Internet or e-mail more than three hours a day. As many as one in five female junior high students said they send more than 50 e-mails a day.

（Mainichi Japan） March 13, 2008