The age-old problem of bullying in schools has spilled into cyberspace and is swelling with the burgeoning role of the online world in real life.

Experts said that cyber bullying refers to repeated aggressive acts carried out over digital devices and related platforms, such as social media, blogs and text messages.

More secondary school students here feel that they have been on the receiving end of hostile acts online, a recent poll by cyber wellness firm Kingmaker Consultancy found.

The firm has been tracking online aggression for several years by conducting annual surveys with thousands of students. This year, it surveyed some 2,600 students aged 13 to 15 between January and June.

The teenagers reported that acts such as being left out of a group online on purpose were most common. Other acts included spreading rumours through text or online messages, uploading content that made fun of others, and sending offensive messages.

For instance, 43 per cent of male students reported being made fun of by others who posted pictures or jokes about them online. This is up from 36 per cent in the earlier poll. More female students also felt the same – 32 per cent in the latest survey, up from 28 per cent previously.

In the survey, up to a quarter of students also admitted that they had been the "bully" – making fun of others, gossiping or excluding another person from a group.

bbabo.Net