Nearly six out of every 10 teens in the U.S. have been the targets of threats, smears, rumors or innuendoes through social media, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center.
Name-calling is the most common kind of harassment, with 42 percent of teenagers (age 13 to 17) saying they've experienced it, mostly through text messages. About 32 percent said they've been the subject of false rumors.
Almost as many boys experienced some kind of cyberbullying as girls – 59 percent and 60 percent, respectively – but girls were significantly more likely to face false rumors and receive explicit images they didn't ask for.
Click here for a complete rundown of Pew's poll results.
Locally, the 2016 suicide of David Molak, an Alamo Heights teen who'd been relentlessly threatened and taunted online and by text, focused attention on cyberbullying. In the 2017 Texas legislature, state Sen. Jose Menendez and Rep. Ina Minjarez passed David's Law, which made the practice a crime.
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