Good indications as to the incidence rates concerning bullying, aggressive behaviour and violence in schools have been developed both in Ireland (Minton & O’ Moore, 2008; O’ Moore, Kirkham & Smith, 1997; O’ Moore & Minton, 2003) and internationally (see Smith, 2003; Smith et al., 1999, for reviews). However, very few empirically-based surveys of cyber-bullying (Li, 2006; Smith et al., 2006; Vandebosch et al., 2006) have been conducted (Minton, 2008). The present chapter will report on a study of 2, 794 students from eight post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland (the entire student body of the first, second, third and fourth years - ca. 12 - 16 years of age) who completed a specially-designed 38-item questionnaire, administered according to standardised instructions by class teachers in normal school time. Across the sample, around one in seven students reported having been cyber-bullied over the past couple of months, and around one in eleven reported having taken part in the cyber-bullying of others at school within the past couple of months. Incidence rates of having been subjected to and having perpetrated sub-categories of cyber-bullying were also obtained (text message bullying, the sending of pictures and video clips via mobile telephones, threatening calls, e-mails, Instant Messages, and abuse via the Internet (social networking sites and chat rooms) were also obtained. In many sub-categories of cyber-abuse (see below) the incidence rates were slightly higher amongst girls than they were amongst boys. A further finding was that the use of social networking Internet sites was very frequent, with over three-quarters of the sample having used Bebo and You Tube within the past couple of months. Few people who had been cyber-bullied (about 6 per cent) reported it to adults at school; they were over twice as likely to do nothing at all, five times more likely to send an angry message back, and five times more likely to talk to a friend. The findings confirm that the incidence of cyber-bullying amongst post-primary students in schools in Ireland is significant, and that its seriousness as an issue should not be underestimated
