Celebrities find their accounts hacked and their photos paraded online.  Journalists find themselves the subject of online threats.  But new findings by Pew Research show that Young Adults are the group most likely to suffer from online harassment and that fully 70% of youngest adults (age 18-24) report having suffered from undesirable online behavior.

Young women are the most likely to be targets of what Pew defines as “severe harassment”  which includes being stalked, sexually harassed and physically threatened.

 Among the most depressing findings from Pew were the fact that,” young women are uniquely likely to experience stalking and sexual harassment, while also not escaping the high rates of other types of harassment common to young people in general.” Men were more likely to find themselves the victims of name calling and embarrassment.

Pew reports that fully two-thirds of those who had been harassed said that the bad behavior had occurred on social media sites and half of those who had been targeted knew the perpetrator personally.

The study found that that 16% of those who had been the victims of harassment has suffered the abuse in online games, an area where more young adults and teens may congregate.

Cyberbullying and cyberstalking are not new but researchers are just beginning to understand their prevalence and how young adults may be the most common victims.  The consequences of such bullying can be severe with one study showing that those who had been victims were more likely to think about suicide and experience depressions and feelings of hopelessness.

The responses by both young men and women to these unwanted online attacks included confronting the attacker online, unfriending the perpetrator, reporting that person to the owner of the website, changing usernames and profiles as well as reporting the offender to law enforcement.  But the most common response (by 60% of victims) to online harassment was to simply ignore the incident.  Most young adults felt that ignoring the incident was effective and that no further action was needed.

The subject of online cruelty and harassment is not new but there is little longitudinal data to show if it is a growing trend or just the growing pains of a new medium.  Is online harassment as old as schoolyard bullying or is it something newer and more insidious?  Does the veil of anonymity leave all of us, and young adults in particular, vulnerable to unkind or even evil attacks?  What can parents teach their teens that will help them ward of unwanted online attention?  What can be done if you find yourself being harassed online by someone you do or do not know?

Experts suggest that those concerned about harassment be very cautious about their online postings, check that their privacy settings on social media are set to high, screenshot and record the URL of any site where the harassment has occurred, be cautious about providing personal information online and set up a Google Search on your own name. 

When looking at the these new and alarming statistics,  Alyssa Rosenberg of the Washington Post concludes, “In the end, it may be that the Internet leaves us more open and vulnerable to the rest of the world, for both good and ill. Venturing online may mean exposing ourselves to the cruelties of strangers.”