In the digital era, school bullying has transcended physical boundaries to manifest in cyberspace. According to a UNICEF survey in 30 countries, one in three young people has been a victim of cyberbullying, and one in five has missed school as a result of this form of violence. This phenomenon makes no distinction between developed and developing nations, revealing a global issue that deeply affects the wellbeing and education of children and adolescents.
Young people’s rapid adoption of digital technologies has, in many cases, outpaced the ability of parents, educators, and education systems to provide adequate guidance. The lack of digital competencies, critical thinking, and media literacy leaves minors vulnerable to the risks of the digital environment, including cyberbullying.
The school environment, traditionally seen as a space for protection and socialisation, now faces the challenge of preparing its students to operate safely, ethically, and consciously in digital settings. Removing technology from classrooms may seem like a quick fix, but it ignores the root of the problem: the absence of digital skills that enable new generations to understand, question, and use technology constructively.
This article examines how the lack of digital education contributes to the rise in cyberbullying, the need to embed digital skills development into education systems, and how proper training can empower young people to navigate the digital world safely and responsibly.
A Growing Problem: Data and Trends in Digital Bullying
Cyberbullying has become an increasing concern in school communities around the world. According to the OECD, 15% of teenagers reported having been victims of cyberbullying at least once or twice in recent months, and a UNICEF survey in 30 countries revealed that more than a third of young people have been bullied online, with one in five skipping school as a result. Social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the most common venues for cyberbullying.
The time teenagers spend on social media has increased significantly in recent years. A study by Common Sense Media shows that teens spend an average of over eight hours a day on screen activities, often without adult supervision or training in digital citizenship. However, early and prolonged connectivity is not always matched with proper education on the critical and ethical use of technology, increasing their exposure to risks such as cyberbullying.
Data from Save the Children in their 2023 report Violencia Viral reveals worrying details: more than 529,000 young people in Spain have experienced cyberbullying during childhood. In nearly half the cases involving girls (46.7%) and a third involving boys (33.1%), the perpetrators were classmates or close friends, highlighting the relational nature of this form of violence. Moreover, practices such as happy slapping—recording physical or verbal assaults to share on social media—have already affected more than 76,000 minors, with 61% of the incidents committed by known individuals.
Other risks, such as involuntary exposure to sexual or violent content, affect one in two teenagers, shaping their attitudes and perceptions about social interaction and human relationships in troubling ways.
The trend is clear: the greater the access and the lesser the education, the higher the risk that the online environment becomes a space of silent violence. Preventing this requires integrating the development of critical digital skills from an early age, enabling young people to act consciously and respectfully in digital environments.
Withdrawing technology from the classroom means ignoring the root of the problem: the lack of digital skills that would enable the new generations to understand, question and use technology constructively.
Digital Competencies: An Educational Gap
While internet and device access are now widespread among teenagers, the acquisition of critical digital skills remains a gap in many education systems. Basic technical literacy—knowing how to use a device or navigate an app—does not guarantee ethical, safe, or conscious use of digital tools.
The European Commission, through the DigComp 2.2 framework, defines digital competence as encompassing skills such as managing online information, respectful online communication, responsible content creation, protecting personal data, and solving technical problems. However, numerous studies warn that these essential competencies are not being systematically taught or assessed in most schools.
Key dimensions of digital competencies include:
Media Literacy
This involves the ability to access, analyse, evaluate, and create content across various digital formats. It’s not just about searching for information but also about distinguishing between reliable sources and manipulated or false content. Recent studies by Stanford University show that over 80% of secondary students struggle to identify sponsored content or differentiate real news from intentional misinformation. Media literacy is essential to stop the spread of hoaxes that can fuel bullying, hate, or exclusion in school and social environments.
Digital Critical Thinking
This is the ability to reflectively analyse what we consume and produce online. According to Microsoft’s 2023 Online Safety Report, 74% of surveyed teenagers reported experiencing some form of online risk, including cyberbullying, hate speech, or threats of violence. In an era of immediacy, where content is often shared without verification, digital critical thinking teaches how to question information, detect hidden intentions, and act knowledgeably. In the context of cyberbullying, this skill is vital to avoid unintentionally becoming an amplifier of attacks, rumours, or defamation.
Empathetic Online Communication
In a world where communication often occurs through screens, digital empathy becomes crucial. Understanding that behind every message, comment, or post there is a real person with emotions and dignity helps to curb contempt, ridicule, or exclusion that may lead to bullying. Encouraging respectful communication on social media, forums, and school groups is a primary prevention strategy. Research from Florida Atlantic University showed that students with higher levels of empathy, especially cognitive empathy, were significantly less likely to engage in cyberbullying, including prejudice-based behaviours.
Digital Safety and Citizenship
This includes knowing the risks and best practices to protect both one’s own identity and that of others online. Understanding how to set social media privacy settings, spot impersonation attempts, safeguard passwords, or report inappropriate conduct are essential skills. But it also means understanding one’s rights and responsibilities as a digital citizen—respecting others’ privacy, using personal data responsibly, and promoting safe, fair digital environments.
The integration of digital skills into education systems remains limited and uneven. This educational gap leaves millions of students without the necessary tools to identify fake news, respond to hate speech, or protect their online identity. Failing to systematically incorporate digital education in schools is akin to preparing students for a world that no longer exists, where digital risks weren’t part of daily life. Today, critical and responsible digital citizenship should be a core pillar of every educational project.
The Role of Schools: Teaching Digital Citizenship
In this context, integrating digital education into school systems is not an option but a necessity for the holistic development of students in the 21st century.
Numerous reports from international organisations and academic research affirm this. For instance, the study Cyberbullying, Digital Divide, and Digital Skills for Online Coexistence shows that acquiring digital skills related to responsible communication, creativity, and online citizenship significantly reduces young people’s involvement in the roles of victim, aggressor, and bystander in cyberbullying.
Similarly, the research Digital Literacy and Cyberbullying Behaviour of Youths on Instagram reveals that higher levels of digital literacy among teenagers are associated with reduced cyberbullying behaviour on social networks. The study found that digital literacy explains 23.7% of the variability in bullying behaviour.
Complementing this evidence, Stanford University’s Civic Online Reasoning (COR) project provides strong findings. Through longitudinal studies conducted between 2019 and 2021, COR showed that teenagers who receive systematic training in information verification, source evaluation, and lateral reading significantly improve their ability to resist misinformation, hate speech, and manipulated content on digital platforms.
In light of this, removing or restricting technology from educational settings is not only counterproductive—it is outright dangerous. Denying students guided access to digital environments increases their vulnerability: rather than eliminating risks, it exacerbates them, depriving young people of the critical knowledge needed to protect themselves, discern real from fake information, and participate consciously and constructively in digital public life. As the Anti-Bullying Alliance emphasises in its recent report on media literacy and online bullying, educational interventions in digital skills are among the most effective tools for preventing school violence and promoting empathy and responsibility in virtual spaces.
Digital Competencies Against Violence: Educating to Protect
Bullying and cyberbullying are not unavoidable accidents of the digital world—they are the result of an educational gap that exposes children and adolescents to forms of violence for which they are not prepared. The data paint an alarming picture: as internet access grows, so do experiences of violence, exclusion, and humiliation among young people—often at the hands of their peers.
The lack of critical digital skills, ethical thinking, and media literacy exacerbates this situation. Without the tools to discern, communicate empathetically, and act responsibly, students are more vulnerable not only as victims but may also, unknowingly, become aggressors or silent accomplices. Cyberbullying—more persistent, more invisible, and more devastating than traditional bullying—thrives in the absence of digital education.
Removing technology from classrooms will not solve this problem. On the contrary: depriving young people of a conscious, critical education in digital environments will leave them even more exposed, defenceless against the dynamics of hate, exclusion, and violence that flourish on social media. As the research in this article shows, developing digital skills significantly reduces cyberbullying rates and strengthens students’ resilience and self-protection abilities.
In the face of increasing online bullying, the response cannot be prohibition or ignorance—it must be education. Educating critical digital citizens is now a matter of basic protection, social justice, and human dignity. It is about teaching that social networks are not exempt from ethics but are instead an extension of our responsibility as individuals and as a society.
