Other online forms of teasing that children use are frightening someone, putting a photo of the target online, or hacking homepages.

Almost one fifth of the children said they thought that online bullying is funny because nobody knows you are doing it.

“Yes, I bully through MSN, but that’s for fun”, admitted one 15 year-old boy.

Those on the receiving end unsurprisingly see things differently.  The majority of teens spoke out against online bullying.  82% of all teens think that calling somebody names per email is mean and offensive, and 86% think that deliberately sending a virus is certainly not funny.

It seems more difficult for parents and teachers to intervene with online bullying. Whereas 86% of the children report that teachers intervene in “real life” bullying, only 43% report teacher intervention in online bullying.

At the same time, children seem to be more able to defend themselves against online bullying. Harassing emails tend to be deleted quickly, and the sender is blacklisted or blocked.

Planet Internet hopes their reports will make children, parents and teachers more aware of online bullying. For each of these groups the provider has developed dedicated websites with safer Internet information. These now include information on online bullying, as well as tips and measures on how to act against it.