One in three Indian youths have been cyber-bullied: McAfee report

The report titled 'Tweens, Teens & Technology Report 2014' was conducted through a survey across Indian online youngsters aged 8-17 years

An exact 50 per cent of youngsters between the age of eight and 17 years have experienced 'cyber-bullying' on themselves or seen someone else go through it. Of these, nearly one-third have been target of this online-ragging, a report released by McAfee on Monday said.

'Cyber-bullying' refers to the bullying that takes place using electronic technology.

Cyber-bullying has been high because even as 80 per cent of youngsters are aware that their online activity can affect their identity, 92 per cent of them have posted something risky online, the report said. As many as 70 per cent of the youngsters have posted their contact details such as email, phone and home address, making them even more vulnerable.

While the minimum age to register on most social networking websites like Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, Tinder, Tumblr and Vine is 13 years, as per McAfee's report, kids between 10-12 years of age report higher daily access to these websites than their teenage counterparts.

McAfee's 'Tweens, Teens & Technology Report 2014' was conducted through a survey across Indian online youngsters aged 8-17 years, and included 711 male and 711 female respondents from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune.

Some other findings of the report that examined the online behaviour and social networking habits of Indian youngsters are:

* 52% of Indian youth access social media accounts while at school

* 53% have met someone in person that they first met online

* 63% do not turn off their location or GPS services across applications

* 64% youth admit to trying to reinvent their online persona, making themselves appear older

* 46% say they would put themselves in danger to get more activity on their posts

* 52% say their parents "simply don't care" about their online safety

* 70% of online youth in India spend more than 5 hours on the internet in a normal week

* 93% surveyed youngsters use Facebook, 87% use YouTube, 79% use WhatsApp

* 34% of youth stated they regretted posting something online

* 64% manage to hide their online behaviours from their parents

* 62% would change their online behaviour if they knew parents were watching.