Research indicates that as many as 75 percent of teens have been bullied online, but only one in 10 have reported the problem to parents or other adults, a new study shows.

The study, published in the September issue of The Journal of School Health, is the latest to sound the alarm about so-called cyber-bullying, which can occur on social networking sites and in e-mail and text messages. Sometimes cyber-bullying involves taunting or threatening e-mail or text messages or putting embarrassing pictures or personal attacks on teen networking sites like MySpace or Facebook.

“The Internet is not functioning as a separate environment but is connected with the social lives of kids in school,” said lead study author Jaana Juvonen, a professor of psychology and chair of the developmental psychology program at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Bullying on the Internet looks similar to what kids do face-to-face in school.”

The U.C.L.A. study surveyed 1,454 teens between the ages of 12 and 17, who were recruited through an unidentified teen Web site from August through October 2005. Forty-one percent of the teenagers surveyed reported between one and three online bullying incidents over the course of a year, 13 percent reported four to six incidents, and 19 percent reported seven or more incidents.

Despite the prevalence of cyber-bullying, many teens don’t realize how common it is and often believe it is only happening to them, Dr. Juvonen said.

“When kids start thinking, ‘It’s just happening to me,’ they likely blame themselves, and once they do that, it increases their risk of depression,” Dr. Juvonen said. “Kids don’t know how common cyber-bullying is, even among their best friends. Cyber-bullying is not a plight of a few problematic children but a shared experience.”

Teens in the survey said they didn’t tell their parents about the problems for a variety of reasons. Half of the teens who were cyber-bullied said they just “need to learn to deal with it.” Nearly one-third said they worried parents might restrict Internet access, a fear more commonly expressed among girls than boys. One-third of 12- to 14-year-olds said they didn’t tell an adult about the bullying out of fear that they could get into trouble with their parents.

“Many parents do not understand how vital the Internet is to their social lives,” Dr. Juvonen said. “Parents can take detrimental action with good intentions, such as trying to protect their children by not letting them use the Internet at all. That is not likely to help parent-teen relationships or the social lives of their children.”

Although most people view cyber-bullying as anonymous, nearly three out of four of the bullied teens in the survey said they knew or were “pretty sure” they knew who was doing the bullying.

研究表明，多達75％的少年在網上受到欺負，但只有十分之一的少年向父母工其他成年人報告這問題，一項新研究表明。

《學校健康雜志》九月刊登的研究是最新的對所謂的網絡欺凌發出警告的文章，網絡欺凌可發生在社會網絡網站上、郵件中或短信中。有時網絡欺凌包括嘲弄或威脅性郵件或短信，或者是在少年網站如MySpace或Facebook這樣的網站上放置令人尷尬的圖片或進行個人攻擊。

“互聯網并不是作為一個與世隔絕的環境在運行，而是與學校里孩子們的社會生活緊密關聯在一起”，主導研究作者Jaana Juvonen說，他是洛杉磯加州大學心理學教授、發展心理學項目主席。他說，“互聯網欺凌看上去與孩子們在學校里面對面的一樣”。

加州大學洛杉磯分校的研究調查了1454名年紀在12至17歲的少年，他們是在2005年8月至10間通過不記名少年網站被征集的。調查中41％的少年稱一年內遇到1至3次網絡欺凌事件，13％的稱4至6次，并有19％的稱遇到7次或更多。

盡管網絡欺凌盛行，許多少年并沒意識到有多普遍，而往往相信只是發生在他們自己身上，Juvonen博士說。

“當孩子們開始思考時，‘這事恰恰發生在我身上’，他們很可能責備自己，而一旦如此，就會增加抑郁的風險”，Juvonen博士說。“孩子們不了解網絡欺凌有多普遍，甚至在最好的朋友之間也不知道。網絡欺凌不僅僅是一部分問題孩子的情形，而是一種共同的經驗”。

調查中的少年稱，由于各種原因他們沒有告訴父母他們所遇到的問題。受到網絡欺凌的少年一半稱他們只是“需要學會如何處理這種事情”。約三分之一的受訪兒童稱他們擔心父母因此不讓他們上網，這種擔憂在女孩中比男孩更普遍。12至14歲間的孩子中有三分之一稱他們沒有告訴成年人有關網絡欺凌事件是因為他們害怕會讓父母惹麻煩。

“許多父母不理解互聯網對自己的社會生活有多重要”，Juvonen博士說。“父母可能好心辦壞事，比如試圖通過根本不讓孩子使用互聯網來保護孩子。這無助于親子關系或孩子們的社會生活”。

盡管許多人認為網絡欺凌是匿名的，而約四分之三的被受訪害少年稱他們認識或“非常肯定”他們知道是誰在進行威脅。