To Tackle Cyberbullying, the Entire Online Ecosystem Must Act Faster and Together to Deliver Child Protection by Design

This year’s report highlights alarming trends in cyberbullying, one of the top concerns expressed by children themselves.  A recent poll carried out by her Office with over 30,000 children across all regions found that 66% think that cyberbullying has increased, and 1 in 2 children do not know where to and how to report and get support.

AI is fundamentally transforming the threat. The rapid advancement and accessibility of generative artificial intelligence is reshaping cyberbullying, making it faster, more targeted, harder to detect, and capable of spreading across multiple platforms at a massive scale. 

It enables deepfakes, automated targeting, and the manipulation of children through chatbots and other tools they often over-trust and cannot distinguish from real human interaction.

AI-generated deepfake photos and videos, including through “nudification” apps, are increasingly used to humiliate, threaten and exploit children online.

Children don’t report cyberbullying easily because they face stigma, because they don’t know where to report, they fear being rejected by their peers or being judged by adults. 

Its impact can be immediate and devastating, causing psychological distress and lasting reputational harm in seconds. In the most tragic cases, it can drive children to take their own lives.

Many actions are undertaken to tackle cyberbullying, at global, regional and national levels, but they are still piecemeal and not duly articulated.

Dr. Maalla M’jid stressed the need to involve all actors of the child online protection ecosystem, including, governments, industry, educators, families, children and youth. It is the only way to design a multistakeholder framework aiming to protect children from online harm while enabling safe digital participation. 

She stressed the urgent need to ensure that child safety and privacy by design is embedded across all platforms and the AI value chain.

Dr. Maalla M’jid highlighted the important role of children and young people who must be empowered with critical thinking and digital citizenship, and involved in the responses, as expressed by a child consulted by her Office: "Digital spaces must not become places where harm is reported but never resolved. They must be places where help comes quickly, safely, humanly. Do not design the digital future for children. Design it with us."

The report on violence against children is available here. The child-friendly version is available at the link.