Contents
- Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: how often teens report being targeted
- Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: differences by age, gender, and identity
- Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: social media habits and online risk
- Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: types of online harm and exclusion
- Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: friendship difficulties and victimization
- Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: what the survey measures
- Sources
Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: how often teens report being targeted
Statistics Canada’s 2019 Canadian Health Survey of Children and Youth found that 25% of Canadian teens aged 12 to 17 experienced cyberbullying in the previous year. The measure covered three forms: threats or insults online or by text, exclusion from an online community, and hurtful information posted on the internet. It describes reported experiences during the year before the survey, not the share targeted at any single moment. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
The overall figure conceals an age pattern. In 2019, 20% of 12-year-olds reported cyberbullying in the previous year, compared with 27% of 17-year-olds. These are age-specific estimates from the same survey and period. They show that reports were more common among older teens in this age range, but by themselves do not explain why or establish what happened to any individual as they grew older. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
| Canadian youth group, 2019 | Reported any of 3 forms in the previous year |
|---|---|
| Ages 12–17 | 25% |
| Age 12 | 20% |
| Age 17 | 27% |
Among youth aged 12 to 17, the reported total was 24% for boys and 25% for girls. The estimate for teens who reported a gender other than male or female was 52%, and Statistics Canada marks this estimate “use with caution.” That mark matters when reading the figure: it signals that the estimate requires care in interpretation. The gender categories and overall measure refer to the survey’s own classifications and three forms of cybervictimization. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: differences by age, gender, and identity
The 2019 results also vary across identity and social groups. Among First Nations youth living off-reserve, 34% reported being bullied online in the past year. The survey table reports 24% for non-Indigenous youth, 30% for Métis youth, and 36% for Inuit youth; the Inuit estimate is marked for use with caution. The First Nations figure applies specifically to youth living off-reserve, and should not be read as a figure for all First Nations youth. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
| Population, ages 12–17 | Any of 3 forms, 2019 |
|---|---|
| First Nations youth living off-reserve | 34% |
| Non-Indigenous youth | 24% |
| Métis youth | 30% |
| Inuit youth | 36%* |
*Estimate marked for use with caution.
For youth aged 15 to 17, the survey reports cyberbullying in the past year for 33% of those who reported same-gender attraction, compared with 26% of peers who reported attraction exclusively to a different gender. The attraction question was asked only of youth aged 15 to 17, so these figures do not describe the full 12-to-17 age group. The comparison presents reported prevalence; it does not identify a cause for the difference. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Education accommodation was another survey grouping. In 2019, 27% of youth with an education accommodation reported online bullying, compared with 23% of those without one. At age 16, the corresponding figures were 36% among youth with an accommodation and 24% among those without. These are reported associations in the survey; they do not establish that an accommodation itself caused cyberbullying or that every young person in either group had the same experience. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Other reported group estimates included 16% for South Asian youth and 18% for Filipino youth. For youth not part of a racialized group, the table reported 27%. It also reported 26% among youth born in Canada and 19% among youth born outside Canada. Each figure concerns the same broad outcome—any of the three forms during the previous year—but the groups represent distinct ways the survey organized respondents. These percentages should not be combined or treated as interchangeable measures of identity. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: social media habits and online risk
Statistics Canada compared online activity frequency with the proportion reporting cyberbullying in the previous year. Among youth who constantly used social networking, 34% reported being cyberbullied. The comparable proportion was 12% among youth who never used social networking. For video or instant messaging, 36% of constant users reported cyberbullying, compared with 14% of those who never used those services. These are group comparisons: they do not show that a platform or a frequency of use caused the reported harm. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
| Online activity frequency, 2019 | Social networking | Video or instant messaging | Online gaming |
|---|---|---|---|
| Constantly | 34%* | 36%* | 30% |
| Never | 12%* | 14%* | — |
*The table marks these estimates with an asterisk. The checked figures provided here do not specify the asterisk’s meaning, so it is retained without assigning an interpretation. The gaming figure is reported for constant users; no “never” value is shown here.
The survey’s narrative also compares device use before sleep. Among youth who had used an electronic device before going to sleep in the preceding week, 27% reported cyberbullying in the past year. The proportion was 19% among those who had not used a device before sleep. The time windows differ: device use refers to the preceding week, while cyberbullying refers to the past year. The figures describe an association between reported habits and victimization, not an explanation for it. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: types of online harm and exclusion
The three forms were not reported at the same rate. In 2019, 16% of youth aged 12 to 17 said they had been threatened or insulted online or by text in the previous year. Exclusion from an online community was reported by 13%, and hurtful information posted about them on the internet by 9%. These are separate reported experiences; the survey’s overall 25% refers to youth reporting any of the three forms, not the sum of these percentages. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Some group-specific figures show how the forms differed. Among non-binary teens, 34% reported threats or insults online or by text, 30% reported hurtful information posted online, and 45% reported exclusion from an online community. Each of these estimates is marked for use with caution. They are estimates for a group with caution flags, so they should be read carefully rather than as precise counts or predictions for individuals. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
For First Nations youth living off-reserve, 23% reported threats or insults online or by text, and 14% reported hurtful information posted online; the latter estimate is marked for use with caution. The estimate for exclusion from an online community was 16%, also marked for use with caution. For Inuit youth, 30% reported threats or insults online or by text, with that estimate marked for use with caution. The survey’s population definitions and caution marks apply to these figures as reported. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: friendship difficulties and victimization
The survey also compared cyberbullying reports with parents’ assessments of how difficult their child found it to make friends. In 2019, 23% of youth whose parents reported no difficulty making friends experienced cyberbullying in the past year. The proportion was 32% where parents reported some difficulty and 35% where they reported a lot of difficulty or that the youth could not make friends. This measure is based on parents’ responses, not a youth rating of their own friendships. The relationship is descriptive and does not show which experience came first or why the figures differ. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Reported forms of cyberbullying also varied by the parent-reported friendship category. Hurtful information posted online was reported by 7% of youth in the no-difficulty group, 14% in the some-difficulty group, and 15% in the group with a lot of difficulty or inability to make friends. Threats or insults online or by text were reported by 15% in the no-difficulty group and 22% in the some-difficulty group. For exclusion from an online community, the figures were 12%, 18%, and 24% across the no-difficulty, some-difficulty, and a-lot-or-cannot-make-friends groups. The categories reflect the parents’ assessment used in the survey. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
| Parent-reported difficulty making friends | Any cyberbullying | Hurtful information posted | Threats or insults | Online-community exclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No difficulty | 23% | 7% | 15% | 12% |
| Some difficulty | 32%* | 14%* | 22%* | 18%* |
| A lot of difficulty or cannot make friends | 35%* | 15%* | — | 24%* |
The table preserves a complete measured series for each reported form where figures were supplied. No value is shown for threats or insults in the highest-difficulty group because that observation was not included in the checked figures. By age, 18% of 12-year-olds whose parents reported no difficulty making friends experienced cyberbullying, while 27% of 12-year-olds in the some-difficulty group did. Among 13-year-olds, 32% in the some-difficulty group experienced cyberbullying. These age-specific figures retain the survey’s parent-reported grouping and 2019 reference period. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Cyberbullying among Canadian youth statistics: what the survey measures
The figures in this article come from the 2019 Canadian Health Survey of Children and Youth. Most cyberbullying estimates concern youth aged 12 to 17 and experiences in the previous year. The survey defined the reported outcome through the three forms described above. That shared definition makes it possible to compare groups and forms in the cited results, but it does not cover every possible kind of online harm. The figures are historical estimates from 2019, not current-year prevalence rates. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
The survey also measured online habits and family practices. In 2019, 60% of Canadian teens said they used social-network platforms several times a day, and 32% said they went online for gaming at least once a day. Separately, 75% of youth aged 12 to 17 had used an electronic device before falling asleep during the preceding week. That proportion ranged from 54% among 12-year-olds to 92% among 17-year-olds. Device use is a behavior measure, while cyberbullying is a past-year experience measure; the time frames should not be confused. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Family-meal questions provide further context about household rules and routines. In 2019, 71% of youth said their parents did not allow electronic devices during the evening meal, while 21% said their parents allowed them. Another 7% said their family did not eat together. These are reported household patterns, not measures of cyberbullying. They belong to the survey’s broader examination of youth experiences and should not be treated as evidence that a particular family rule prevents or causes online victimization. Statistics Canada: Online harms faced by youth and young adults
Read together, the results describe several dimensions of the 2019 survey: how many youth reported at least one of three defined forms, how those reports varied across selected groups, and how reported victimization coincided with online activity and parent-reported friendship difficulty. Caution flags apply to selected group estimates, including figures for non-binary and Inuit youth and some First Nations estimates. They are best understood with their population, period, measure, and qualification attached. These distinctions keep the statistics informative without extending them beyond what the survey measured.