How about checking out this controversial news story that says games are the biggest source of cyberbullying in Japan? So, you need to check out this research by Yahoo! News Japan. They identified a 4% increase in cyberbullying among Japanese youth over the past 5 years! Now, enough chit-chat, let's understand what games have to do with all this:

Games Are the Biggest Source of Cyberbullying in Japan

First, the survey shows that the percentage of public and private high school students in Kyoto and Shiga prefectures who experienced cyberbullying in 2020 was 8.7%. This represents a 3.5 percentage point increase compared to the previous survey in 2015.

Furthermore, according to a large-scale survey of 64,000 students, online gaming was the most common source of harm, and the group of university researchers who conducted the study believe this may be due to students spending more time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cyberbullying – Incidences and Social Networks

Of the 8.7% of respondents, 6.2% experienced cyberbullying in a single incident and 2.5% in multiple incidents. Regarding the tools used, online games accounted for the highest percentage, at 40.7%. Thus, defamation through chat in a game played by multiple people simultaneously online is the most common.

On the other hand, Twitter comes next with 22.8%, which represents a significant drop from the previous survey (51.8%). LINE also dropped from 39.7% to 20.8%. 45.8% of respondents said they were able to "almost identify" the attacker, but down from 67.5% in the previous survey.

Finally, Professor Seiji Hara of Bukkyo University, who led the research, said: "I was surprised to find that online games were implicated in 40% of cyberbullying. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we can say that online communication has become abnormal. But in the world of games, neither parents nor teachers know what's going on inside. Real conversations at home are important." The research was conducted between November 2020 and March 2021 and involved 132 schools (82 in Kyoto and 50 in Shiga).

So, what do you guys think of all this? Honestly, I hear about cyberbullying in games all the time, because anyone who plays anything can attest to that. Anyway, leave your opinion below, and see you next time!

Source: Yahoo! News Japan