How much and how it hurts: the reality in Slovakia

IPčko reports a significant increase in contacts related to the online environment since the pandemic; last year alone there were nearly 10 000 of them. Surveys that the guests referenced in the discussion indicate that roughly one in three high school children has experienced cyberbullying and one in ten young people has become a victim of sexting. Differences between girls and boys are leveling out in many manifestations.

The consequences are serious and interconnected—from anxiety and loneliness to self-harm. In the online space, the so-called disinhibition effect operates: anonymity and invisibility lower inhibitions and shift the boundaries of responsibility. Added to this is the bystander effect, when witnesses do not intervene, and the distorted reading of emotions in text without face-to-face contact.