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introducing bullying prevention programs into schools, one study found a significant reduction in physical and relational bullying 4 . These results were particularly encouraging because the programs were able to prevent multiple kinds of bullying. The study also found a reduction in verbal bullying, but it wasn’t as pronounced as the decreases in physical and relational bullying. Due to increased efforts around awareness and education about bullying and the serious long-term effects it can have, one study found that face-to-face verbal and physical bullying has had a drastic decline in recent years because of the direct relation to overt bullying 5 . Relational bullying has not had a similar trend, but it is encouraging to see improvements in multiple areas. Hopefully, these programs can be tailored or modified to tackle one of the newest issues in bullying: cyberbullying. How Have the Internet and Social Media Impacted Bullying? The rate of cyberbullying in 2000 was at 10%, and then rose significantly to 16% in 2017 5 . Meanwhile, the rate of other forms of bullying has decreased. For example, FTF bullying was at 20% in 1998 and dropped to 10% in 2017. Within that decrease, verbal bullying was at 23% in 2005 and 9% in 2017, and physical bullying was at 29% in 2005 and 8% in 2017. While it is encouraging to see decreases in these rates, the increase in cyberbullying is still discouraging. However, as technology advances and social media grows, the time spent on these apps increases as well. The new generation of youth has spent significantly higher amounts of time online than previous generations, which may include video games, social media, or any other form of entertainment 5 . This increases their chances of experiencing

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You Are Not Alone: Bullying