According to Securly.com, 70% of teenagers have reported someone spreading rumors about them online. Here’s the top 3 social media platforms where cyberbullying happens.

1. Instagram

According to Securly.com, the image-based social media app allows bullies to comment and criticize users anonymously. Instagram is also known for direct messaging, and bullies tend to thrive through sending harassing and or inappropriate messages that can affect users by (DM)ing people.

More than one in five 12-to 20-year-olds claim that they are being specifically bullied and targeted through the Instagram app.

2. Facebook

Approximately 2.8 billion Facebook users constantly check both their own and their peer’s status updates time and time again all day long. About 7.5 million of those users claim they are 13 years or older, but it is likley some are under 13, and that is one of the significant issues of underage kids on social media sites.

Facebook has gotten better with locking down its settings within the past couple of years; however, it is still extremely easy to target bullies to post comments on people’s feeds and share sensitive images that are not meant to be publicly shared.

3. Snapchat

Used daily by many for different forms of harassment, users can send pictures and messages that delete within seconds. This app dropped in 2011, but it took until around 2015 to become the popular app that we all know today.

Snapchat’s temporary photo and video sharing continue to cause significant disputes, specifically with teenagers. Being able to blackmail others with its deletion feature can cause many problems. Also leading to potentially private images getting released or sent out to others without permission.

All three of these apps and many more are the leading reasons as to why social cyberbullying has skyrocketed so much within the past decade. The more freedom these apps allow young people, the more they will take advantage and abuse it. Social media can be a great place to network and even catch up on what your friends are up to; we must remember not to misuse these tools that we have.