U.S. online harassment responses 2017

This statistic shows the most common responses to online harassment according to internet users in the United States. During the January 2017 survey it was found that 50 percent of internet users who have experienced online harassment and took steps to respond to it had confronted the person responsible online. Only five percent of responders reported the problem to law enforcement, despite the prevalence of anti cyber bullying laws in several U.S. states.

Online harassment responses according to victimized internet users in the United States as of January 2017

Characteristic	Share of respondents who took steps to respond to online harassment
Confronted the person online	50%
Unfriended or blocked the person	49%
Reported the person responsible to the website	22%
Confronted the person face-to-face, via text/phone call	16%
Discussed the problem online to draw	14%
Changed their username/deleted profile	10%
Stopped attending certain offline events or places	9%
Withdrew from an online forum	9%
Reported problem to law enforcement	5%
Reported problem to employer/school/local offcial	5%

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Release date

July 2017

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

January 9 to 23, 2017

Number of respondents

Total survey n = 4,248

Age group

18 years and older

Method of interview

Telephone interview

Supplementary notes

Among internet users who have experienced online harassment and took steps to respond to it.
Overall, out of those who have experienced online harassment, 61% decided to ignore their most recent incident while 39% took steps to respond to it.

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