Peer-reviewed article
Children’s Online Safety: Predictive Factors of Cyberbullying and Online Grooming Involvement
Antonio Tintori, Giulia Ciancimino, Ilaria Bombelli, Daniele De Rocchi, Loredana Cerbara ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined cyberbullying and online grooming among 410 primary school children in Rome. The research identified key risk factors including screen time, low parental supervision, parental phubbing behaviours, low prosocial tendencies, and low family socio-economic background. The findings show both cyberbullying and online grooming are common among younger children, a group previously understudied. The authors call for greater cooperation between schools, parents and caregivers to protect children online.
Key points
- Both cyberbullying and online grooming are widespread among primary school students in Rome
- Screen time is among the main predictors of involvement in these online harms
- Parental supervision is a protective factor against cyberbullying and online grooming
- Parental phubbing behaviours (ignoring children to use phones) is associated with increased risk
- Family socio-economic background is a predictor of involvement in these phenomena
Limitations
The study was conducted on a single city sample of 410 primary school students in Rome, so findings may not generalise to other countries or age groups. The document does not provide details on the actual prevalence rates or effect sizes of the identified predictors.
Abstract
The increase in the use of the Internet, strongly boosted by the spread of COVID-19, has amplified the risk of involvement in cyberbullying and online grooming among minors. To date, most research on these phenomena has focused on middle and high school students, with fewer studies on younger children. The present study aims to fill this knowledge gap by measuring the spread of cyberbullying and online grooming in a sample of 410 primary school students in the city of Rome and by identifying the main individual and environmental predictors associated with the involvement of children in these phenomena using factor analysis. Results indicate that both cyberbullying and online grooming are widespread among respondents, showing common traits within the four latent dimensions identified. Screen time is among the main predictors of children’s involvement, together with parental supervision, phubbing behaviours, prosocial tendencies and family socio-economic background. These findings highlight the need for further studies on representative samples of this age group, as well as for a greater cooperative effort among schools, parents and caregivers to keep children safe in the virtual world.