Telefono Azzurro: over 1 million students between 15 and 19 years old bullied on the web

On the occasion of the National Day against Bullying and Cyberbullying, Telefono Azzurro renews its commitment to stand by children and adolescents. According to the data collected, during 2025, 181 cases of bullying and 24 cases of cyberbullying were handled. Reports mainly concerned attacks related to physical characteristics, which accounted for 72.5% of bullying cases and 9% of cyberbullying cases. This was followed by cultural motivations (12% for bullying and 2% for cyberbullying) and attacks related to sexual orientation and gender identity (3.5% in bullying cases and 1% in cyberbullying cases).

The story of Maria, 17 years old. "I would just like to let off some steam and feel listened to," she tells us of the difficulties she has in class with her classmates, "my classmates joke, they joke but some things make me feel like a stupid girl. Sometimes her classmates get angry with her, sometimes they joke, sometimes they laugh at her. Sometimes a punch is a confidential and joking gesture while others are hurtful and punitive. Maria feels confused. Telefono Azzurro welcomes Maria in her distress, reinforces the possibility of confronting her parents and underlines the courage she had in contacting the Service and asking for a listening ear. In the conversation that continues, the figure of the support teacher who accompanies Maria during class lessons is put in the spotlight. Maria finds the strength to contact him live and confide in him. She says thank you, stating that she already feels happier and more serene for having "unburdened herself", having found a listening space and having found in her the individual resources to involve a responsible adult already within her school context.

Alongside the evidence of the data, there remains a particularly relevant submerged phenomenon, especially as regards cyberbullying. Over the years, Telefono Azzurro has observed how a high number of children and adolescents victims of online violence and prevarication do not report what has happened, remaining invisible. Fear, shame, sense of isolation and distrust in adults continue to represent significant obstacles to seeking help.
In this scenario, Telefono Azzurro exists to give a voice to children, offering them a safe space where they can express themselves and be heard immediately. However, effectively combating a complex and constantly evolving phenomenon such as cyberbullying is only possible through the construction of a solid and coordinated network between the Third Sector, public institutions and private companies in the tech sector.
In this direction are the Memoranda of Understanding signed by Telefono Azzurro with the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Education and Merit, aimed at strengthening prevention, education, and the protection of children and adolescents by consolidating an integrated intervention system.

According to the latest available ISTAT data (June 2025), in 2023 in Italy 68.5% of 11-19 year-olds said they had been subjected to offensive, aggressive, defamatory or exclusionary episodes, either online or offline, in the previous 12 months. 21% reported experiencing them several times a month and about 8% at least weekly. Males are slightly more affected than females (21.5% versus 20.5%), with a higher incidence among 11-13 year olds (23.7%). The transfer of the phenomenon to the web is worrying: about 34% of Italian adolescents report having suffered online harassment or molestation in 2023.
According to the results of the ESPAD® Italia 2024 study, a significant percentage of adolescents have experienced online bullying: more than 1 million students aged 15-19 years experienced cyberbullying in 2024, a figure that is increasing compared to previous periods. 32% claim to have acted as cyberbullies at least once. The most common forms of aggression include insults in group chats, while gender differences emerge in the modalities: more direct and public among boys, more indirect and relational among girls. In Europe, WHO data show that, on average, 11% of adolescents on the continent are bullied at school, while the proportion of those who are cyberbullied is higher and rising rapidly: in 2022, 1 in 6 adolescents were victims of online bullying.

At the international level, the World Health Organisation's Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, conducted in 44 countries and regions, found that about 11% of adolescents have been bullied at school, with no significant differences between boys and girls. On the cyberbullying front, it emerges that 12% of adolescents (1 in 8) say they have been bullied, with a higher incidence among boys (14%) than girls (9%). Particularly worrying is the increase compared to 2018: from 11% to 14% among boys and from 7% to 9% among girls. Even more relevant is the figure for victims: 15% of adolescents, about 1 in 6, have experienced cyberbullying, with similar percentages among boys (15%) and girls (16%), up from 2018.