• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 28, 2018

Accenting another persistent problem area for social networks, new research reveals that a majority of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online.

The nationally representative survey from Pew Research Center found that 59% of teens say they have been the target of online bullies, while 63% say it is a major problem for people their age.

The most common types of harassment include name-calling and being made the subject of false rumors, Pew found.

All told, 42% of teens say they have been called offensive names online or over their smartphone, while 32% say someone has spread false rumors about them over the Web.

Perhaps even more disturbing, 21% of teens have had someone other than a parent constantly ask where they are, who they’re with or what they’re doing, while 16% have been the target of physical threats online.

Pew also found that one-quarter of teens say they have been sent explicit images they didn’t ask for, while 7% say someone has shared explicit images of them without their consent.

A majority of teens say they’re not happy with efforts by social networks to police their platforms. Among this key demographic, 66% say social media companies are doing only a fair or poor job at addressing online harassment.

In a separate survey, 57% of parents of teens say they worry about their teen receiving or sending explicit images, including about a quarter who say this worries them a great deal.

The surveys of 743 teens and 1,058 parents living in the United States were conducted from March through April of this year.

Teenage boys and girls are equally likely to experience cyberbullying (59% vs. 60%), yet teen girls are more likely to be the targets of rumor-spreading or nonconsensual explicit messages, Pew found.

Specifically, 39% of girls say they have experienced the spreading of false rumors, compared with 26% of boys. Also, 29% of girls say they have received explicit images they didn’t ask for, compared with 20% of boys.