59% internet-using children suffer cyber abuse: BSMMU study | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Wednesday
June 11, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2025
59% internet-using children suffer cyber abuse: BSMMU study

Education

TBS Report
17 November, 2022, 08:00 pm
Last modified: 17 November, 2022, 08:06 pm

Related News

  • Michael Slater handed prison sentence for domestic violence
  • Gazette published renaming BSMMU as Bangladesh Medical University
  • BMU provides treatment to over 2,000 patients during Eid vacation
  • Coordinated action needed to combat drug abuse: Speakers
  • Ex-VC Pran Gopal's daughter Anindita confined at BSMMU, rescued by Army

59% internet-using children suffer cyber abuse: BSMMU study

TBS Report
17 November, 2022, 08:00 pm
Last modified: 17 November, 2022, 08:06 pm
Representational Image. Photo: Collected
Representational Image. Photo: Collected

Around 59% of the children who use the internet in rural areas of Bangladesh have suffered at least one form of abuse on online spaces, revealed a study of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).

Around 33% of children aged 11-17 in rural areas of the country use the internet. Among them 38% have suffered at least two forms of cyber abuse, while 26% have suffered at least three such incidents, according to the research findings presented at Shaheed Dr Milon Hall of BSMMU yesterday.

The research paper titled "Cyber child abuse in Bangladesh: A rural population-based study" was published along with four other studies conducted by the Department of Public Health and Informatics of BSMMU on occasion of the World Children's Day.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

The study said the common cyber abuses reported by children were being subjected to bullying, mockery, rumour, or humiliation (36%), contacted anonymously with ill motive (29%), receiving sexually explicit message or comment (21%), and receiving sexually explicit picture or video (17%).

Male children were victimised more by different forms of cyber abuse. Analysis showed that children who use the internet more than others are more likely to be victimised with cyber abuse.

"Children using the internet are victims of various types of cybercrimes including trolling, bullying, and asking for nude pictures. Besides, internet literacy of people in Bangladesh is low," Professor Dr M Atiqul Haque, principal investigator of the study, told The Business Standard.

"Keeping children away from the internet is not possible in this age. Therefore, parents should increase internet literacy to ensure safe internet use for children," said Dr M Atiqul Haque, head of Medical Statistics Division at Department of Public Health and Informatics of BSMMU.

BSMMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed, chief guest at yesterday's event, said, "Mobile phones should not be given to children under 16 years of age because they unknowingly get involved in many crimes when they use them. Children who are addicted to mobile phones should be barred from using them.

"They should be allowed to use mobile phones for a maximum of two hours a day but not more than half an hour at a time. This may help protect children from abuse in social media."

Another study released at the event found that around 16% of children aged 13-18 suffer high blood pressure. Increased sedentary time, obesity and lack of physical activity have been found to be risk factors.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, 20% of adolescents suffered from varying degrees of insomnia, with 18%, 14%, and 16% suffering from depression, anxiety, and depression respectively.

Speakers at yesterday's programme said another study conducted on 456 students of 9th and 10th grades in urban and rural Bangladesh in 2021 found that 56% of boys and 64% of girls had been sexually harassed through the Internet. The incidence of cyberbullying among urban children is over 1.5 times higher than that of rural children.

Children who use Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp and chatrooms are most likely to be sexually abused online, the study found.

Top News

BSMMU / Cyber Bullying / abuse

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Bangladesh's growth forecast unchanged: WB report
    Bangladesh's growth forecast unchanged: WB report
  • Faiz Ahmad Tayeb. Photo: BSS
    Import duty on raw materials for e-bikes, lithium batteries reduced from 80% to 1% in some cases: Faiz Taiyeb
  • Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who departed Israel by plane on Tuesday after being detained aboard the Gaza-bound British-flagged yacht "Madleen" after Israeli forces boarded the charity vessel as it attempted to reach the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade, talks to journalists surrounded by French police as she arrives at a terminal at the Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, in Roissy-en-France near Paris, France, June 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
    Greta Thunberg says she was kidnapped by Israel in international waters

MOST VIEWED

  • On left, Abdullah Hil Rakib, former senior vice president (SVP) of BGMEA and additional managing director of Team Group; on right, Captain Md Saifuzzaman (Guddu), a Boeing 787 Dreamliner pilot for Biman Bangladesh Airlines. Photos: Collected
    Ex-BGMEA SVP Abdullah Hil Rakib, Biman 787 pilot Saifuzzaman drown in boating accident in Canada
  • File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar
    Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do
  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus leaves for a four-day visit to the United Kingdom from the Dhaka airport on 9 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    CA Yunus leaves for UK; discussion expected on renewable energy investment, laundered money
  • File Photo: Collected
    Enhanced surveillance at Ctg airport amid rising global Covid-19 cases
  • Inside the aid ship stormed by Israeli forces on 9 June 2025. Photo: BBC
    Israeli forces stormed aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg bound for Gaza: Freedom Flotilla Coalition
  • Photos: Collected
    Abdul Hamid wasn't arrested because he's not wanted right now: Home adviser

Related News

  • Michael Slater handed prison sentence for domestic violence
  • Gazette published renaming BSMMU as Bangladesh Medical University
  • BMU provides treatment to over 2,000 patients during Eid vacation
  • Coordinated action needed to combat drug abuse: Speakers
  • Ex-VC Pran Gopal's daughter Anindita confined at BSMMU, rescued by Army

Features

Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS

Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon

4h | Features
File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

1d | Features
Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal

From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

3d | Bangladesh
Illustration: TBS

Unbearable weight of the white coat: The mental health crisis in our medical colleges

6d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Greta Thunberg deported from Israel

Greta Thunberg deported from Israel

6h | TBS World
BNP is not a revolutionary party: Mirza Fakhrul

BNP is not a revolutionary party: Mirza Fakhrul

7h | TBS Today
News of The Day, 10 JUNE 2025

News of The Day, 10 JUNE 2025

5h | TBS News of the day
Trump sends 2,000 more National Guard and 700 Marines to Los Angeles

Trump sends 2,000 more National Guard and 700 Marines to Los Angeles

8h | TBS World
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net