Eurostat: 45% of Cypriot youth encountered hostile online messages on politics, sex

Around 45% of young people in Cyprus and 49% in the EU recently encountered messages online, which they considered to be hostile or degrading towards groups of people or individuals, according to data released by Eurostat to mark World Wide Web Day (1 August).

Out of the 23 member states of the EU for which data was available, 12 recorded shares above 50% of people aged 16 to 29 years old, who used the internet in the past 3 months, and reported that they had encountered such messages online.

Estonia reported the highest share with 69%, followed closely by Denmark and Finland (both 68%). The lowest shares were registered in Croatia (24%), Romania (27%) and Bulgaria (31%). There was no data for Czechia, Ireland, Italy and Spain.

When asked to point out the reasons for which they believed groups of people or individuals were targeted, the most picked answer by Cypriot respondents was political or social views, (36%), followed by sex (35%), racial or ethnic origin (29%), sexual orientation (27%), religion or belief (23%), disability (15%) and other personal characteristics (8%).

Cyprus also recorded the third largest percentage in answers from people judging that the hostile and degrading messages they saw were related to the person’s sex, followed by Finland (41%) and Denmark (40%). Sex was the second most picked answer in Cyprus, while on the EU average it was the fifth most picked with 23%.

The category ‘political or social views’ recorded the highest share in the EU among 16-29-year-old internet-users, with 35%, as to why they believed that groups of people or individuals were targeted by hostile or degrading messages online. This category was the largest in Estonia (with 60%), followed by Finland (56%) and Denmark (49%).

The second highest rate in the EU was registered for the group ‘sexual orientation (LGBTIQ identities)’ with 32%. This group had the highest share in Estonia (46%), Slovakia and Portugal (both 44%).

The category ‘racial or ethnic origin’ had the third highest rate at 30%. The highest rates for this category were registered in the Netherlands and Portugal (both 45%) and Estonia (44%).