As the school year begins, sobering data about the extent of internet hate speech among youth have been published in a report by the Berl Katznelson Foundation, produced through the VIGO company.
The report, dubbed the "hate report", shows that in every minute four violent posts are uploaded by youth online.
Every day, approximately 800,000 internet posts are written in Israel, with 30% of them written by youths between the ages of 13-18 (this translates into 240,000 posts by youth every day). Of these, around 6,000 of the posts written every day are of a violent nature (2.5% of total youth posts).
The vast majority of violent messages are written by boys (72%), with girls responsible for only 28% of the violent posts. The most common violent expressions are one involving sexual organs and sexuality, with these constituting 67% of the violent posts. It should be noted that the majority of these expressions appear in short posts of 1-5 words in length.
Surprisingly, there is no difference between age groups within the range. There is virtually no gap between 13-14 year-olds and older youths in terms of the extent of internet violence.
One difference that can be found between the youth and the general population in terms of violent internet behavior is that while the youths tend to write about day-to-day matters from within their own lives, the general population directs the violent posts at matters of general interest that are on the public agenda.
Anat Rosilio, project manager for the "hate report", commented on the findings. "The data revealed today show a deep-seated phenomenon of internet violence that is growing to frightening proportions under the radar. This is happening among the generation that will be our future. The writing is on the Facebook wall of the children of Israel and the responsibility to minimize this hate falls on the parents, on public intellectuals, and on regulators. They all must act within their own sphere of influence to minimize this phenomenon of internet violence.