More than half of the youngsters on social media face bullying: study

London: More than than half of young people have faced bullying while taking part in online games, a new UK study has found.

The study by an international anti-bullying charity surveyed about 2,500 members aged between 12 and 25 on a virtual community.

The researchers found that 57 per cent of the young people surveyed had experienced bullying online when playing games. They also found that 22 per cent of young people had stopped playing games as a result of online bullying.

Almost half of them claimed to have been threatened while playing an online game, and 38 per cent said they had been hacked within a game, 'BBC News' reported.

"Young people who are subjected to bullying offline are some of the biggest consumers of the internet and technology and subsequently more likely than average to use online games for escapism and to be free of ridicule and abuse," said Liam Hackett, founder of charity Ditch the Label.

"It is this relationship that makes our findings all too pressing and real. Bullying within online gaming environments is a real issue," he said.