Australia is getting angrier – that’s a worse Australia

The share of adults who have personally experienced online hate is rising, writes our resident Stats Guy, while reports of serious cyberbullying involving children have risen even faster.

I have published enough columns (this is my 257th for The New Daily) and posted enough on social media (on X I published almost 50,000 data posts in the past decade) to have developed the occupational skill of distinguishing criticism from anger. 

Criticism challenges your argument and is always welcome. Anger wants to punish you for making an argument in the first place. 

The angry commenter insults your intelligence, questions your motives, or attacks your heritage. Sometimes they threaten you. Even through a short online comment, the anger can be felt. 

It is tempting to dismiss this as the internet just being the internet. The data suggest something more significant is happening. 

According to the eSafety Commissioner, 25 per cent of Australian adults had seen online hate in the year to August 2019. By November 2022, the figure had risen to 34 per cent. 

The share of adults who had personally experienced online hate increased from 14 to 18 per cent. Among 18 to 34-year-olds, almost half had seen online hate and 26 per cent had personally experienced it. 

This is a relatively narrow definition of hate, covering attacks connected to characteristics such as political views, race, gender, nationality, age or appearance.

It does not capture every rude Facebook comment, aggressive email or personal insult. 

The broader universe of online anger is therefore likely to be much larger. 

Reports of serious cyberbullying involving children have risen even faster.

Valid reports to eSafety increased from 536 in 2019 to 2978 in 2024, a rise of 455 per cent in five years. Nearly half the 2024 complaints concerned children aged 13 or younger. 

We should not conclude that cyberbullying itself increased fivefold. Awareness of eSafety grew, parents and schools became more willing to report incidents, and children spent more of their lives online. 

Still, the current level of exposure is sobering. In a recent national survey, three in five Australian children had encountered online hate, more than half had experienced cyberbullying at some point, and more than a quarter had personally experienced online hate. 

The internet did not invent human anger. It industrialised its distribution. 

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For most of human history, expressing rage required some effort. You had to write a letter, confront someone in person or at least pick up the telephone.

Social consequences encouraged a pause between feeling angry and acting angry. 

The........

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