Taipei, Feb. 13 (CNA) Bullying in elementary schools declined last year, but cyber bullying among youngsters is getting more serious, the Child Welfare League Foundation said Monday.

According to the results of a poll released by the foundation, 40.7 percent of youngsters have either given the thumbs up or written online messages in support of disparaging remarks about other people.

Moreover, nearly 20 percent had demeaned or abused others online anonymously, the poll showed.

The poll also found that around 30 percent of youngsters have watched online videos of campus bullying and 37 percent have witnessed someone being bullied or assaulted on the Internet.

Around 12 percent of youngsters said they have been bullied online, with online game chat boxes, chat rooms and Facebook being the most common places for cyber bullying.

Foundation official Chiu Ching-hui said mobile phones have become the latest tool of choice for young cyber bullies.

Many youngsters record embarrassing photos of their classmates or teachers and upload them on the Internet or show them to others, she said.

More than half of the poll's young respondents said they feel angry when they are bullied online, close to half feel sad and 12 percent feel suicidal, according to a question where the children could give more than one answer.

Only around 20 percent of the youngsters, however, tell their parents about the bullying and fewer than 10 percent report it to their teachers. Nearly half (43.4 percent) choose to fight back or argue with their assaulters.

Chiu called on website managers to step up their monitoring of the content, messages and images on their websites, and teachers and parents to caution children about Internet security and the proper way to use their mobile phones.

She also urged youngsters to discipline themselves on the web and to report misconduct to adults.

The poll, conducted from Jan. 3 to Jan. 12, collected 1,539 valid samples from youngsters aged between 10 and 18 from around Taiwan. (By Christie Chen)