Everyone’s a jerk to everyone online, but young women have it the worst

40% of internet users report having been harassed - and 1 in 5 has experienced harassment they described as severe.

(AAP)

Internet harassment has been a big subject recently, first as part of a national conversation on cyberbullying sparked by several tragic incidents, and more recently by a certain video game controversy that shall here remain nameless. A new study just released by Pew helpfully breaks down who's getting what sort of harassment, and the results show an inevitable — and depressing — gender aspect.

The basic story is that 40 percent of internet users report having been harassed, and one in five has experienced harassment they described as severe:

Four-in-ten internet users are victims of online harassment, varying degrees of severity

Among all internet users, the % who have experienced harassment of not and the % who have experienced more versus less severe forms of punishment

And at first glance, it seems like there's some degree of gender "equality" when it comes to harassment (yay?):

Men and women experience different varieties of online harassment

Among all internet users, the % who have experienced each of the following elements of online harassment, by gender

Alas, when you break things down further and look at the group of internet users most likely to experience harassment in general — that is, younger ones — some not-so-surprising disturbing things emerge:

Young women experience particularly severe forms of online harassment

Among all internet users, the % who have personally experienced the following types of online harassment, by gender and age

Pew is right, of course, to attempt to get specific about the different types of online harassment. Anyone who participates in an online conversation about a hot-button (or, sometimes, not-so-hot-button) issue is going to have someone call them a jerk or a hack on Twitter or other social media. That's an unfortunate reality, and most of us develop a thick skin about it pretty quickly. 

But even though the overall bulk of this standard, run-of-the-mill trollery targets men and women about equally, there's long been evidence that women, particularly young ones, are a lot more likely to be victimized by harassment of a particularly obsessive and sexualized variety, a lot of which rises to the level of downright scary. Pew's report adds to that evidence. If a quarter of young women online are getting stalked, something very toxic is going on.

This article originally appeared on Science of Us: Everyone's A Jerk To Everyone Online, But Young Women Have It The Worst. © 2014 All Rights Reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.