Online safety for children remains a "critical issue" that is not being sufficiently addressed "in Ireland's education system or by the social media companies whose platforms are being used", according to CyberSafeKids CEO Alex Cooney.
The online safety charity said its research suggested that more than a quarter of primary school children and 40% of secondary school students have faced cyberbullying.
It said posting pictures without permission, creation of fake profiles and being excluded from chat groups were among the commonly reported forms of cyberbullying behaviour, with girls more likely to be victimised online than boys.
The research suggested that just over half of primary school children and 39% of secondary school children told a parent or trusted adult they were being bullied.
Between a quarter to a third of children did not tell anyone.
CyberSafeKids surveyed over 5,000 eight to 16-year-olds between September 2022 and June 2023.
The study shows that 93% of eight to 12-year-olds have their own smart device, with YouTube the most popular app, followed by WhatsApp, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms Cooney said the results of the latest survey are very significant and show patterns of persistent cyberbullying.
She said that "these are common experiences so children were able to tick a range of experiences that amount to cyberbullying, things like being out of a group, being sent mean messages, mean messages being posted about them, fake accounts being set up and a number of children would have ticked a number of those boxes.
"So it's not necessarily being one thing that’s happening at one time, it certainly is persistent."
Ms Cooney said another issued is that children are not always reporting cyberbullying, "so in that case we don’t where it stops, it could go on and on and on and really impact on children over the longer term."
She said social media companies are "absolutely not doing enough" and said she was very much looking forward to seeing how the Online Safety Commissioner holds companies to account.
The study showed that online gaming is also popular with young children, with 15% playing over-18 games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto.
Whilst boys were more likely than girls to play over-18 games, young girls are more likely to post videos of themselves online.
Almost three-quarters of 12 to 16-year-olds said they can go online whenever they want, with 40% posting videos of themselves on social media platforms.
Younger children face more controls at home from parents, but 31% of eight to 12-year-olds say they are free to go online whenever they want, and 15% of primary school children have no rules in place for going online at home.
The study shows that 42% of young boys and 27% of girls have gamed with a stranger online.
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The research also reveals that many young children are unaware of how best to protect themselves online and how to manage privacy settings.
Over a quarter of all the children surveyed had seen or experienced something online in the last year that "bothered" them, such as sexual or violent content, but nearly half of younger children didn't tell a parent or trusted adult about this experience, rising to 67% for secondary school children in this position.
"Online safety for children remains a critical issue that is not being sufficiently addressed in Ireland’s education system or by the social media companies whose platforms are being used," said Ms Cooney.
"Our data shows children are extremely active on social media, often unsupervised, leaving them highly vulnerable to bullying, grooming, and exposure to violent or sexual content," she added.
"We urge the Government to invest heavily in more resources and campaigns to support both parents and educators," she said.
The study also found that almost two-thirds of teachers dealt with online safety incidents over the last year.
"We were shocked by the number of children who had access to their smartphones in their bedrooms late at night. Many slept with phones under their pillows," said Carmel Hume, Principal of Presentation Primary School, Terenure.
"Negative commentary online has become normalised and the nuances of face-to-face communication and engagements are being lost," Ms Hume said.
"As principal of an all-girls school I worry about the influence of social media on image and body positivity, and I urge parents and guardians to exercise stronger control," she added.
Minister of State Ossian Smyth said the online safety commissioner has been appointed and legislation to allow for the regulation of social media companies was passed by the Minister for Media.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said: "Ireland has this really critical role because these social media companies are based in Ireland. These companies have hundreds of millions of users here and it's our job to regulate them."
He said that for anybody who is experiencing bullying there is a website called tacklebullying.ie that provides resources for dealing with bullying.
He added; "We've already given anti-bullying guidelines to schools. Each school is meant to draw up their own anti-bullying charter.
"But I think each school should have the power to make their own decisions in consultation with the parents."
He said that those schools that have done it have had a very successful experience.
