TORONTO -- As the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced many to migrate more of their lives online, an alarming number of LGBTQ2S+ teens are facing the threat of cyberbullying and feeling that there’s no one they can turn to for help, says the head of Egale Canada.

“We know that, especially now during the pandemic, that around 92 per cent of our teens are online on a daily basis and 52 per cent of the 2SLGBTQI community between ages of 11 and 22 report that they are the victims of cyberbullying multiple times,” Helene Kennedy, executive director of the advocacy group, told CTV’s Your Morning on Monday, which this year is the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, or “IDAHO Day”.

“Even more alarming is one in five feel that it's part of the space and it's normal that they just they take it. So it's a huge problem not only here in Canada but around the world and especially now since we are we're all restricted so much to being online,” she said. Egale uses the acronym 2SLGBTQI, which stands for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex. CTVNews.ca uses LGBTQ2S+.

The group will be releasing a report in the coming weeks on homophobic and transphobic bullying in the Canadian schools system. It found that more than half of students in the study did not report harassment to others, particularly to their parents, and did not report incidents of physical harassment because they did not think adults at their school would do anything about it.

“The numbers are staggering if you take all of those factors into consideration, when these youth are living in isolation, desperate sometimes, in hostile environments in the home environment and they're targets constantly,” said Kennedy.

The report also shows that around 45 per cent of young students felt isolated and excluded by their peers, while many are outed and humiliated online. This can lead to students dropping out of school, and lead to serious mental health impacts including suicidal thoughts and attempts, she said. Making the problem worse is that teachers often don’t act to address the problem.

Egale is also currently looking into the online gaming space, where there have been many well-publicized cases of harassment, largely of female gamers, but where there is relatively little data covering harassment of LGTBQ2S+ youth.

“We're looking at this to develop that data so we can address this issue with the policy makers and develop more stringent guidelines and codes of conduct for being in that space,” said Kennedy.

“It used to be when I was in school we didn't have Internet that you could get away from the bullies you could go home and you could feel safe, but not anymore. It follows you constantly throughout your life,” she said.