LONDON, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Around one-in-five kids in England and Wales aged 10 to 15 -- equivalent to 764,000 children -- have experienced at least one type of online bullying behaviour in the year ending March 2020, a survey revealed Monday.

Results of the study, conducted by the British Office for National Statistics (ONS), were released as many primary schools in Britain took part in the Odd Socks Day, which marks the start of the Anti-Bullying Week 2020 from Nov. 16 to Nov. 20.

The ONS said 52 percent of children who experienced online bullying said they would not describe those behaviours as bullying and 26 percent did not report their experiences to anyone.

The study also showed nearly three out of four children who had experienced an online bullying behaviour experienced at least some of it at school or during school time.

Online bullying has been increasingly enabled by wider access to the internet and greater use of smartphones, social media and networking applications, said ONS.

The prevalence of online bullying was significantly higher for children with a long-term illness or disability (26 percent) than those without (18 percent).

"Whilst these data were collected before the coronavirus pandemic, children's isolation at home and increased time spent on the internet is likely to have had a substantial impact on the split between real world and cyber bullying," said Sophie Sanders from the Office for National Statistics Centre for Crime and Justice.

England is currently under a month-long national lockdown until Dec. 2. Under the lockdown, schools, colleges and universities remain open. In Wales, new restrictive measures to combat COVID-19 took effect from Monday last week, under which all schools and year groups have resumed.

To bring life back to normal, countries, such as Britain, China, Germany, Russia and the United States, are racing against time to develop coronavirus vaccines.