Balls: Schools should police the net
Government stomps on technobullies (again)
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Guidance released by education ministers today has called on schools to do more to stop bullies using the internet and mobile phones to target fellow pupils.
The last set of government intructions on the issue was published in July last year.
Launching the latest crackdown, schools secretary Ed Balls said: "Cyber bullying is a particularly insidious type of bullying as it can follow young people wherever they go, and the anonymity that it seemingly affords the perpetrator can make it even more stressful for the victim." According to the government more than a third of 12 to 15-year-olds have been victim to "cyber-bullying" including stalking, intimidation, threats, and impersonation.
The issue has had plenty of play in mainstream media lately, including a BBC Panaroma special that led to a teachers' union call for YouTube to be shut down over the summer.
The government's response has been developed in consultation with mobile operators, Bebo, MySpace and YouTube. Teachers should contact websites when malicious activity is reported by pupils, the guidance urges. They can demand to see the content of text messages or emails if they get a tip-off and should confiscate pupils' phones if necessary.
Another part of the new campaign will see popular websites for teenagers carry the message "Laugh at it and you're part of it".
Practical advice to children will include not responding to nasty texts or emails, logging and reporting incidents, and the importance of password protection and not giving out personal details over the internet. ®
COMMENTS
You have 25 new messages
Now let's be a little more imaginative, shall we?
U fat slug, we're waitn 4 u! My butha has an machete an we're coming for you after skul to make a girl of U U fagggg!!!
Yeah, 'harmless'
yeah erm
There is nothing worse than reading posts from people who have never experienced proper, PERSISTENT bullying and abuse. They always downplay and belittle the true suffering of genuine victims.
I believe this article was more about the victims of happy slapping having their attack caught on a mobile and posted up on the internet for everyone to laugh at. Anyone finding that funny is in serious need of psychiatric help IMO. In many cases "cyber bullying" is on top of the physical beatings which makes it worse than back in our day when at least the bullying was restricted to being in the physical presence of the bully/ies.
As an adult, being bombarded with internet messages and phone calls would be considered harrassment and is a offense. Much as I dislike most teenagers today, I do believe they are entitled to the same protection as us adults in this case. As for teachers policing it..h ah aha ha ah ah ah ha they are the worst bullies of them all. Perhaps every school should employ an officer to deal with bullying, whether online or in the playground.
Non victims..if you can't take a humane standpoint on this, at least consider this: less bullying could lead to less victims going on to become politicians with clout.
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