One in five children fall victim to cyberbullying - Contact Group comments

Published by Livewire for Livewire Public Relations in Education and also in Local Government

Anti-bullying week takes place this week (14^th -18^th November) with a theme of ‘Stop and think – words can hurt.’ With recent studies showing that one in five young children fall victim to bullying, Stephen Clarke, Managing Director of Contact Group (www.the-contactgroup.com), comments:

“Recent studies have shown that nearly a fifth of young people in the UK have been victims of cyberbullying. Further to this, separate research has shown that pupils inEnglandare more fearful of walking to and from school because of attacks and intimidation than in any other country inEurope. These shocking statistics highlights how important it is to acknowledge anti bullying month, take action and encourage children to report incidents that can be effectively dealt with.

“Bullying can have a huge impact on a young person’s life, especially their school life. If children are being bullied they may be reluctant to attend school and may find it difficult to focus in lessons, factors that can have a significant impact on their overall attainment as well as their confidence. Studies have shown that 45 percent of pupils would not seek help if they were the victims of bullying for fear of making the situation worse. This issue needs to be addressed in order for children to feel comfortable and supported when reporting incidents of bullying.

“Part of the rise in bullying has been linked to an increased usage of social media, especially when addressing cyberbullying. Children are increasingly using mobile devices to access the internet, especially social networking sites, which may not be as monitored as the family PC. Parents should be mindful of the communications devices that children are using and explore software packages to install on their child’s phone so they can monitor any incidents that may be harmful, as children may not always report these. Schools need to be aware each time cyberbullying occurs. For that to happen, young people need to be given more opportunities to report incidents in confidence, using the modern technology they are used to.

“Contact Group’s Text Someone service gives pupils the power to report incidents of bullying in confidence, 24/7 by text message, secure website or phone call. In order to combat the advent of bullying by text, pupils can now forward those text messages on to their schools. They can also securely log onto the Text Someone website to report incidents of cyberbullying by taking a snapshot of the defamatory posting.”