Focus Education “
Victims feel they can confide in me as I’ve been there, got the T-shirt and I know first-hand what it is like
Whatever the terminology, the results of such internet
abuse have already been catastrophic. Several teenage suicides have been attributed to cyber bullying, as have cases of self harm and depression, and experts take the problem very seriously. PAPYRUS, the national charity for prevention of young
suicides, is receiving an increased number of calls from young people who are experiencing risk of suicide due to online bullying. Chief Executive Officer, Ged Flynn, says: “The internet gives bullies the power of anonymity and the confidence to wield harm whenever they want – some see it as a practical joke. It isn’t a joke.” It is also a problem that is impossible to turn off, says Ri-
chard Piggin, Deputy CEO of charity BeatBullying. “If these problems used to happen at school, children could escape to home, a sanctuary. But now the problems follow them. There is no peace. It can be 24 hours a day online and children realise the potential for others to see or join in is much wider, plus they don’t even know who is behind the bullying. It can feel much worse than face-to-face attacks.” The scale of the problem has escalated almost overnight, he adds. “This is an increasing problem because of the way in which children now communicate; the vast majority have access to a mobile phone or the internet from an increas- ingly younger age, and many will have online profiles – personal information stored somewhere visible. “The actual motives behind the abuse are no different to those in the real world, but it is becoming more common as the technology facilitates it. It is easier to write something cruel than say it – there’s no comeback. In person, you may get an imme- diate retaliation or see the impact of your words which can be a powerful disincentive.” Moreover the problem is too
widespread to be written off as a “few bad apples”. The internet is making bullies unknowingly. As radio presenter Richard Bacon – who made a documentary on the subject, and has himself been the subject of internet attacks – says: “There is something about the alchemy of a keyboard and a public platform that taps into a side of human nature that you rarely, if ever, encounter in real-life conversation.” This is as true of children as adults. One parent told me of how
”
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her 17-year-old daughter Helena had recently been “fraped”. She explains: “I was rung by a friend Anna in a nearby village asking if I had seen Helena’s Facebook page. “I explained I was not on Facebook but would check
with my husband. Anna explained her worry – posted on the site was a scan of a 10-week-old baby next to a com-
34 FirstEleven Summer 2012
www.firstelevenmagazine.co.uk
ment from my daugh- ter apparently saying how excited she was to be pregnant. I said I was sure it was a joke, but I was obviously concerned. Especially as my niece had rung the day before to say she hadn’t been able to get hold of Helena, who had seemed, to her, very upset recently. “Yet my other children immediately said that it would be a joke – one son thought we were ridiculous as it was so obvi- ously, he explained, a ‘frape’. It’s fair to say, as her parents, we had a major sense of humour failure. Being fairly IT illiterate, and a Facebook hater, I was oblivious to this behaviour. My husband de-friended himself from our daughter’s page. He couldn’t bear any more of this type of ‘humour’.” Turning off the computer is one option (for parents) –
especially once your children are older and perhaps more able to judge the effects of their behaviour. But how do we get the message over to younger children that these personal anonymous attacks are not acceptable? It comes down to education, says Richard Piggin. “There
are roles for schools, organisations such as ours, and parents in this. Because some youngsters will behave online in a way they know is unacceptable offline – and they do it because there seem to be no consequences. In a playground, a teacher or fellow student may step in but not online.” He adds: “This is something society has to address. We
encourage children or parents to report incidents to the service provider, to look at privacy settings, to block and report, and to read Terms and Conditions. But there are so many new internet services developing, it can be hard for adults to keep up, while children, at the forefront of what is new, are using it. Parents have to keep monitoring their children online – it is no different from walking with them to the park.” At Facebook, a series of tips have been developed to
prevent bullying, which any parent could work through with their child. A crucial one – which could apply to most social networking and forum sites is for children to use
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