Cyber bullying on the increase

Parenting |

Cyber bullying is being used more and more by children intent on tormenting their classmates, that’s according to national charity Parentlineplus, who are receiving more than 300 calls a month on the issue.

One girl whose mother contacted the charity had received 27 threatening texts in just one week.

“One in three 11-14 year olds have been victims of cyber bullying at some point so it is a problem and it’s a big problem amongst girls,” said Sue Ormesher from the charity.

She added: “It seems as though girls are making full use of new technology to bully……bullying has been around for an awful long time but previously, as bad as it was, it was left at the school gates or on the street but now it can come into peoples homes 24 hours a day through mobile phones and computers.

“We had one call from a really distressed Mum saying that her daughter had shown her her mobile phone and this poor girl was in floods of tears because she’s received 27 texts from a gang of girls over one week.

“It can be anything fron excluding someone, you know - ‘we’re all shopping and you’re not with us’ to actually nasty, threatening texts.”

According to the website Bullying UK  14% of young people have been harassed or bullied by mobile phone.

Cyber bullying can be anything from name calling, sending abusive text messages or sending video clips via the internet or phone which threaten violence.

Sue Ormesher said it is a worrying trend.

“It’s bullying but using new technology to do it. It might be via text messages on a mobile phone, through the internet, MSN messenging - things like that.

We were realising that we were getting more and more calls on the issue so we’ve produced a booklet to try and offer some tips to parents.”

These threats are extremely serious and can be reported to police.

Mrs Ormesher said cyber bullying is now one of the “biggest issues” for Parentlineplus.

She said she would encourage that the computer with internet access is in a family room.

Children should always try and talk to an adult whether it be a parent or teacher to try and resolve the bullying.