Digital Bullying

Tackling the terror of digital bullying

Today’s school bully looks very different to the bully of 20 years ago and can do much more harm, but there are resources that can help schools stamp out cyberbullying Lawrence Royston

Earlier this year, during a debate on childhood and the internet in Westminster, Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, Helen Goodman, said that laws around online abuse were confusing and that better protection for under eighteens was needed. She went on to say that the UK needs a ‘clear legal framework’ to tackle the problem of cyberbullying and the suicides of vulnerable young people and that it is the responsibility of legislators to tackle this issue. Sitting behind computer keyboards, pseudonyms and anonymous websites, the internet has provided a digital veil for students to terrorise others without being held accountable for their actions. The school bully of the 21st Century looks very different to the bully of 20 years ago; he or she is the faceless, nameless cyberbully. Not interested in making a child the butt of his jokes or stealing lunch money, the bully is now focused on stealing something far more precious, a young person’s aspirations and confidence, and blemishing their good name.

Warning signs

Fortunately, there is plenty of support out there for parents and teachers who fear their children or students may be experiencing cyberbullying. Helpguide.org has published a useful reference Guide for teachers and parents to help them spot the signs of cyberbullying. Kidscape.org also lists a number of telltale signs that could indicate a child is being bullied. Both sites ask, for example, does your student:

• ·         Seem sad, angry, distressed or anxious during or after using the internet or a mobile device?
• ·         Become secretive about computer or mobile activities?
• ·         Withdraw from friends and activities they previously enjoyed?
• ·         Show changes in mood, behaviour, sleep, appetite, or signs of anxiety?
• ·         Suffer an unexplained drop in exam results?
• ·         Become withdrawn, start stammering, or lack confidence?
• ·         Begin truanting?

If the answer is yes to one or more of the above, it suggests a student may be a victim of cyberbullying, or indeed any form of bullying, and should encourage teachers to investigate further.

Tackling the issue

Cyberbullying is increasingly becoming a problem in modern day schools, with 38% of young people having been affected by it according to research by the NSPCC. On this basis, schools need to be vigilant and able to effectively address the issue head on.

Know the school’s policies: First, a school may need to readdress its own procedures and policies, particularly if they are a few years old, to ensure they reference cyberbullying. Many

of the schools I have worked with have addressed this by revising anti-bullying policies at least once a year and ensuring that all members of staff and pupils are kept abreast of any amendments as soon as they are made.

Make children aware: The charity, Family Lives, offers advice to parents who are worried that their child is being bullied, or may be bullying others. It also offers practical advice to teachers on how to spot the signs of bullying in the classroom. It suggests carrying out projects in class to find out whether bullying is a problem in the school, and whether or not the anti-bullying policy is effective. These projects can be used to emphasise the emotional scars bullying leaves behind and increase empathy among students. They can also highlight the seriousness of bullying and the ramifications for those who partake.

Get technical: There are apps in the market that can help schools tackle bullying. Emerge, for example, has behaviour write-back for SIMS and features photographic and video evidence functionality. This means that all incidents are tracked as they happen in real time and are written back to a pupil’s profile in SIMS. Wouldn’t the thought of being caught on video make any bully think twice about their actions? Schools should alert all pupils to any similar technologies they have implemented as a deterrent to any future acts of bullying. In addition, Groupcall has teamed up with renowned anti-bullying campaigner, Actionwork, to launch BATline (Bully Action Team), a service that provides schools with a dedicated incoming text number allowing any learner, parent or stakeholder to report any type of bullying or incident to the relevant person within the school. BATline automatically converts any text received into an email and delivers it to the relevant person or people within the school. When a person reports an incident they can opt to remain anonymous, an important feature for students who fear there may be repercussions for their actions. Schools can, however, elect to receive the mobile phone number that the text was sent from to ensure all reports are legitimate

Include parents: Schools regularly say that, across the board, parental engagement is rapidly improving. Whether schools are reaching parents to inform them about school trips, truancy issues, school dinners or parents’ evenings, modern technology means messages are being received and, consequently, are being acted upon. Updates and information on bullying policies and incidents should be no exception. The more parents are being informed about what goes on after they leave the school gates in the morning, the more they can help schools to tackle the issue of bullying. Bullying.co.uk, offers advice on what parents need to know about bullying at schools and academies. While it points out that the vast majority of pupils are well behaved, it highlights the fact that bad behaviour and disruption in class can stop teachers from teaching and pupils from learning.

The end game

These points are just some examples of how schools can begin to tackle the issue of cyberbullying, but they do offer a good starting point. However, for the foreseeable future, cyberbullying is something that teachers and parents cannot afford to put to the back of their minds. Even with the best anti-bullying initiatives and campaigns in place, they will still need to keep abreast of everything the children in their care are doing while online and make sure they are safe at all times. With this in mind, Kidpower.org has created a checklist for ensuring your children or students stay safe online. It advises:

• ·         Discuss what cyberbullying is and the harm it does with older children and teens
• ·         Be clear about the rules for usingtechnology
• ·         Stay aware of and involved with what your child is doing
• ·         Be careful about the use of personal information
• ·         Enforce consequences if a child cyberbullies
• ·         Provide support if a child is cyberbullied
• ·         Practice how to speak up to stop cyberbullying
• ·         Teach kids to get adult help anytime they see unsafe behaviour on the internet             (http://www.kidpower.org/blog/)

With statistics on school bullying increasing, it comes as no surprise that tackling all types of bullying ranks high on the priority list of many headteachers, senior leadership teams and parents. Fortunately, those in authoritative roles are more aware than ever before of the risks associated with the internet, social media sites and so on, and as such, are placing far more emphasis on ensuring that those in their care don’t fall victim to the cyberbully.

Lawrence Royston, managing director of Groupcall.

  

About the article

Earlier this years, during a debate on childhood and the internet in Westminster, the Minister of Culture, Helen Goodman, said that laws around online abuse were confusing and that better protection for under eighteens was needed. She went on to say that the UK needs a ‘clear legal framework’ to tackle the problem of cyberbullying and the suicides of vulnerable young people and that it is the responsibility of legislators to tackle this issue. Moreover the school bully of the 21st Century looks very different to the bully of 20 years ago. He or she is the faceless, nameless cyberbully. Not interested in making a child the target of his jokes or stealing lunch money, the bully is now focused on stealing something far more precious, a young person’s aspirations and confidence, and blemishing their good name.

Considering warning signs the parents/teachers have a useful reference Guide to help them spot he signs of cyberbullying . On the other hand, Kidscape.org.uk also lists a number of telltale signs that could indicate a child is being bullied. For example:

• ·      The students seem sad, angry, distressed or anxious during or after using the internet or a mobile device.
• ·         Suffer an unexplained drop in exam results.
• ·         Begin truanting.

According to the text, this warning sings demonstrate that our childhood suffers cyberbulling.

Otherwise cyberbullying is increasingly becoming a problem in modern day schools, with 38% of young people having been affected by it according to research by the NSPCC. Against this problem, the schools know the school’s policies, make children aware, get technical and include parents. If we talk about make children aware, the charity offers advice to parents who are worried that their child is being bullied or may be bullying others. Thanks to performances like this they can also highlight the seriousness of bullying and the ramifications for those who partake. On the other hand, include parents it has also seemed interested because the parents each time more have more participation in this actions and links like bullying.co.uk offers advice on what parents need to know about bullying at schools and academies.

Conclusion

Into the bargain we thought that the problems of cyberbullying were less important that we could see in this text. Furthermore ICT has helped that the school bully of the 21st Century looks very different to the bully of 20 years ago because now children have more technology to distract and for this reason promote the apparition of cyberbullying or other problems like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Even though we think that the ICT also helps children because it has tools to work faster and as well search the information that we need to realize each activities of school and interactive activities of internet. Therefore pages like kidscape.org and bullying.co.uk demonstrate that we can help children with ICT.