Cyberbullying: Torment at the touch of a button
RTE’s Prime Time promises to lift the lid on cyber bullying – a frightening and growing trend that can lead to misery and even suicide for its victims Sue Leonard asks if parents and students need to be worried
ANTI-SOCIAL NETWORKING: Students to reveal the agony behind their screens. Picture posed by models
It's never been fun to be bullied. It has ruined many lives. It leads to poor self esteem; to depression, and sometimes to suicide.
Bullies have never been easy to deal with; but at least in the past they were visible. With technology they hide, like the cowards they are. They feel able to say whatever they like without fear of detection. And the results are far reaching and scary.
VICIOUS
Technology makes us available every minute of every day. So there's no escaping the bully; no feeling of safety when you're hidden at home, inside those four walls.
The old style whispering campaign was bad enough.
The anonymous note was hard to take. How much worse when stories about you spread instantly through texts and out into cyber space.
We've had the high profile cases; this month 17-year-old Adrian Ruane showed the dark side of Bebo, when he used his networking pages on the site to say farewell to his friends; and then committed suicide.
Two years ago, the exclusive Alexandra College was in the news, when a group of pupils there used Bebo in some vicious bullying. The principal, Marian Healy dealt with the issue magnificently.
She updated the school's anti-bullying policy, and told the parents that they must take responsibility too. They must become more aware of their children's cyber lives.
There have been other good initiatives. The last Minister of Education and Children, Mary Hanafin, was involved with one of them. She instructed transition year students to investigate the matter and come up with some solutions for their peers.
Children adore networking sites. Calls to ban them are as much an over reaction as calls to ban pen and paper to stop vicious notes. We can't stop children from socialising this way. But we can make sure that they don't expose themselves to danger.
The message is plain. Don't disclose private information like full name, address or phone number. And hesitate before you post up your photo. Be careful what you say.
Beware, too, the more hidden dangers. If teens mess around on line; if they invent an oddball, attention seeking profile, it might go against them when they want that job.
If their friends can access them online, then so can that wouldbe employer. It's a sobering thought.
It's not easy, though for parents. Many don't much use a computer. They feel lost and out of control. They've always admired their child's cyber skills, and don't know how to check that all is safe.
But they can all be there for their children. They can all make sure their child tells them the minute they feel uncomfortable online; or upset or unsafe. And they can inform the site coordinator and have comments instantly removed.
Despite the warnings, cyberbullying is spreading. It's got down to primary schools, where, according to John Carr, General Secretary of the union INTO, children are lying about their age in order to have a site on Bebo.
RESEARCH
Most schools now have an anti-bullying policy in place. The problem is, that it's become out of date.
Or so says Marisela de Cleary, who is in charge of the peer mentoring programme at St Andrew's College in Booterstown. She would love more research to enable schools to get up to date with the times.
And she's in luck. The Anti Bullying Centre, ABC, in Trinity College Dublin is about to unleash just that. Their research will be divulged on next Monday's Prime Time. And, according to a spokesperson, the results show the problem is huge.
