Working to keep the bullies offline (From Gazette)

Working to keep the bullies offline

10:00pm Tuesday 24th November 2009 in

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FORGET pulling pigtails and name calling, techniclogicly-savvy kids are increasingly falling foul of cyberbullying.

From nasty text messages and e-mails, to vicious rumours and false profiles with embarrassing and cruel pictures on social networking sites, the trend of cyberbullying is on the rise.

More than a third of 12-15-year-olds admit they have been cyberbullied, according to Department for Children, Schools and Families research, and victims are getting younger as children are given access to mobile phones and computers at an earlier age.

However, it seems youngsters in this county are taking the lead to stamp out the rising trend of cyberbullying.

The Young Essex Assembly held a survey and discovered that of the 23 issues listed, bullying came out highest.

As a result, the ten representatives, of the 75 elected members of the Youth Council for Essex aged 11-19, formed a bullying subgroup and set up a Beat Bullying conference, during Anti-Bullying Week, with the theme of cyberbullying.

Among the main issues the group decided to bring to the conference was that not all schools acknowledge bullying happens, teachers need to know more about bullying, pupils need training around bullying and sometimes, teachers can make a problem worse.

I went to the conference where there was a definite buzz in the room as schools from across the county piled in to learn more about tackling the different forms of bullying.

Georgia Houghgon, 15, who goes to Highlands School in Chelmsford said: “Cyberbullying isn’t any different from other bullying. For us growing up, it was name calling and teasing, but now children experience it through mobile phones and the internet. That’s what we want to put a stop to,”

The event included advice for children and teachers, talks from the Safer Schools Partnership officers, information for teachers to take back to school and performance workshops.

Cathryn Vallance, a youth representitive, who is 17, and works at Barnett Bears Nursery in Basildon, knows exactly what it is like to be at the receiving end of bullying.

She said: “I didn’t think the bullying I suffered at school was handled particularly well and it ended up being me and the other person sorting it out between us.

“I decided to start playing rugby and I found I had more confidence and I stopped being picked on.

“Kids get it from all angles now. For me it was just verbal, but now they can use different ways with the internet.

“Now I’m working in a nursery, with children from six weeks to five years, I try to instil in them that bullying is wrong from an early age.

“I started out as a district youth councillor at Basildon Council and then I was elected to the Youth Council for Essex.

“We are all dedicated to stamping out bullying.”