Thousands of children going back to school face online bullying nightmare… as nearly half say teachers don’t take it seriously
The last message 14-year-old Megan Evans received before taking her own life was 'Why don't you hang yourself?' and she replied 'OK'
THOUSANDS of kids – some as young as six – are facing a cyber bullying epidemic as they go back to school this week, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.
Almost 200 specialist teachers have been trained to fight web-based attacks as more than eight million pupils return to classes.
But experts say our schools are on the verge of crisis with new stats revealing one in four youngsters is left so traumatised by online abuse, they are unable to sleep.
The term “cyber bullying” is searched in Google eight times more often in September and October as the schools go back, than during summer months.
Jeremy Todd, of Bullying UK, said: “Young people spend four to five hours a day unsupervised online, which is quite frightening.
“If kids go down the park, you would ask, ‘Who did you see? What did you do? Did you have a good time?’
“But if that level of inquiry isn’t happening when that child is online, it’s a real worry, as it is leaving them open to all sorts of problems and abuse.
“At one time bullying might end for the day when a child left school at home time.
“Now phones, tablets and even computer games mean it is very hard to escape abuse online even when a child gets home.”
And he added: “Cyber bullying is in danger of becoming a silent epidemic.”
Yet 45 per cent of kids said online harassment was not taken seriously by their school.
Currently, only half of schoolchildren would speak to their parents if they were upset by something on the web, online safety group Internet Matters found after talking to 10,000 people aged six to 18.
In a different study, half of the girls surveyed confirmed they had received harassment on social media, as well as 40 per cent of boys.
Our probe discovered many kids shun traditional social media sites WhatsApp, Facebook and
Snapchat so their online conversations escape the notice of parents and teachers.
Tens of thousands are logging on to chat rooms attached to online computer games such as Call Of
Duty — despite its 18 rating — and footie favourite FIFA 2017 to chat privately.
One 12-year-old boy told The Sun on Sunday: “I have a password to log on to FIFA and can chat with my other friends who play. None of our parents know it’s there.
Five tips to help
KEEPING up with children’s lives is hard enough without having to monitor the new ways they communicate.
Here, Carolyn Bunting of Internet Matters gives parents her advice for dealing with cyber bullying.
1. Talk early and often. Talk with children from an early age to make it easier to maintain good communication. Have bite-size conversations that are relevant to them.
2. Choose the right time. Choose to talk when you are due to spend some time together, like over a meal or during their bedtime routine. Bring digital experience into normal, everyday conversations.
3. Open up and share too. Model the behaviour you want them to show by sharing about your day. Be open and encouraging to make them feel supported.
4. Create a safe space for your child. Ask open-ended questions and when they start talking, hold off with more questions and really listen to them.
5. Be prepared, calm and patient with them. Ensure your child feels listened to rather than cornered.
“My mum looks at what I post on Snapchat but she doesn’t know the chat exists on the FIFA game.”
Mum Natalie Randall, from Nottingham told how her ten-year-old Conner, was targeted by school bullies who talked to him via Xbox Live building game Minecraft and targeted his YouTube channel.
She said: “At first, the messages were silly then he started receiving abusive voice messages from the same boys.”
Natalie decided to treat the incidents as she would with normal bullying, by speaking to the teachers at school, who managed to stop the abuse.
She said: “It’s made all the difference. I believe had we not talked about it, he might not have known how to react and tried to deal with it alone.”
Even sites designed to allow kids to discuss topics they are worried about are turning into hotbeds for cyber bullying.
A 15-year-old from Scotland was abused by classmates on the question-and-answer site Ask.Fm. She said: “It used to happen every day. I wouldn’t want to go to school but my mum would make me. A girl
I thought used to be my friend started making up rumours, attacking me over Facebook, accusing me of doing stuff I had never done.
“She kept writing horrible anonymous comments on my Ask.Fm account.”
At Hillcrest Primary School in Bristol, a six-year-old pupil was targeted by cyber bullies on his online homework portal.
Headteacher Tim Browse said: “We had one case where an account got hacked as someone told their friend their password.
“That friend went into the account and made the avatar into the opposite sex and changed the name.
As you can imagine, for a six-year-old, that is really upsetting.
“There is the assumption cyber bullying won’t affect a child until secondary school. But cyber bullying isn’t confined to Facebook.”
We can reveal 4,500 teachers have been schooled on how to deal with the issue as part of £4.4million Government scheme.
In the past five years, 189 “safeguarding roles” at schools have been created to combat online bullying.
And around 300 schools are trialling Make A Noise, a scheme launched by Internet Matters last year to help pupils anonymously report the problem.
Instead of a child having to knock on the teacher’s door, they can report the incident over an online platform called Tootoot, and have a conversation with a teacher in confidence.
And at St Mary’s Catholic College in Blackpool, they have even enlisted the help of a Police Community Support Officer.
Simon Eccles, deputy headteacher, said: “It’s particularly important when addressing issues that arise when students are in possession of an indecent image or video of another child, where discussions are also an issue of child protection.”
In the past year, five deaths were linked to cyber bullying in the UK, including 14-year-old Megan Evans from Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, who took her life in February after receiving bullying messages on Snapchat. Chillingly, the last message sent to her read, “Why don’t you hang yourself?”
Megan replied: “OK.”
Her mum Nicola Harteveld said: “We’re all distraught and angry because no one noticed anything different with her.”
In April last year, Felix Alexander, 17, was hit by a train.
His mum Lucy Alexander, from Worcester, said he had been subjected to “cruel and overwhelming” taunts on social media since he was ten, which became unbearable.
Speaking at the time, she said: “His confidence and self-esteem had been eroded over a long period of time by the bullying behaviour he experienced. People who had never even met Felix were abusing him over social media and he found that he was unable to make and keep friends.”
Research by Internet Matters, who are launching a campaign tomorrow to help parents understand their kids’ “hidden digital anxieties”, found 68 per cent of kids who faced cyber bullying said their top concern was being targeted over their appearance.
More than half said they feared abuse over how popular they were, while one in four worried about being subjected to sexist taunts.
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They found the average age a child starts to be bullied over their physical appearance was 11.
More than 60 per cent of parents said they were most concerned about their children being bullied via social media compared to 46 per cent who worried about face-to-face bullying.
In a separate survey of 8,000 12 to 18-year-olds by anti-bullying group , a fifth of respondents said they wanted more lessons on how to combat cyber bullying.
Last year, Childline counselled 4,541 children about online bullying.
Psychologist and Internet Matters ambassador Dr Linda Papadopoulos said: “Internet safety is one of the biggest, most pressing issues facing parents in the digital age.
“September and October is one of the most prevalent times of the year for cyber bullying.
“It’s important parents can spot the signs so they can help their children if they’re in trouble, and know how to have a conversation about this.”
IF YOUR CHILD IS A VICTIM OF CYBER BULLIES — OR YOU FEAR THEY MIGHT BE — GO TO or CALL CHILDLINE 0800 1111