Children in Scotland suffer more cyber bullying than anywhere else in Europe claims a national newspaper (15/03/2016). Also the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that cyber bullying is now a public health problem, which can threaten young people’s social and emotional development. It seems that 13 year girls were the most targeted group. What can we do, these are young people who possibly do not think about the consequences of their actions, until after the action. Do we need to build young people’s reliance to cyber bullying that includes minimising the ways that make them vulnerable to attack, while educating and reinforcing the potential harm this behaviour causes. Which is possibly what is trying to be done but within specific environments, i.e. schools. Arguably what makes cyber bullying more damaging is that it is so public, it is quite shocking, we need to support those who are dealing with this, play our part to ensure it does not create real harm to young people. What do you think?
This is a really shocking statistic. I agree that it is a really difficult area to manage - everyone uses social media and communicates online. I think schools are doing a lot in the way of raising awareness of the issue but i think it is also really difficult to manage. I agree we need to support the young people experiencing this and the those who are supporting the young people too. How can we support people going through his kind of bullying? Does anyone have experience in this area?
Hi there,
respectme is Scotland’s Anti Bullying Service and we are funded by the Scottish Government to work with all adults who have a role to play in the lives of children and young people. We aim to build the capacity of adults to affect change and challenge bullying and stigma at an individual, school, family, community and societal level.
We have some research (Bullying in Scotland 2014) that relates to online bullying in the Scottish context that can be accessed on our website that you may find interesting to read.
Here is the link
http://www.respectme.org.uk/publications.html
thanks for sharing Lisa!