Cyber-bullying affecting younger children

Cyber-bullying is increasingly affecting younger children as more of them get mobile phones and computer access.

According to research from the Anti Bullying Alliance (ABA) an organisation made up of over 50 voluntary, statutory and private sectors bodies, one in five children aged between 10 and 11 had been bullied online in the past 12 months.

However, almost a quarter said they did not know how to protect themselves.

At the start of a national campaign, Anti-Bullying Week, Christopher Cloke ABA chairman said: “Nationally we know that around 22 per cent of secondary school pupils have been affected by cyber-bullying, but until now we did not know younger age groups were also seriously affected.

Additional research, Virtual Violence, from the charity Beatbullying showed that social networking sites and instant messaging are the mechanisms which have helped fuel cyber-bullying.

Although these sites do have mechanisms through which abuse can be reported, almost half the children and teenagers it surveyed said it was not enough.

Beatbullying named Bebo as the worst site with one in three young people saying they had been bullied at the site. At the time of going to press Bebo had not responded to our emails.

Facebook was also named but said it had created a ‘bullyproof’ page and urged people to attach the logo badge to their internet profile.

More than half of children who took part in the survey MSN instant messenger had been used by others to bully them.

Mr Cloke said parents needed to know how to help their children. Although its study found younger children would turn to parents or a carer in these situations, it said parents were often not as technically savvy as their children and were unaware of how serious the situation had become.

He said: “It is crucial that we ensure children know how to stay safe online, and that their parents know how to help them. Clearly more research is needed on this emerging issue."