ARTelevision

Bullies hit out over cyberspace

Children are unable to escape the mobile torment from bullies

LONDON, England -- Playground bullies have adapted their traditional tactics of punches and taunts to include hateful text messages and personalized Web sites, a UK children's charity says.

One in four children in the UK are the victims of cyber-bullying, said John Carr, Associate Director of the children's charity NCH, formerly known as the National Children's Homes.

"It's a new twist on the old pattern of bullying," he added.

The most popular form of cyber-bullying is mobile phone text messaging, which means victims can never escape the torment, he said.

"In the past, if bullies picked on you at school or on the way home, at least when you got to your bedroom there was some respite," Carr told Reuters.

There have also been cases of "hate Web sites" set up against students and sometimes teachers, Liz Carnell director of anti-bullying charity Bullying Online said.

"We have succeeded in getting a couple of these Web sites shut down. But it is worrying that they are so easy to set up in the first place," she told Reuters.

Children as young as 11 are targeted by cyber bullies and are often too afraid to talk to teachers or their parents and therefore suffer in silence, Carr said.

A third of victims do not tell anyone and if they do tell someone it is usually a school friend and not a policeman or teacher, he added.

Schools are aware of the situation and encourage children not to carry a mobile phone.

"Most schools have a policy of not allowing mobile phones to be switched on during lessons and some have even banned phones from school grounds," said a spokeswoman for the National Union of Teachers.

However, Carr says: "Teachers are powerless to fight bullying of whatever type outside the school."

Carnell advises young people not give out their e-mail or mobile phone number.

"But sadly a lot of phone bullying is when friends fall out," she said, adding that teenage girls were the most common instigators and recipients of text bullying.

Carr warns children not to suffer in silence and to "tell the mobile phone companies, try and get your number changed and tell the police."

..........

I've been researching sociopathology on the Internet.
Here's a story that represents a trend.
More later.

But to start the topic, I chose a distant situation.
Your comments on the larger related issues are welcome.

__________________
create evolution