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Online Bullying Counselling on Increase, Says Childline (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the fighting-bullying dept.

An anonymous reader shares a BBC report:The number of children and young people needing counseling about online bullying has increased by 88 percent over five years, according to a helpline. The NSPCC's Childline service said it counselled more than 4,500 children in the past year compared to about 2,400 in 2011-12. The total number suffering online abuse is thought to be far higher. Some children as young as seven told Childline how they were tormented, abused and scared to go to school. The charity said online trolls caused misery and humiliation for thousands of children. Childline's president Dame Esther Rantzen said the figures should be a wake-up call. "Bullying can wreck young people's lives, especially now that the bullies don't stop at the school gates," she said. Cyber-bullying can follow them home until it becomes a persecution they cannot escape.

6 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. We should ban free speech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    we should ban free speech so that crybabies can have a safe space. Best start with eliminating all negative stories, including this one.

    1. Re:We should ban free speech by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You have the right to bear arms. But not the right to shoot people, just because you have a gun.
      The same thing with free speech. Bullying isn't protected by free speech, as it is a form of attack

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:We should ban free speech by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think you remember what it was like, internally, to be a kid, or maybe you never experienced being bullied as a kid? Back before the Internet, dealing with bullies only required a little courage, since most bullies are cowards to start with, and standing up to them usually has them back down. Even if they beat you, you stood up to them and that gains the respect of other kids. 'A coward dies a thousand deaths' is the saying, as I remember. In some cases bullies will even respect you if you stand up to them, ending the problem. Since the advent of the Internet, however, courage has more or less become nullified. Online bullies ('trolls') can use anonymizing tactics to multiply their attacks on someone, limited only by the amount of time they want to spend arranging to harass someone, and the target can't really do anything of substance about it. Even staying off the Internet doesn't help because they'll continue to be attacked in absentia, and since it's the Internet, those attacks persist long after they've been posted. This is not as simple a problem to solve as it used to be, when a punch in the nose usually ended the problem once and for all.

  2. An important study... by aicrules · · Score: 3, Insightful

    An important psychological study may be to determine why younger generation doesn't just "walk away" from the online bullying when there isn't a physical intimidation keeping them from it. I remember my daughter freaking out because she participated in this absolutely weird "ask.fm" where you anonymously ask and answer questions about a person. My first response to seeing what was being said was rage, but then I said to her...just don't go there. Don't ask anonymous questions about yourself...don't answer questions about other people. No one has power over you if you just ignore it. And luckily that was enough and it was no longer a problem. But years go by and kids seem just so attached to their social personas that they can't just walk way. I get into an argument on facebook or whatever and I'll just close it if I get too worked up. And voila I stop thinking about it. But kids don't seem to have that capability and it makes me wonder why not.

    1. Re:An important study... by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

      When I hear about online bullying, it tends to be more than abusive jerks on random web forums, but rather people the children know in real life who use social media to continue the harassment. It's not quite so easy to say "Don't go on Facebook", but for this kind of bullying, the Internet is simply the most convenient means for a much more expansive kind of bullying.

      The big problem I have is that children basically are not afforded the same protections an adult is. A lot of the bullying I received at school, even the non-physical kind, would likely constitute criminal harassment if it were a group of adults treating another adult that way. But if a kid is the victim and other kids are the perpetrators, it is just brushed off as "kids being kids".

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:An important study... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Precisely. Random trolling, bullying and harassment by strangers on for example forums is mildly irritating. Constant harassment and bullying by peers who you have to deal with every single day at school that follows you around all of the various social media to abuse and humiliate you in front of your friends and associates is another thing entirely, particularly when so many adults will just brush it off as "kids being kids" (if they see it at all).