10Meters News Service

May 9, 2002 – The schoolyard bully has found a new way to taunt victims – using mobile-phone text messaging.

A study by NCH, the leading children's charity in Great Britain, found that 1 in 4 youngsters there have been "bullied or threatened via their mobile phone or PC," with the mobile phone being the "most commonly abused medium."

Sixteen percent of the young people surveyed by NCH for the report, released May 9, said they had received "bullying or threatening text messages." Seven percent said they had been harassed in Internet chat-rooms, with 4 percent pointing a finger at email.

Most concerning, said the charity, is that the children – some as young as 11 – admitted to keeping the electronic abuse to themselves.

"Worryingly when asked who they had reported the bullying to, 29 percent of those surveyed said that they told no one," the report noted. Of the 69 percent who did tell someone, 42 percent turned to a friend and 32 percent to a parent, according to the study.

Young people are either "suffering in silence" or turning to friends for support – but the friends are youngsters " who themselves don't know how to deal with [the abuse] effectively," said NCH.

"On-line bullying is a modern menace which needs to be addressed," said John Carr, associate Director of NCH's Children and Technology Unit. "If we want our children to benefit from all the good things IT [information technology] has to offer, we need to protect them from the risks it poses."

NCH is urging parents, the education system and industry to take action against the abuse, recommending that schools "amend their bullying policies to include [mobile] text and online abuse."

It also said that ISPs and mobile phone companies "should take responsibility for finding effective ways of dealing with complaints and providing advice on the subject to their users."

For more information, visit NCH at www.nch.org.uk.