Beatbullying launches CyberMentors
03.03.2009
[FINAL] Embargoed: Tuesday 3rd March 2009 00:01HRS
Beatbullying launches CyberMentors to stamp out cyberbullying epidemic
Gordon Brown, Ed Balls and top celebrities back ground-breaking anti-cyberbullying scheme
Beatbullying, the UK’s leading bullying prevention charity is tackling the UK’s cyberbullying epidemic head-on with the launch of CyberMentors (www.cybermentors.org.uk), the first nationwide online peer-mentoring social networking site. The launch of the part DCSF funded CyberMentors initiative to stamp out cyberbullying is being announced today by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and actively supported by Joe Calzaghe, Dame Kelly Holmes and MOBO award-winning hip hop group N-Dubz.
Research conducted by Beatbullying with over 2000 young people aged between 11 and 18 has uncovered a growing epidemic, with over one in three revealing that they have been the victim of cyberbullying. The three most common digital environments for cyberbullying were found to be mobile text messages, prank mobile phone calls and content posted on social networking sites. Beatbullying’s research also reveals a worrying gender divide, with teenage girls up to four times more likely to be the victims of bullying over digital channels compared to teenage boys. The launch of CyberMentors follows Safer Internet Day on 10 February where social networking giants including Facebook and MySpace agreed that they need to work together to find new ways of preventing cyberbullying.
For the first time, young people suffering at the hands of cyberbullying can seek immediate help and advice from other young people – CyberMentors – online at www.cybermentors.org.uk. CyberMentors will offer advice and support, but in severe cases where someone could be in immediate danger, will refer it to a Beatbullying cyber counsellor, who will take appropriate action to protect the individual from further attacks. Beatbullying’s research found that over 44 per cent of young people would be open to taking advice online from their peers.
At launch there are 700 fully trained CyberMentors, made up of 600 secondary school children and a further 100 in further education working to keep cyberspace safe. There are plans to grow that number into the thousands by 2012. Young people can volunteer to become CyberMentors after passing a five-stage training course given by Beatbullying. The training is specially designed to enable aspiring CyberMentors to help and support their peers through the website with all kinds of cyberbullying from social networks and email to instant messenger and text message abuse.
CyberMentors works in the same vein as Beatbullying’s successful school-based peer-mentoring scheme which has been proven to reduce bullying by up to 80 per cent. All online mentoring will take place within the safety of the CyberMentors website which is monitored using Crisp Thinking’s market-leading software which detects inappropriate conversations and flags them directly to Beatbullying.
Emma Jane Cross, Chief Executive, Beatbullying comments, “One in three of our young people are telling us that they have been victims of cyber bullying, this is unacceptable. Clearly, cyber bullying is a growing problem affecting millions of children across the UK and to date efforts to tackle the epidemic have fallen short. CyberMentors is the direct result of feedback given by the young people we have been working with in schools and communities across the country for the past seven years. It is the first time that the Third Sector, government, volunteers and young people are working together on a large scale and in an integrated way to tackle one of the biggest issues facing society today. We’re looking forward to encouraging more social networking sites to come on board and address everyone’s responsibility to keep young people safe.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown comments: “CyberMentors is an exciting new initiative to help keep Britain’s children and young people safe online. The internet provides children and young people with a world of entertainment, opportunity and knowledge, a world that is quite literally at their fingertips, just the click of a mouse away. Just as we wouldn’t let them go unsupervised in playgrounds or in youth clubs, so we must put in place the measures that we need to keep our children and young people safe online.
“Cyberbullying is the most common problem experienced by young people on the internet, so I am delighted that Beatbullying is taking a lead in training more than 3,000 CyberMentors to take its successful peer mentoring programme into schools and to establish it online.”
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls says: “Bullying should not be part of a young person’s life and the view that it is simply part of growing up or just part of school life is wrong. Cyberbullying is a particularly harmful form of bullying and by its anonymous nature - it can leave the victim wondering who to trust.
“Peer mentoring schemes, like the CyberMentors programme, takes a different approach, getting young people to provide help and support for their peers. Its unique way of offering a confidant, an ally, who can put themselves in the shoes of their peers, helping young people get through a distressing time and helps schools tackle bullying. I look forward to seeing the programme in action across the country.”
Dino “Dappy” Contostavlos, N-Dubz comments, “For any young person to feel threatened or intimidated is unacceptable. We’re proud to join the fight to stamp out bullying and to be supporting the launch of CyberMentors.org.uk which will help so many of our fans and other young people in the UK.”
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Notes to editors:
About Beatbullying
Beatbullying is the UK’s leading bullying prevention charity. Founded in 1999, Beatbullying empowers young people to lead anti-bullying campaigns in their schools and local communities, and builds the capacity of local communities to sustain the work. Beatbullying has directly and indirectly worked with 700,000+ young people over the last five years, assisting and supporting young people that are being bullied, re-educating and changing the behaviour of young people that bully, and preventing bullying in schools and communities across the UK. CyberMentors is a Beatbullying project.
Cyber Bullying Report
Beatbullying’s cyberbullying survey
To coincide with the launch of CyberMentors, Beatbullying has conducted a study into cyberbullying and the experiences and attitudes of young people.
Over the past two months, Beatbullying delivered a comprehensive 32 question survey into secondary schools in several areas across England. 2,094 young people, aged 11-18, responded to the questionnaire, and some of the interim findings will be released today.
Beatbullying will continue to publish more findings over the coming six weeks, in line with the launch of a national billboard advertising campaign and the broadcast of a major television advertising campaign. A full report will be available at the end of May 2009.
CyberMentors partners
Crisp®
Crisp® is the foremost authority on the dangers of online grooming and internet bullying. Since 2005, its specialist technology has been identifying sexually inappropriate, threatening and abusive content and relationships across millions of online conversations – automatically protecting children worldwide. For more information visit, www.crispthinking.com
MindMatics Ltd
MindMatics is a global leader in the development and implementation of mobile services. As a full service provider, MindMatics is active in three areas: mobile messaging and payment, mobile Internet and mobile marketing. More than 500 businesses throughout Europe have realized their mobile services with MindMatics. Customers include Unilever, T-Mobile, Volkswagen, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, ProSieben, Vodafone. MindMatics was founded in March 2000 and employs over 130 staff at its offices in London, Munich, Cologne, Vienna and Los Angeles.
Mozilla
Mozilla is a global community dedicated to building free, open source products and technologies that improve the online experience for people everywhere. Mozilla works in the open with a highly disciplined, transparent and cooperative development process, under the umbrella of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation. As a wholly owned subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation organizes the development and marketing of Mozilla products such as the popular Firefox internet browser. For more information, visit www.getfirefox.com or www.mozilla.com
NUS
NUS (National Union of Students) is a voluntary membership organisation which makes a real difference to the lives of students and its member students' unions.
We are a confederation of local student representative organisations in colleges and universities throughout the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland which have chosen to affiliate and which pay a membership fee
Piczo.com
Piczo empowers teenagers worldwide to express themselves creatively, build personal communities, and share ideas and experiences with their friends in a safer online environment. Piczo’s customizable content, colourful graphics, glitter text, video, games, and photo editing tools spotlight member creativity without requiring any technical know-how. For more information go to www.piczo.com
vinspired.com
vinspired.com is the website from v, the youth volunteering organisation. vinspired.com aims to inspire a new generation of volunteers (aged 16-25 in England) by persuading them to do someone a favour. It’s easy to find opportunities to volunteer in your local area doing anything from sport and music to arts and mentoring at www.vinspired.com.
Yoursphere.co.uk
Yoursphere is the social networking site for everyone aged 9-18, that puts safety first, by protecting young people from online predators or anyone hiding behind a fake profile. A place for young people to hang out, chat, win prizes and meet new friends, Yoursphere also gives back to the community through member-only scholarships, internships and donations to youth charities.
Yoursphere exceeds government safety standards, is Byron and COPPA Compliant and includes member identity and age verification, verifiable parental consent and the site carries the CEOP Report Abuse Button.
OTHER PARTNERS INCLUDE:
3 MOBILE, SWAPITSHOP.COM AND BARCLAYS CAPITAL
For more information, visit www.cybermentors.org.uk or www.beatbullying.org
Or contact Beatbullying’s Press Office:
Tom Malcolm
tom.malcolm@beatbullying.org
0845 338 5073
Claire Doolan
claire.doolan@beatbullying.org
0845 338 5073
Sherry Adhami sherry.adhami@beatbullying.org 0781 400 4963 (Head of Communications)