06 February 2012
Beatbullying today publishes Virtual Violence II: Progress and Challenges in the Fight against Cyberbullying - an in-depth study of the state of cyberbullying amongst children, young people and teachers in the UK.
The report is commissioned by Nominet Trust and in association with the NAHT. It will be unveiled in a hard-hitting Panorama documentary airing on the BBC tonight and reveals that cyberbullying, as a weapon of choice amongst the nation's youth, is showing no signs of dissipating, with 350,222 children – or 1 in 13 – experiencing persistent and intentional cyberbullying, with just under a quarter (23%) reporting that the bullying lasted for a year or more, and two in five (40%) said that it lasted for months or weeks. These findings closely mirror Beatbullying's first Virtual Violence study published in 2009.
Looking at the long-term effects of cyberbullying, Virtual Violence II reveals the detrimental impact this kind of abuse can have on a young person's wellbeing, with:
• 20% of children and young people indicating that fear of cyberbullies made them reluctant to go to school
• One in five (19%) reporting they experienced reduced confidence and self-esteem
• 14% living in fear for their safety
• 5% resorting to self-harm and 3% reporting an attempt of suicide as a direct result of cyberbullying.
"Through this bullying which was not just on the internet, I tried to commit suicide, ended up going to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and stopped going to school. The only reason it has improved is because I left school".
(Girl, 16)
The rise of hand-held internet and mobile technologies in classrooms and the widespread use of social networking and rating platforms such as RateMyTeachers.com have meant that teachers are becoming as common a victim of cyberbullying as children and young people.
Virtual Violence II, commissioned by Nominet Trust and compiled in association with the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), uncovers the increasing vulnerability of teachers, with:
• 1 in 10 teachers stating they've experienced harassment through a technological medium and 48% witnessing or hearing about it happening to their colleagues
• 15% feeling afraid for their safety or that of their family
• 3% contemplating leaving the profession and 3% resigning altogether.
The report also highlights the financial strain cyberbullying places upon the education system with:
• Teachers spending an average of six hours a week dealing with cases of cyberbullying
• And an estimated £18 million of the education budget being spent dealing with cases of cyberbullying per annum.
The perpetrators do this in and out of school time but it is invariably brought into school and school staff have to spend time dealing with it. The technology moves on and changes so quickly, it is difficult for non technical people to keep up with".
(Secondary School Teacher in Derbyshire)
The report also names and shames the worst offending social networking sites where cyberbullying has been found to be most prevalent. Over half (52%) of young people identified Facebook as the place where they'd personally experienced cyberbullying. Facebook and MSN were also cited as the most common platforms on which children witness bullying happening to others (47% and 20% respectively), with 45% stating they felt that websites such as Facebook and MSN did not do enough to protect them from virtual violence.
"People think that they can say whatever they want to behind a computer screen... It needs to be reported much more than it is as it really affects young people; it has definitely shaped who I am today"
(Girl, 17)
Emma-Jane Cross, chief executive of Beatbullying, said:
"Cyberbullying continues to be a dangerous problem for a significant number of young people and we must not ignore its complex and often devastating effects.
"We as a society need to take responsibility for both preventing such harmful and anti-social behaviour, and dealing effectively with incidents of virtual violence when they occur. An integrated approach where we see Government, schools, parents, Internet Service Providers and charities like Beatbullying all working together to keep our most vulnerable safe.
"Today Beatbullying is calling for Internet Service Providers, social networking sites and mobile phone networks to support and invest in services such as Beatbullying's Cybermentors programme, that has the capacity to successfully intervene and offer legitimate advice, support and guidance to children and young people.
Emphasis also needs to be placed on the safety and well being of our teachers, their job is to educate and not spend endless hours a week dealing with cyber bullying.
"It is costing society £18 million to deal with this endemic, this is wrong; this money needs to be reinvested in early intervention and prevention work, to help protect our most vulnerable.
"CyberMentors is dealing with cyberbullying on the front line, but working together in partnership with service providers; we can create a culture in which any form of bullying, on or off-line, is seen as unacceptable. This is how we will make a real difference to young people's lives."
Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, added:
"The benefits of new communications technologies in education are hard to overstate but we know that when they are abused, life can be made a misery for pupils and teachers alike. We also know that victims of bullying whether on or off-line have been driven to suicide by such misery.
"This report brings home the necessity of taking steps to deal with pernicious virtual violence, not only to protect those who could and should be taking advantage of all the positive aspects of these exciting technologies but to send a clear message to those who might believe otherwise, that abuse conducted online is still abuse and is not immune from consequences.
"We welcome this report for highlighting these issues and are proud to support Beatbullying in its attempts to provide a common sense response to cyber violence."
Annika Small, CEO of Nominet Trust, added:
"This new research is extremely worrying. A kneejerk reaction would be to lock and block the internet, but this would negate its vast potential for supporting young people's learning and development. Instead, we need to equip young people and their parents with the skills to use the internet safely and responsibly so they can take advantage of the opportunities that digital technology presents for positive discovery, collaboration and participation"
"It is worse being bullied over the internet because everyone can see and it makes you feel really little and small".
(Girl, 13)
For more information, interview with a Beatbullying spokesperson, or further statistics please contact:
Frank PR – Siobhan Sleet and Sarah-May Kershaw
siobhansleet@frankpr.it | sarahkershaw@frankpr.it |0207 693 6999
Beatbullying - Sherry Adhami | sherry.adhami@beatbullying.org | 0781 400 4963
-ENDS-
Virtual Violence II was commissioned by Nominet Trust and comprised a comprehensive survey for children and young people designed to measure the levels, intensity, methods and motivations of cyberbullying, types of incidents reported, reactions and responses, emotional effects and consequences, and coping strategies; as well as a comprehensive survey for teachers and educational professionals designed to measure the levels of cyberbullying recorded within a school, prevalence of harassment, and effective support strategies available for teachers and pupils.
The pupil survey encompassed the views of over 4,605 children and young people located in the following areas of the UK: Channel Islands (.2%), East Midlands (15.3%), East of England (2.3%), London (9.6%), North East (4.0%), Northern Ireland (.8%), North West (12.7%), Scotland (1.8%), South West (7.6%), South East (3.6%), Wales (15.9%), West Midlands (15.6%), and Yorkshire and Humber (10.6%).
The teachers' survey covered the views of 339 professionals located in the following areas of the UK:Dorset, Northumberland, Hertfordshire, Kent, Leicestershire, Gloucestershire, North Yorkshire, Inner London, Outer London, Nottinghamshire, Cumbria, Devonshire, Staffordshire, East Sussex, Durham, Bristol, South Yorkshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, West Sussex, and West Yorkshire. Respondents had been working within the education field for an average of 17.0 years.
Beatbullying is part of We're Altogether Better
We're Altogether Better is a brand new, digital-based, social action not-for-profit organisation. Developed by the team behind the award-winning charity Beatbullying, it was formed in January 2012 upon the acceptance of a £1.3m grant from the Social Action Fund.
We're Altogether Better will scale up and develop Beatbullying's independently proven digital support and volunteering programmes to increase social action, improve the reach and scale of support to the most vulnerable, and radically change how people can volunteer, using unique, innovative and inspirational volunteering opportunities.
Existing programmes within We're Altogether Better include CyberMentors (which reduces bullying in schools by an average of 40% and exclusions by 31%), MiniMentors (which improves friendship and citizenship in primary school by 67%) and FutureYou (which moves over half its users into employment or education). These will continue to expand, and more programmes will be developed offering support to the most vulnerable in our society. The first of these new programmes, to launch later this year, will be an online mental health programme offering; online mentoring, counselling and psychotherapy, using Cosmo technology.
Directors and patrons of We're Altogether Better and We Are Cosmo; include Professor Tanya Bryon, Annika Small, Tim Waldron and Dr Catherine Walker.
For more information go to; www.cybermentors.org.uk www.minimentors.org.uk www.thefutureyou.org.uk
www.werealtogetherbetter.org (full website in development) www.wearecosmo.com (full website in development) www.beatbullying.org
Beatbullying is Registered charity no 1097631.
Cybermentors
Since its launch in 2009, CyberMentors has successfully supported over 1.2million children and young people.
National Association of Head Teachers
NAHT is an independent trade union and professional association with 28,500 members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Members include head teachers, deputies, assistant head teachers, bursars and school business managers. They hold leadership positions in early years, primary, special, secondary and independent schools, sixth form colleges, outdoor education centres, pupil referral units, social services establishments and other educational settings. The membership represents 85 per cent of primary and 40 per cent of secondary schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Nominet Trust
The Nominet Trust is a UK-based social investor, which harnesses the power of the internet to improve lives and communities. The Trust brings together, invests in and supports people committed to using the internet to create social and economic value. To date, Nominet Trust has invested more than £9million projects and research designed to galvanize the untapped potential of the internet to change the world for the better. To find out more, visit: www.nominettrust.org.uk.