Teenagers Tackle Cyberbullies
5th March 2009
It has been recently reported that one in three teenagers are suffering bullying by mobile phone, text messages, messenger or on the Internet. Tuesday saw the launch of a team of online Cyber Mentors to help teenage victims of bullying and they were deluged with calls for help with hundreds of victims and friends of victims logging on to chat to one of the 700 specially trained teenagers about their problems.
An innovative approach and bringing new meaning to peer support, the development of the Beatbullying (a leading bully-prevention charity) service will be interesting to watch. How successful they will be in recruiting subsequent Cyber Mentors in order to have thousands of them in place by 2012, providing immediate help and support to 500,000 bullied kids, is full of good intentions but maybe a little challenging to achieve.
But with the number of reported children experiencing some form of online bullying, I suppose this is a service that couldn’t come soon enough.
