Cyberbullying & harassment

More New Zealand schools are dealing with incidents of bullying or harassment via email or mobile phone text messaging. Fortunately, schools will already have bullying/harassment policies in place, so a disciplinary response to such behaviour is fairly straightforward.

Here are a few points which could be helpful if schools are confronted with such a situation:

• The impact of cyberbullying can be greater than face to face bullying because the anonymous threats are more worrying and intimidating, even though statistically they are usually coming from someone known to the victim. Children cannot get away from cyberbullying like they can with face to face bullying. Also, posting information on the Net means potentially having global access to that material, which can intensify the humiliation and hurt of having such information made public.
• Bullying messages can range from the mild ("You're the ugliest boy in class...") to the criminal ("I'm going to kill you and your little sister.") Serious threats received by students or staff should be reported immediately to the police.
• A British survey by NCH (see the 'Research' section of the NetSafe website) found one in four young people reported being bullied via email or text messaging. Yet 29% didn't tell anyone about the harassment. By talking about bullying and harassment with students, and including the new technologies, young people may feel more comfortable about coming forward.
• Informing parents can help as well. By encouraging parents to keep an open communication with their child and not immediately respond to a worrying incident by removing access to the technologies, young people may be encouraged to get help.
• Bullying using communication technologies can take other forms than direct messages. These include: photos of individuals being posted on the Net in a negative context without permission (sometimes the photos are of an intimate nature and/or were taken surreptitiously), websites can be set up about an individual with nasty (or sometimes even defamatory) content that often reveals personal details about the victim, and messages can be placed on message boards and passed on in chatrooms that contain false information about the victim (sometimes defamatory) and the victim's contact details.
• The Police Youth Education Service address cyberbullying in their Kia Kaha anti-bullying programme that is available for schools.

Schools can call NetSafe toll-free on 0508 NETSAFE or email queries@netsafe.org.nz if they have questions about a specific incident.

The NZ Police, Vodafone New Zealand, Telecom and NetSafe are working together to raise awareness about text bullying. This campaign includes posters and brochures with helpful information for students and parents. Click here to view a pdf of the NetSafe/Vodafone NZ brochure on txt bullying.