Anti-Bullying Week: Parents and teachers still struggle to keep young people safe onl

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Over half of children and young people in England accept cyber-bullying as part of everyday life, according to research from the Anti-Bullying Alliance. Worryingly, 40% of parents and 44% of teachers admit that they wouldn’t know how to respond if children reported they were being cyberbullied. Despite this, 70% of children would turn to their parents if they were being bullied online, and almost a third said that that educating schools, parents and young people would have the greatest impact towards combating the problem of cyber-bullying.

Trolling and online bullying aren’t just issues affecting young children either. Surprisingly, knowthenet’s own trolling research found that nineteen year old males were the most likely target, with 85% of them admitting to experiencing online bullying.

As Anti-Bullying Week begins starts today (18 November), Knowthenet offers top tips for dealing with trolls:

For targets of online bullying
1. Don’t feed the trolls – trolls feed off your response so whatever you do, never reply.
2. Tell a mate, a teacher, a parent or someone you trust about it as soon as possible.
3. Collect evidence of email or message trails in case it gets more serious. You can find a checklist of what to keep at www.knowthenet.org.uk/trolling

For parents
1. Listen to your child and discuss the problem they’re having.
2. Help them with the practical elements of gathering evidence but be respectful of their privacy, so ask before reading their messages
3. Support your child in reporting the abuse to the social network, online messaging service, or even the authorities and keep monitoring the situation on a regular basis. There’s more information on how to report online bullying at www.knowthenet.org.uk/trolling
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