The cyber menace

FOR Elaine Faull, the attack itself was bad enough. A respected headteacher, Mrs Faull had approached one of her former pupils to see how she was getting on. But instead of swapping pleasantries, the teenager unleashed a tirade of foul-mouthed abuse before entering the playground and punching her former teacher in the face.

The incident was carried out in front of 100 pupils and Mrs Faull was left shaken and bruised. But the shock soon gave way to painful humiliation when she realised her ordeal had been filmed by a 15-year-old girl on her mobile phone, who had then sent the 30-second clip to other pupils.

"I was really horrified," said Mrs Faull, following the incident at a school in Somerset. "After the attack I was proud enough to think I would get on with my job, business as usual. But clearly I was shocked because I like to think I'm a well respected headteacher with all the students. To then find it on video makes an incredible difference."

Lauren Edmunds, 16, from Darlington, went through a similar ordeal, suffering a broken nose after being beaten up by a gang of laughing teenagers. The teenagers filmed the assault on mobile phones and, although the footage was handed to her the day after the attack by the gang member who recorded it, the damage had been done.

Her mother, Samantha, later said: "It is shocking that all those kids were there, but they did not try to stop this happening. They organised the whole thing for their own entertainment. That is why they filmed it. They were acting like animals."

It is incidents such as these, along with pressure from headteachers and anti-bullying organisations, which have caused the Government to take action. Today, it will announce a crackdown on so-called cyber-bullies - those who use the internet and their mobile phones to target other children and teachers.

An online campaign entitled Laugh At It And You're A Part Of It will run on teenage networking websites for six weeks and a short film will be available for teachers to screen in classrooms.

Schools will also receive guidance on drawing up anti-bullying policies to cover cyber-bullying, how to have offensive or malicious material removed from websites and confiscating equipment. But will the measures work?

The action comes after a recent study by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) revealed that up to 34 per cent of 12 to 15-year-olds had experienced some form of cyber-bullying. It can take different forms - threats, intimidation, harassment or cyber-stalking, unauthorised publication of private information or images, impersonation or so-called "happy slapping".

Liz Carnell, who runs the anti-bullying charity Bullying Online, receives 8,500 emails a year from victims of bullying or their parents.

"We get numerous complaints from parents and children, desperate because they report cyber-bullying and nothing gets done or it can take weeks sometimes before action is taken," she says. "They can even be told it's not bullying. It might be that the bullies are saying the pupil is having a relationship with somebody and to people who don't know that might sound fairly innocuous, but it can lead to fights and ostracisation.

"All these websites need to be more pro-active in the way that they handle complaints. When we get involved we can get them removed within hours but I can't say we're successful with every case."

The websites which are commonly used in cyber-bullying cases include Bebo, MySpace, YouTube and Piczo. The Government's new measures have been developed in consultation with the social networking sites.

It is the use of websites for cyber-bullying which prompted the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) in April to consider suing the ones which publish offensive comments and video clips of teachers in embarrassing situations.

Malcolm Wilkinson, a national executive member of the ATL and Sunderland branch secretary, says: "There have been postings on the internet where teachers have been accused of physical or sexual abuse of pupils. We've also had it where they'll get hold of a teacher's mobile number and then bombard them with abusive texts.

"All of these things can have dire consequences on a teacher's mental health and family life and it can make it very hard for them to stay in teaching. I think it's up to the internet providers to be more vigilant in checking what's being said on their sites."

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, says teachers will be pleased the Government has recognised it is not just pupils who suffer from bullying.

"Misuse of internet sites can destroy teachers' confidence and professional reputation and provide yet another vehicle for false allegations against staff," she says.

''Unfortunately, as good as the Government's guidance undoubtedly is, there is still more that needs to be done. At present, the guidance relies on industry self-regulation. This is unlikely to work. More and urgent action is required.''

In North Yorkshire, the police are taking an active role in trying to combat cyber-bullying. PC Gary Lewis, a local coordinator for the Anti-Bullying Alliance and Bullying Online, is using a children's personal safety event, Crucial Crew, which starts tomorrow and lasts two weeks, to raise awareness about cyber-bullying.

PC Lewis, who covers the Richmondshire area, says: "We advise that most incidents in school are best dealt with in school. Parents also owe it to themselves to understand the system, the internet and how it works."

But according to teachers, there is also more that can be done by headteachers to support their staff.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, says: "The Government's guidance should help save pupils from future bullying, but we now need to see the same support for staff. All schools should have policies to protect their teachers and support staff from cyber-bullying and should make a commitment to fully support anyone who is a victim."

n For more information on Bullying Online log onto www.bullying.co.uk