School Bullying Council

12 July 2011
Last updated at 10:31 ET

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Robert and Tracy Mullaney want new legislation brought in to protect children from bullying.

The parents of a 15-year-old boy who hanged himself after being threatened online have called for a new law to specifically target bullying.

Thomas Mullaney, from Bournville, in Birmingham, died in May 2010 after being threatened on Facebook.

His parents Robert and Tracy say sites like Facebook need to do more to protect young people.

But a spokeswoman for Facebook said the site already had safety measures and strong links to anti-bullying groups.

Robert Mullaney said he would always be haunted by the memory of finding his son’s body in their garden.

He said although Thomas had been in trouble with police in the past, he had been working hard to turn his life around and had a lot to live for.

“Thomas was a bright lad. They called him a loveable rogue. He wasn’t all sweetness and light,” he said.

“He did get into a lot of trouble but he was coming out of it.”

Tom Mullaney, 15, hanged himself after being threatened by bullies

He said Thomas had joined the Sea Cadets and had bought a season ticket to watch Birmingham City after saving up money from his paper round.

He was also looking forward to doing a work experience placement and going on holiday.

But Thomas was sent home from school following an altercation with another pupil and it was while he was at home later that day that the online abuse began.

Robert said what had started out as comments sent via a one-to-one chat spilled over on to Thomas’s Facebook wall, and then other young people had begun “chipping in”.

Illegal act

He said he did not believe the young people who bullied his son had meant to drive him to his death.

But he said parents, teachers and the police needed to do more to communicate to children what the consequences of bullying could be.

Robert said: “We need a starting block. A piece of legislation saying cyber bullying is an illegal act.

“Kids don’t understand what they do on Facebook has consequences. In our case I lost my son.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

We don’t have cast iron laws that take on bullying in itself”

End Quote
Claude Knights
Director of Kidscape

“I found my son hanging at the bottom of the garden.

“I’ll never get that out of my brain, all because somebody said something to him and didn’t understand the consequences.”

Claude Knights, director of the children’s charity Kidscape, said she also wanted to see a change in the law.

She said: “This is such a harrowing case and it shows how horrendous these situations can get.

“One in four children are bullied online.

“I agree with the parents, we don’t have cast iron laws that take on bullying in itself.”

She said the charity had to rely on laws around harassment and malicious communication which were not designed specifically to address bullying.

She added children also needed more support around accessing social networking sites safely and encouragement to confide in a peer if they felt they were being bullied.

But Nick Gibb, the schools minister, has previously said there are drawbacks with the idea.

He said he believed there was a danger in passing a law that criminalises a 12 or 13-year-old for bullying another child.

He added he thought taking a zero tolerance approach to bullying in schools was key to tackling the problem.

A spokeswoman for Facebook said anyone joining the site had to agree to its terms and conditions which included rules against bullying and harassment.

She said they also provided links across every page of the site to report abuse and that people and comments could be removed.

She added they also prevented anonymous bullying because every user has to give their full name.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-14121631

Law enforcement and school officials are attempting to fight back against a defamatory Facebook page they say has been used for bullying female Galesburg High School students.

The page, originally posted about a month ago, features pictures of students and details of their alleged sexual exploits. Commenters on the page have either been cheering on the posts or firing back by calling the claims ridiculous and untrue.

The page was first taken down Wednesday before popping back up later in the day. As of 3 p.m., the page was once again taken down but a second page has popped up in the meantime.

“You get one shut and another one starts back,” said police Capt. Rod Riggs.

Galesburg High School Principal Tom Chiles warned students that law enforcement officials could locate IP addresses to track down the page creator and people making comments on the page’s posts. Criminal charges also could be filed, he said.

“I think it does fall under our bullying policy, and there can be some severe consequences. If it continues, they’ll pursue legal action,” he said.

While the page is new to officials, the problems it creates are not. Social media sites like Facebook have opened kids up to a new type of bullying.

“It’s common throughout schools that this is a big problem,” Chiles said. “I just recently met with the Western Big 6 principals, and we’re all just like, ‘Man, if I could just get rid of Facebook…’ There’s lots of conflict that happens on there.”

Chiles said the students who post defamatory comments don’t recognize how serious the issue is, how much trouble they could get into or how it affects the girls who have been targeted.

“I think they’ll learn and they’ll mature as they get a little older, but right now, they’re making some very destructive decisions,” he said, giving credit to the victims of the bullying.

“As far as conflict here among the students, things have stayed pretty quiet, and that’s attributed to the girls who are being targeted,” said Chiles. “It’s hurting them, but they’re not letting it interrupt their education. They’re not causing fights. They’ve kind of rallied together.”

Sally Jennings, a mother whose daughter is among those targeted, agreed that the 15 girls and two boys originally listed on the page, as well as several others on the newest site — some from neighboring school districts — are strong for attempting to go about their school days, but she disagrees that it’s not affecting their education.

“These kids have threatened her at school, saying they’re going to jump her and post things about her,” said Jennings, whose daughter has an IEP, or individualized education program, deeming her disabled. “Who raised them?”

“One mother posted online that her daughter tried to commit suicide over all this and is now in counseling,” she continued. “Another girl’s so upset she doesn’t know what avenue to take, and one girl walked out of school and quit the other day.”

Jennings’ own daughter “acted out” toward a teacher on Wednesday, cursing and leaving school after she received an in-school suspension.

“My daughter’s not perfect by any means,” said Jennings. “But what’s she supposed to do? Who protects your child when they are brave enough to go back to school, even when they’re being called a bustdown and a whore in the hallways? You can’t learn in that kind of hostile environment.”

Jennings said she is confident that she knows who is responsible for the site, but refused to reveal his name.

“I’m not putting his name out there, because he’s a minor, and I know what it’s like to have your minor child’s name out there like my daughter’s has been,” she said, commending the police for successfully shutting down the first Facebook page.

“The police are doing all they can, but what about the principal?” she asked. “He acts like it’s not bothering the girls, too bad, but isn’t suicide a silent killer? That bothers me.”

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http://www.galesburg.com/newsnow/x1826251080/Galesburg-High-School-GPD-fight-Facebook-bullying

By
Lin Jones

Last updated at 4:51 AM on 24th February 2011

Bullied to death: Public schoolgirl Natasha MacBryde, 15, died after being struck by a train on the railway line near Bromsgrove

Fans of the internet never tire of proclaiming its virtues.

Communications, business, travel, entertainment and shopping have all been transformed — opening up new worlds, enriching people’s lives and vastly expanding consumer choice.

Yet the darker side of the internet has all too often been ignored. Just as computers can be a force for good, so they can promote misery and harm. In our brave new cyber world, freedom of communication can degenerate into a licence to abuse.

The truth is that the internet has opened up a window on the cruel and vicious side of human nature. In the virtual sphere, online sadists operate with impunity.

On many websites, particularly those aimed at the young, the boundaries of normal, civilised behaviour have been replaced by the sort of savage anarchy famously portrayed in William Golding’s novel Lord Of The Flies, in which civilised prep school boys turn into savages.

The consequences were highlighted this week by the tragic case of Natasha MacBryde, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who committed suicide after a remorseless campaign of internet bullying.

But that was not all. The malice that had led to her death continued on the internet, causing more anguish to her distraught family.

A Facebook website set up in Natasha’s memory was invaded by a deluge of offensive comments, ranging from sick jokes about the manner of her death to spiteful remarks about her character. This form of cyber bullying is known as ‘trolling’.

A Facebook site set up in Natasha’s memory (right) was invaded by spiteful, offensive comments. Left, a written tribute to the much loved pupil and daughter

One of the worst forms of on-line bullying comes from the so-called ‘trolls’, who post outrageous comments to get a perverted thrill from the reaction they provoke. As Natasha’s father, Andrew, said: ‘I simply cannot understand how these people get any enjoyment or satisfaction from making such disgraceful comments.’

Sadly, Natasha MacBryde’s case is not unique. Persecution through the web, by mobile phone, text or micro-blogging site Twitter is rife among young people.

My own family has direct experience of this appalling phenomenon, which resulted in the death of our beloved son, Matthew, in December 2008, when he was just 17.

Matthew had been a bright, happy child who loved playing on computers. But from the age of ten, he started to be bullied at school, perhaps because he was not as keen on sport as other boys.

The ordeal he had to endure was appalling. He was tormented by a gang of about 20 bullies, who never left him alone. They would taunt him, and steal from him, everything from pens to his bike. When the risibly named ‘happy slappy’ craze was at its height, they used their mobile phones to film their attacks on him, deepening his sense of being an outcast.

Tragic death: Matthew Jones committed suicide in 2008 aged 17 after the bullying became too much for him

Technology worsened the pain, as he was subjected to a endless stream of heartless messages on his phone and his computer.

Bullies love the internet for several reasons. First, they can indulge in cruelty behind the mask of anonymity. Those who hurl abuse in public risk themselves but, in the virtual world, there is no such danger. Even the most malicious threats cannot easily be traced.

Not surprisingly, it all became too much for my son. He grew severely depressed and had to be treated by the mental health services. A mix of counselling and medication led to an improvement, with the result that he passed his GCSEs and went on to sixth-form college.

But the old problems of isolation and bullying soon returned. Matthew sank into despair. So dark was his despondency that he began to log on to a series of websites that promoted suicide. It seems unbelievable such websites are allowed to exist, since they openly encourage vulnerable people to take their own lives.

There may be a proper debate over the issue of assisted suicide for the terminally ill, yet here we have, in the online world, bloggers who goad people into killing themselves.

‘If you’re still here tomorrow, you’re just a chicken,’ is one typical taunt. For Matthew, the result was all too predictable. In December 2008, he gassed himself, having left a final message: ‘I used to be headstrong, happy and optimistic, but after seven years of fighting I have no fight left in me.’

The internet even facilitated his demise, for it was on eBay he bought the gas canister that killed him.

The tragedies we and the MacBryde families have suffered are, I believe, an entirely modern phenomenon. There was nothing like this level of bullying when I was at school.

In a recent survey, half of all 14-year-olds said that they had been bullied, mostly via Twitter or Facebook.

When one anti-bullying charity set up a website in March 2009, 23,000 youngsters visited it in the first three weeks, a graphic indication of the scale of the problem.

Internet unleashed: With scenes of unimaginable violence and sexual depravity just a click away, the internet is desensitising our children

The internet has also encouraged the misguided belief that such viciousness is acceptable, being just another aspect of the kaleidoscope of human existence. In the virtual sphere, all barriers of what’s right and wrong, moral or immoral, have disappeared.

With scenes of unimaginable violence and sexual depravity just a click away, the internet is desensitising us, robbing us of normal human emotions. And the results are terrifying. Children are especially vulnerable to this, with studies showing that youngsters who have been exposed to violent images on the internet are desensitised to real-life violence.

Instead of challenging this barbarous culture, social networking sites are ignoring their responsibilities and choosing instead to profit spectacularly from this murky business.

Service providers, website managers and the Government ought to be responsible for cracking down on the widespread bullying and threats, yet they act as if they are powerless.

Facebook, for instance, could provide tougher monitoring of its users. But that would cost money which it doesn’t want to spend.

Similarly, Government ministers could introduce stronger regulation of websites. After all, the Government had no problem outlawing smoking throughout the nation.

Enforcing a sense of on-line responsibility should not be beyond the wit of our political leaders if the will existed.

If the present anarchic cruelty is allowed to continue, there will be more cases like those of Natasha and our son, Matthew.

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