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Last Words
When Text Messaging Turns Ugly
By Daithí Ó hAnluain, Wired News
04/09/2002
The government and children's advocacy groups have stepped in to help harangued kids cope. But so far no one's come up with a way to put the bullies in their place.
One in four children in the United Kingdom have been bullied or threatened through their mobile phone or PC, according to a survey commissioned by British children's charity NCH.
Another children's advocacy group, ChildLine, was set up to counsel young people in distress or under pressure from neglect, abuse or the anxieties of growing up. For five years running, bullying has been the biggest single issue the charity deals with -- to the tune of 20,000 calls a year.
"We don’t track threatening SMS messages specifically yet," said Maggie Turner, head of the ChildLine in Partnership with Schools program. "But certainly the indications are it is increasing."
In 2000, 15-year-old Gail Jones overdosed on tablets after receiving 20 abusive messages in half an hour. This year, 12-year-old Jack was worried because a boy at school had accused him of sending text messages to his mobile and threatened to beat him up. Jenny, 11, told her ChildLine counselor that she had received chain letters on her mobile phone, including one that said she'd die if she didn't pass it on.
The NCH survey indicates that mobile phones appear to be the most common medium for bullying, with 16 percent of young people saying they'd received bullying or threatening text messages, followed by 7 percent who had been harassed in Internet chat rooms and 4 percent by e-mail. The charity set up the NCH IT OK website to help tackle the problem.
In many ways, the arrival of bullying by SMS should come as no surprise. Perpetrators of social ills like bullying or stalking tend to use whatever media are available.
But in the United Kingdom, bullying seems endemic -- and almost impossible to curb.
"Bullying is based on Britain's class system," said Carrie Herbert, an educator who set up a special charity, The Red Balloon Learner Centre, to help children traumatized by bullying. Her site posts first-person accounts by children who have been harassed by peers.
"We are watching you ... we are going to kill you ... we are going to kill your mum."
This message would make anyone uneasy, but British children regularly send messages like this to each other as systematic bullying enters the 21st century through SMS -- the short message service that comes with all mobile phones in Europe.
"Bullying is still there and, while it isn't getting any better, it isn't getting any worse, either," Herbert said. "Bullying is tolerated. We have a political system where you slag (insult or humiliate) the opposition off, publicly."
Cherie Booth, the wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, has even started an anti-bullying campaign.
"Children call saying they're being bullied because they're fat, thin, clever, lonely, gay, black, white -- the list is endless, (and) an increasing number are being bullied by text message; it seems there's no escape," she wrote in an opinion piece in the Observer.
Many British commentators feel that SMS bullying is far worse than the more traditional graffiti on the bathroom door.
"Text messaging is extremely powerful," Herbert said. "It is devastating for the children it affects. You don't know who did it, but you know it's someone you know. Someone who has your number and knows personal stuff about you. You start wondering if it was your best friend that did it. You can't get away from it, and two of our children got rid of their phones because of this very problem."
"SMS bullying is like stalking," said ChildLine's Turner. "It is far more insidious than other forms of bullying."
Alex Taylor, a researcher with the Digital World Research Centre in Surrey who has studied children's uses of technology, agrees.
"The mobile phone and texting have meant that you can bring school home with you," Taylor said. "That means that your school day doesn't end when you get home; you can still interact with your friends, and that can be very positive. But it also means that other less desirable school phenomena, like bullying, can follow you home too."
New government guidelines, to be issued by the minister for education on Sept. 5, will recommend that schools track the problem and offer advice on how to respond to cases. Children will be warned not to give their number to people they don't know well and, above all, to tell an adult when bullying occurs.
Read the full article at Wired News
Links:
NCH press release
NCH IT OK
Childline
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