for the following categories of western trust staff;
Social work and Social care staff from CAMHS, ASD Team, Children’s Disability Programmes and open to other staff in family and childcare: Gateway, FIS, LAC, Adoption and Fostering, Residential, 16 Plus etc.
Children who are bullied continue to suffer the psychological impacts decades later, experiencing increased risk of depression, anxiety and suicide in tests given in mid-life, according to a new study by British researchers.
Being bullied at the age of 7 and 11 also was associated with personal feelings of poor general health at age 23 and 50, and with poor cognitive functioning at age 50, according to the study in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Bullied children did not, however, show higher rates of alcohol dependence in mid-life.
“Being bullied in childhood retains associations with poor mental, physical and cognitive health outcomes at least to middle adulthood, 40 years after exposure,” the researchers, led by Ryu Takizawa, a Newton International Fellow, wrote. “The effects were small but similar to those of other forms of childhood hardship.”
The effects of bullying on the mental health of children and adolescents have become well known, especially in the light of mass casualty violence, attributed to bullied teens, such as the pair who carried out the Columbine massacre. But the authors said they knew of no other study that looked at effects beyond early adulthood.
They used surveys conducted over 50 years, looking at children who said they were bullied occasionally or frequently at 7 and 11, and comparing the impact at ages 23, 45 and 50. They found that 28 percent of the 7,771 people in the study said they were occasionally bullied and 15 percent had been frequently bullied.
Bullying victims most often were male and had parents in manual jobs who were not highly involved in their lives. Often they were in public care, or cared for by people other than their parents. Bullied children were more likely to be unemployed and to feel socially isolated.
They raised the possibility that “bullying victimization generates further abuse from peers or adults, forming the first stage in a cycle of victimization that perpetuates itself over time and across situations.”
Cyber Bullying has become a hot topic in recent years and a new British-based survey revealed that teachers are not immune from Internet hostilities.
In its second annual survey, the UK’s largest teachers’ union found 21 percent of respondents reported seeing unsavory comments written about them on social networking sites and of those, 64 percent were from students, 27 percent were from parents and nine percent by both students and parents.
“Technology has transformed the working and social lives of many teachers and enhanced the learning experiences of pupils,” said Chris Keates , General Secretary of the NASUWT, in a press release . “However, it is clear that steps need to be taken to protect teachers from the abuse of social media by pupils and parents.”
Survey respondents said most disparaging comments revolved around their appearance, ability and sexuality. According to those teachers getting comments from pupils, 47 percent saw insulting comments and 50 percent had a remark made concerning their effectiveness as a teacher. Over one fourth saw videos or photos posted of them that had been taken without consent.
The NASUWT reported that teacher abuse included a student-started Facebook page that claimed a teacher wanted to kill him and a parent commenting online: “My son will fail now because of you.”
Other examples of abuse included fake Facebook profiles set up with sexual comments, including one page that had the ‘teacher’ posting, “I will rape every Year 8 pupil who comes to the school.”
“Teachers are often traumatized by the attacks made on them through social media,” Keates said. “Some have lost their confidence to teach once they see foul and personal remarks made by pupils in their classes and have left the profession.”
“Others have been so disturbed by the comments that their health has been affected,” she said.
Nearly 60 percent of teachers failed to report mistreatment from students to their supervisor or law enforcement officials. Almost two thirds said they did not file a report because they didn’t believe that anything might be done, 21 percent did not believe it would be given serious attention, nine percent were too uncomfortable and six percent had prior documented incidents that had not been addressed.
When teachers managed to report mistreatment to their supervisor, 40 percent said that measures were not taken towards pupils and 55 percent said action was not taken towards parents.
“Great strides had been made by the previous government, working in partnership with the NASUWT and other teacher unions and social media providers, in seeking to address this problem,” Keates said. “Comprehensive guidance had been produced about social media and internet safety which promoted good practice for schools on how to protect staff, and indeed pupils, from abuse.”
“Schools need policies which prevent abuse and identify sanctions which will be taken against parents and pupils who abuse staff in this way,” she added. “Schools should also be supporting staff in securing the removal of the offensive material from social media sites and encouraging the staff concerned to go to the police.”
A 13-year-old girl is left humiliated after a picture intended for her former boyfriend is circulated among her peers, a teenage boy faces questions from police after being caught with the photo and two sets of parents are bewildered that this could happen under their noses.
It’s an all-too-regular situation confronting schools and parents as more WA children – some as young as 11 or 12 – become involved in “sexting”.
Perth cyber safety expert Robyn Rishani, founder of Your Kids Online and who has spent the past three years visiting WA schools, said despite children as young as eight or nine having smartphones, many families remained oblivious to the risks.
“You wouldn’t let a child go to a casino or adult shop or pub but we’re letting them chat to strangers online,” Ms Rishani said.
Sexting – the consensual sharing of intimate images between children of a similar age – has become part of life for teens amid the rise of apps such as Kik Messenger and Snapchat.
“At one school I visited, a 15-year-old girl sent a sext to her boyfriend and it ended up on a porn site,” Ms Rishani said.
“Pictures can end up anywhere, and it can be devastating. Most kids are pretty smart and they aren’t all at risk, but it only takes a little bit of loneliness and curiosity and intrigue to see what’s out there.”
During her school visits, Ms Rishani warns students that their online footprint can haunt them throughout their adult lives. “Teens don’t think in the spur of the moment – they might send a picture to someone and before you know it, it’s all over the place,” she said.
“It can result in cyber bullying and destroy reputations. With a lot of these apps, there is very little privacy.”
Ms Rishani also warns students that they could end up dealing with police, or even the courts, for sending or receiving illicit images.
A WA Police spokeswoman said police tried to deal with the issue by alternative methods, such as cautioning and education, and no juveniles had been charged for sexting.
Ms Rishani will host a parenting seminar at Perth Zoo next month where she will urge parents to be cautious in posting images of their children on social media.
“A lot of parents don’t understand the full extent of how social media and the internet works, and this naivety can get them and their children into trouble,” she said.
In the research, just more than a fifth of the 7,500 teachers surveyed had comments or information posted on social networking sites relating to their role as teachers. Almost two-thirds of those comments were written by pupils, and more than a quarter by parents.
The research reveals that almost half of the insulting comments from pupils related to their performance as a teacher. And the figure was higher still for comments from parents.
The vast majority of parents made their comments on Facebook, while pupils used a wider range of sites including Facebook, Ratemyteacher, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. The survey also found that the majority of teachers did not report the incidents – in most cases because they didn’t think anything could be done or that they would not be taken seriously.
When the teachers did report bullying to their headteacher, 40% said no action was taken against the pupil responsible, while 55% said that no action was taken against the parent responsible.
Despite the majority of schools having internet or social media policies, less than a third of these policies refer to the protection of staff from cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is a relatively new manifestation of the age-old scourge of bullying. It has been defined by Robert Tokunaga as: “Any behavior performed through electronic or digital media by individuals or groups that repeatedly communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm or discomfort on others.”
Its recent rise in schools is undoubtedly linked to the proliferation of internet-enabled devices which children and young people can now access 24/7. In 2013, Ofcom reported that 62% of 12-15-year-olds and 18% of 8-11-year-olds now owned a smartphone.
Over two-thirds of 12-15-year-olds had a social networking site profile, and the vast majority of them accessed their social networking sites every day, while one in five did so more than ten times per day. On average they spent spent 17 hours online each week.
The NASUWT research follows Andy Phippen’s 2011 survey of 377 education professionals in which 35% of respondents claimed that either they, or a colleague, had been subject to some form of online abuse. Such abuse was most likely to be from pupils (72%) or parents (26%) or other staff (12%).
It is also confirmed in a recent cross-border study I co-authored involving 143 schools in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, where one in six headteachers claimed that teachers had been victims of cyberbullying from pupils. Another 7% of headteachers claimed that teachers had been cyberbullied by parents in the past two months.
Several studies expose the threat of online bullying, the impact of which can be serious and long-lasting on children and young people. There has been much less research carried out to date on the impact of such online bullying on teachers, but Andy Phippen’s 2011 report does highlight feelings of intense frustration and isolation by teachers whose concerns have not been adequately addressed by school management.
Recent research studies have shown a rise in the incidence of cyberbullying among pupils. But one leading researcher has urged caution, describing cyberbullying as an “overrated phenomenon” compared to more traditional forms of bullying.
While acknowledging that other forms of bullying remain more common, our research found that 74% of post-primary headteachers and 33% of primary headteachers agreed or strongly agreed that cyberbullying was a growing problem in their school. An overwhelming 92% of headteachers also wanted more guidance on tackling cyberbullying, with considerable confusion emerging around their legal responsibilities.
The rise of online social networking has revolutionised how we communicate in society as a whole. Therefore it is not surprising that recent research such as the NASUWT survey shows there has been a parallel shift in communication between the home and the school.
This development is generally incredibly positive and fruitful, with many schools increasingly using their websites, social networking sites, emails and texts to communicate more effectively than ever with parents. Unfortunately, the disinhibition associated with online communication has also led to abuses.
No incident of cyberbullying is defensible. Pupils, teachers and parents alike need more education, guidance and support as we all seek to embrace the vast potential of online communication in safety.
A survey has been conducted of 577 students aged between 12 and 18 in Galway. The study found that 85% say cyber bullying is a major issue for young people and 22% have been subject to online bullying, while 50% know someone who has been cyber-bullied.
A majority, 80%, did not think that enough was being done to tackle the issue of cyberbullying.
The research was conducted for Galway West Labour TD, Derek Nolan and Labour MEP candidate for Midlands North-West, Senator Lorraine Higgins.
Billy Hawkes outlined how proposed new European laws will increase protection for children online at the launch of a Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA) ‘Guide to Children’s EU Rights in Ireland’.
However, he warned that the laws would not eliminate cyber-bullying.
The issue has come to the fore due to a number of cases where teenagers have died by suicide after being bullied online.
In his address to the CRA seminar, Mr Hawkes outlined how the significance of the new laws proposed by the EU Commission “is the explicit recognition of the need to give special attention to the data protection rights of children”.
EDUCATION
However, he said “data protection is not the solution to bullying”, adding: “Essentially, bullying online is another version of bullying that happens in the playground and I’m afraid the only measures available there are education.”
He said the issue of bullies using anonymous profiles on social networks was of particular concern in Ireland.
Another speaker, Dr Geoffrey Shannon, the Government’s special rapporteur for child protection, said that he highlighted cyber-bullying as “a key issue” in his annual report.
Dr Shannon said it is a “question of the law keeping pace with technology” in terms of legal means to prosecute cases of cyber-bullying.
He agreed with Mr Hawkes, saying: “I think the law is only one part of it. You need a whole school approach (to bullying).”
According to Mr Hawkes, the proposed EU laws would mean the personal data of a child under 13 could not be processed without the consent of a parent or guardian.
He said online companies would have to take reasonable steps to verify such consent.
If you caught your teens texting about “red devils,” “Robo” or “Skittles,” would you know what they were talking about?
What about Snapchat? Ask.fm?
The first three are all slang terms for getting high on cold or cough medicine (yes, teens do that). The second two are social media platforms popular among teens, but also associated with sexting and cyberbullying.
Every year, parents face a growing number of threats to their teens’ well-being, many of which they’ve probably never heard of before. But abusing any of them could be deadly.
Experts say the key is to do your research, don’t be afraid to pry and, most importantly, talk to your child. Often.
“Parents, be nosy,” said Cincinnati police officer Eddie Hawkins, a school resource officer for 16 years and a father. “Lots of times we give kids a little too much privacy. We as adults kind of slacked off in what we do in fear of losing our kids’ friendship. I’d rather say I was a good parent than I was a good friend.”
Parents shouldn’t give up just because they don’t “get it,” said Richard Heyman, a doctor at Suburban Pediatrics in Montgomery who also served as state and national chairman of adolescent medicine at the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“Parents just shrug their shoulders because they don’t know what these websites are, don’t get the lingo, don’t understand the concept of tweeting and Instagram and Facebook,” he said. “They need to have open, ongoing discussions. The sex talk is not a talk. It’s an ongoing discussion. Use everyday incidents to talk about it.”
Here are some of the risky things that are most popular among teens this year, what to watch for and what to do to protect your child.
Social media might be a great tool to keep up with old roommates or share vacation photos. But teens are finding the dark side of cyberspace, and it might not be in the places you’d think. A few new apps that have popped up recently are causing a stir:
• Ask.fm: A social networking site where users can post anonymously. The site has been linked to the suicides of five teens who reportedly had been bullied by others on the site. Most deaths were in the United Kingdom. At least one was in the U. S. — a 12-year-old Florida girl who jumped from a platform at an abandoned cement factory after being bullied for more than a year on ask.fm and other cellphone apps like Kik and Voxter. Her mother had been trying to monitor the girl’s social media use, but had no idea the sites existed or that her daughter was using them, according to a New York Times article. The site has since reportedly implemented measures to discourage cyberbullying.
• Snapchat: A photo-sharing tool in which the images disappear from the recipient’s phone after 10 seconds. The short life span of the images gives it a reputation as a tool for sexting, as well as other dubious behavior such as cheating on tests or sharing proprietary information.
But it might not be as private as kids think. There are ways recipients can preserve the images, according to recent reports. Wikr and Poke are similar apps.
Other apps or websites popular among teens are Pheed, where teens can live-stream what they’re doing at any given moment, and 4Chan, an online community that allows anonymous posts, opening the door to bullying. NBCnews.com recently published a list of 11 social media apps that are popular among teens — some innocuous, some not. Others include Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, Reddit, Tumblr and Wanelo.
“Social media is at an all-time high,” Hawkins said. “The average young people will spend 8-10 hours on their Facebook account.”
About 20 percent of teens have experienced cyberbullying in their lifetime, according to the Cyberbullying Research Center. Traditional bullying and cyberbullying have been linked as contributors to teen suicide. According to the 2011 risk survey by the Centers for Disease Control, 7.8 percent of teens had attempted suicide in the previous year.
Parents should monitor what their kids are doing online, even if they seem to be OK, and be alert if their child starts to withdraw into their social media world, experts say.
“If your kid is spending less time in general conversations with you and more time in general conversations with their friends or cellphone, if you’re in your car and there’s no conversation going on with you and your child, that’s a problem,” Hawkins said. “When you’re asking questions and getting those one-word answers, be concerned. They’re finding other outlets.”
Heyman recommended parents talk to kids about new sites or apps. Ask if they use them. Watch what they’re doing.
“Put the computer in a public place,” he said. “The understanding should be, if I give you the keys to the car, I expect you to call me when you get there. Not because I don’t trust you, but because it’s dangerous out there. If I’m going to give you the keys to the computer, I’m going to monitor. Even though you know more about the computer than I do, it’s my job to keep you safe.”
Teens probably won’t come right out and tell you they’re being bullied, Hawkins said, because they’re ashamed. But they have certain sayings to let you know they’re being bullied, Hawkins said.
“ ‘Coming at my head,’ ‘coming at my neck,’ ‘trying to push down on me.’ That’s their way of saying this kid is picking on me.”
Drugs and alcohol continue to be big risk factors for teens.
According to the CDC, about 22 percent of drivers in fatal crashes (the leading cause of teen deaths) had been drinking. The CDC risk survey notes 38.7 percent of high school students reported drinking alcohol in the 30 days before the survey and 23.1 percent had used marijuana.
Teens are abusing other drugs, too — cocaine, inhalants, ecstasy, heroin and hallucinogenic drugs showed up on the survey.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse’s 2012 survey, Monitoring the Future, found marijuana remains the most abused drug by students in grades 8, 10 and 12 followed by Spice/K2 (synthetic marijuana), amphetamines, Adderall, Vicodin and cough medicine.
The survey noted that marijuana use declined in the 1990s and early 2000s but has been on the rise since then.
Synthetic marijuana, which is often marketed to teens, and abuse of prescription drugs are rising problems.
“One of the things we tell parents is to monitor their alcohol and prescription drugs,” said Mary Haag, president/CEO of the Coalition for a Drug Free Greater Cincinnati.
“Keep your alcohol locked up as well as your medicine chest.”
She said most teens do not abuse drugs. But there are warning signs to watch for: changes in behavior, lying, a new group of friends or missing school.
But there is some good news: The use of inhalants, Ecstasy and even alcohol are all going down. The use of alcohol is at a historic low.
Cigarettes are still in the picture, but barely. Teen smoking peaked in 1996-97 and has declined continuously since then. Fewer teens smoke cigarettes than marijuana.
But kids are trying drugs at younger ages, and there are plenty of things out there with names parents won’t recognize, according to the medical website WebMD. Experts say keep an eye out for slang terms when your child is talking to or texting friends. For example, teens may combine LSD with ecstasy, something termed “candy flipping.” “Cheese” refers to a mix of black tar heroin and Tylenol PM. Other slang terms are “Special K” (Ketamine, an anesthetic and club drug), “crank” (methamphetamine) and “kibbles and bits” (Ritalin, the prescription drug to treat attention deficit disorder).
Heyman said perception has a lot to do with a drug’s popularity. As marijana become legalized in some states, the perception that it’s dangerous has gone down, and the use has gone up, even in places where it’s still illegal.
A group in Indiana handed out drug kits to parents earlier this year. Organizers said the kits give teens an excuse to say no if they’re being pressured by friends to try drugs.
Those are some of the questions that we have recently answered with our ambitious new project: the Annual Bullying Survey 2013.
Our 22 page report provides you with a wealth of bullying statistics extracted from a sample of over 1,800 British students predominantly aged 16-19. Our report also identifies how susceptibility to bullying can vary between 52 different demographic profiles. This report was recently covered by the Independent, the Telegraph and Radio 1.
According to a recent study by the Cyberbullying Research Center, approximately 20% of kids aged 11-18 say they have been victims of online aggression. In a world of catastrophic headlines and sensational sound bites, these numbers don’t actually sound so bad, but take the time talk to any school-aged technology user (read: just about any tween or teen that you meet on the street) and you will no doubt gather that the danger posed by cyberbullying is not in the breadth of its perpetrators and victims, but rather in the depth of damage that online aggression can cause. Just what is it that makes cyberbullying so bad?
No Rest for the Bully-Weary
Before the advent of social media networks, cell phones and unlimited text plans, young people who were bullied in school could count on hours spent at home as a respite from ridicule. Today, kids are connected to each other 24/7/365. “Relentless” is the word I use when I talk to professionals and parents about the nature of cyberbullying.
Cyberbullies Don’t Have to Make Eye Contact
Spreading malicious rumors online about a person is one thing; saying mean things to a person’s face is quite another. Young people find it far easier to be cruel when they don’t have to look into the eyes of the object of their viciousness. One of the most grave dangers of cyberbullying is that it can occur anonymously, as perpetrators operate from behind keypads and screens, rather than eyeball to eyeball. Kids who cyberbully learn that they can get away with aggression without having to own up to it. For too many, anonymity is a Get-Out-of-Guilt-Free card.
The Pain is Viral
Physical, verbal and even relational bullying almost always occur as a 1:1 encounter between a child who bullies and his target. Even when bystanders are present, the audience is limited to the number of peers who can sit at the lunch table, jeer from their bus seat or eavesdrop on the phone line. In cyberbullying, however, the potential audience is almost unlimited. Cruel posts, embarrassing photos, humiliating videos and vicious messages can be shared endlessly and remain online forever. With the simple touch of a “Send” button or click on a “Status Update,” instant and almost unimaginable damage can be done.
You Can’t Take it Back
Because of the nature of technology, what happens on the Internet stays on the Internet. When I talk to school-aged kids, I often compare cyberbullying to squeezing toothpaste from its tube, explaining that once the paste is out, it is impossible to get it back in. Verbal apologies notwithstanding, once an item is posted online or sent via text, it remains available to anyone who received it and can be forwarded again and again.
Proximity is Not an Issue
Physical bullying requires two people to be within striking distance. Social exclusion is most painful in real-time. Cyberbullying, on the other hand, thrives on after-hours and distance. Even when a young person is safely nestled at home, with the care and support of family, she can be simultaneously under attack online by her peers. There are no time or space boundaries with cyberbullying.