March 11, 2003
Bullying by SMS, a real problem
Statistics published last year from children's charity, National Children's Home (NCH), showed that 25 percent of students had been threatened in chat rooms or by e-mail, and 16% had been bullied by text message.
Taking the matter seriously, the Department of Education and Skills in England issued a guidance on bullying in school last September, recommending that students caught bullying be expelled. (cf Ananova and the BBC).
But the UK is not the only country where this occurs, stories have come from Norway, The Middle East and New Zealand and my own 12 year old son (we live in Switzerland) was bullied by a group of girls whom he gave his cell phone number to in an online chat room. They threatened to beat him up after school. He was frightened. We changed his operator and cell phone number.
One of the saddest stories occured in Norway in 2001, where a young man committed suicide after receiving a threatening SMS saying: "You will die this year. We know where you live". He was suffering from a depression, according to daily Dagblat.
And in another disturbing story from Norway, where one of two adolescent girls who was stranded on the Gaustadtoppen summit and rescued after a much mediatised 25 hour search, was harrassed by SMS by someone who presumably followed her story on Televsion. (cf Aftenposten).
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