Bully Buttons sends SMS alert to teachers

Australians are spending tens of thousands of dollars on high-tech devices to beat bullying in the schoolyard. The Age.

"Bully buttons", which students push when they are being bullied, can be installed around a school, linked to cameras that record incidents and alerting teachers by SMS.

Melbourne company Celltek created the wireless bully button, a black box with a red button that can be mounted on a pole or wall.

Once the button is pressed, nearby cameras swing into action and record the area around the button. Teachers are alerted by SMS or by a pop-up screen on a connected PC in the staff room or office."

Abused women in fear of threatening SMS

According to stuff.co.nz, text message bullying is not just confined to kids, but to abused women, for whom it's a growing problem.

"Breaches of protection orders by text messaging and the internet are a growing problem for people trying to escape abusive relationships, social groups say.

Rachel Harrison, communications manager of internet safety watchdog NetSafe in New Zealand, said breaches of protection orders were one of the most "persistent" cases they referred to police.

... Christchurch Women's Refuge manager Annette Gillespie said the use of internet and cellphones to abuse women was a growing problem and making it more difficult for women to escape and avoid harassment from abusers.

"Technological advances have had a sinister downside for many women who have been, or are in, abusive relationships," Gillespie said.

"It is an extremely invasive way of getting to women they may not be able to physically access. It is a form of psychological abuse that can be used to create a great degree of fear and terror.

... Reports of this type of abuse were also increasingly common in other countries, Gillespie said. "

Mobile phones 'offensive weapons'

A UK teaching union is calling for mobile phones to be classed as potentially offensive weapons, reports the BBC.

"NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said the way pupils misused them to bully their teachers meant they should be banned from school premises.

Ms Keates is raising the issue of mobiles with ministers at a task force meeting on Tuesday.

She is particularly concerned about websites such as ratemyteacher and bebo which, she says, provide a vehicle for false allegations and abuse by pupils which can damage teachers' self esteem and careers.

She said: "These sites are fed by pupils' misuse of mobile phones. The time has come for mobiles in schools to be placed in the category of a potentially offensive weapon and action taken to prevent their use by pupils while on school premises. "

In the hands of mean teens, cell phones becoming WMDs

"Human communications have become increasingly superficial," sighs Yasuko Nakamura to Aera magazine's March issue, reports Mainichi Daily News.

"Nakamura, president of Boom Planning, has been tracking youth fads for over two decades. And she has noticed lately that among teens, use of ubiquitous cell phones has been shifting from voice conversations to mail messaging to posting of personal profiles on SMS sites.

Just a bunch of kids, enjoying some innocent fun, right? Er, no. The heady mixture of teen hormones and IT seems to be generating the high-tech versions of the lynch mob.

... In Japan, "gakko ura saito" (clandestine school sites), have created a new form of group bullying that's spurring a whole generation of anonymous slanderers who make old-fashioned bullies and meanies seem almost preferable by comparison.

After all, in old-style "ijime," at least you know who your tormentor is. The electronic version is just as vicious, if not more so, because electronic communications afford complete anonymity. And of course it's far more difficult for school authorities to intervene, let alone identify the instigators or implement disciplinary measures."

LI student's family sues over `racial bullying'

According to Newsday, a Long Island (NY) family has filed a $5 million civil rights lawsuit against their son's high school, claiming it did nothing to stop students from text-messaging racial slurs and scrawling an offensive word on his locker.

"The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Central Islip on Monday, says administrators at the nationally ranked Miller Place High School failed to stop the mistreatment of ninth grader Brian Orr _ one of five black students in a school population of 950".

Pupils to be given text service to report bullying

Children in Edinburgh schools are being encouraged to report bullies by text message, informs Scotsman.

Under the Text Someone scheme, bullied pupils will be able to report any incident in confidence to a database that teachers can access before deciding on any action. Phone lines and e-mail addresses will also be set up in the hope that pupils who would usually be put off from approaching a teacher face to face will come forward.

The majority of secondaries and primaries in the city will have the system implemented after the summer holidays.

Related article:

- Text Someone - about being bullied

Oklahoma bill passed: Harassment by text messaging a criminal act

Harassing someone by text messaging has become such an invasion of one’s private space that Oklahoma legislators passed a bill last March making harassment by text messaging a criminal act, reports gmtoday via Poynter Online.

The House Bill 1804, by Lance Cargill (R-Harrah), makes it illegal to use any electronic or telecommunication device to terrorize or harass another individual.

"This bill expands current harassment laws to make clear that not only are harassing telephone calls illegal, but so are harassing e-mails, faxes and text messaging," Cargill said. "This legislation was requested by an Oklahoma County assistant district attorney, who was concerned about victims’ rights."

Pupils use mobiles to 'bully' teachers

According to the Times online, it's not just children who are subject to bullying by SMS, but teachers are harrased as well.

"Teachers have complained of “bullying” by pupils who use mobile phones to film them losing their temper and then send the videos to their friends for amusement.

According to one teen, “The idea is to get the teacher to blow their top and then play it back to amuse your friends.”

Often, the pupils goad staff into “ranting for the camera” to make the video as entertaining as possible.

The phenomenon has caused such concern that it is to be raised in a motion at this week’s annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in Gateshead.

“In some cases, teachers’ heads have been superimposed on another image to make them look stupid and the whole thing posted on an internet site.”

... The videos are not violent, unlike “happy slapping”, in which youths film each other attacking people. Teachers are worried, however, that the videos expose them to humiliation and, if seen by parents or colleagues, may damage their careers.

Some observers point out, however, that the threat of covert filming may prompt teachers to curb their tempers and maintain high standards themselves. "

Girls Use Cell Phones To Bully Each Other

A new study finds girls are increasingly bullying other girls via cell phone and text messaging, reports United Press International.

"Researchers tracked 65 15- to 18-year-old girls and found bullies used text messaging more than the Internet and traditional playground methods.

Forty-five percent of the girls, who lived in a well-off Sacramento suburb, say they've been victims, USA Today reports. The study was presented at the American Educational Research Association meeting in San Francisco. Researcher Juliana Raskauskas conducted the study while at the University of California-Davis."

Cell phone companies and police meet over text bullying

Vodafone and Telecom will meet the police and an internet safety group next week to discuss whether they are doing enough about text bullying, reports Radio New Zealand.

"The meeting comes after a number of text bullying cases have emerged, including the recent death of a 12-year-old Waikato girl who had been bullied."

Related article:

-- Teenage bullies hound 12-year-old to death - The day before school started, Alex Teka was found dead in the back garden of her Putaruru home. The 12-year-old had been the target of text bullies. (New Zealand Herald)

Previous trajedy:

-- Text message torment ends in tragedy - Helen Algar believes her teenage son died after being on the receiving end of a silent but potent form of bullying - text messaging (2003).

Text helpline for pupils

Students who need emotional support can text for help in a project launching in two different schools by UK charity Barnardo's, reports the BBC.

"A manager and two workers are running the £65,000 project which will be open to receive texts three days a week.

Pupils aged 11 to 14 in the two schools have been given pocket-sized cards with the text helpline number on them. As well as the confidential helpline, the service will offer one-to-one support for pupils facing emotional distress."

UK. Mobile anti-bully service begins

A mobile phone service which enables bullied children to discreetly contact their parents is being launched, reports the BBC.

"The Pingalert can be activated by pressing a speed dial button on a child's handset, which can be kept hidden from view. It sends a text message to the parent's phone with a location description and picture message map where possible.

The service, launched by company Mtrack, aims to help children out of difficult situations."

The service locates the sender's phone to within 500 yards in built-up areas and sends the message to the parent's phone within 60 seconds.

Parents of bullies to face court

Parents whose children attack or threaten classmates could be hauled before the courts and fined £1,000 ($1.700) under UK government school reforms, according to the BBC.

There have been several high profile cases of bullying in recent weeks..

Related: - According to a recent survey by U.K. children's charity NCH, reported by ZDNet, one in five kids has been bullied via digital phone or computer. Bullying by text message was the most common form of abuse reported, with 14 percent of children interviewed saying they had received upsetting messages on their mobile phones. The interactions run the gamut from disconcerting to downright terrifying."

Bullying shifts to mental cruelty

Bullying in school has shifted from physical attacks to psychological cruelty, say head teachers in the UK, via the BBC.

"Mr Trobe, head teacher of Malmesbury School in Wiltshire, says that when he began his teaching career three decades ago, there was more physical bullying. "Now there are more cases of verbal or psychological bullying. There are so many different avenues for this," he says.

Such psychological tactics have become common in the past five or six years, he says, driven by the near-universal ownership of mobile phones among youngsters. "Mobile phones are used to send threatening messages or to ring people up and not saying anything. It all builds up pressure on youngsters."

As well as phone threats, he says children, particularly girls, have become more adept at ostracising each other and applying social pressure, by ignoring or excluding particular classmates.

... He warned that a series of violent attacks in schools, particularly involving girls, appearing to be a worrying pattern, in which pupils were ready to use extreme violence."

Australia. 'Mean queens' rule the schools

According to the Townsville Bulletin, Australia's soaring divorce rate has led to a generation of girls who have "discovered their inner bitch" and who make life hell for their victims - using text messages and e-mail to intimidate and victimize.

"Psychologist Michael Carr-Greg told a conference in Melbourne yesterday female bullying was a largely unresearched phenomenon that was out of control in the nation's schools.

"Some of these girls are the queen of mean," Dr Carr-Gregg said.

And while male bullies tended to use their physical strength to intimidate others, female bullies had become adept at using SMS and email to victimise others.

Dr Carr-Gregg - who recently learned of an incident in which a girl was made to eat a pie filled with dog-food - said schools needed to introduce programs to tackle the problem.

"There is really nowhere some of these kids can hide," Dr Carr-Gregg said. "They can be emailed at home or texted wherever they may be. What's disturbing is that we are getting reports that girls are bullying at younger and younger ages."

Football Hooliganism

A British website called Politic.co.uk, reports at length on "hooliganism", the term used broadly to describe disorderly, aggressive and often violent behaviour perpetrated by spectators at sporting events. In the UK, hooliganism is almost exclusively confined to football.

Without saying so in so many words, politics.co.uk describes today's hooligans as violent smart mobs.

"Today, in contrast to the more or less spontaneous upsurges of violence of the past, gangs of rival fans will frequently arrange to meet at specific locations, using mobile phones or the Internet, before and after matches to fight".

Stalkers' new weapon: SMS

The (Calcutta) Telegraph has a disturbing article on how stalking today has found a dangerous new medium; the mobile phone.

"While the comparatively new incidents of disturbing SMS or MMS circulating around are being referred to as the ill fall-outs of new technology, psychiatrists differ in opinion.

In reality, SMS and MMS are a variation and part of the “prank call” and “stalking” phenomenon prevalent over years.

Whatever may be the form, or the language, the emotion behind the messages and the act of intruding into someone's privacy remains the constant factor.

Though circumstances change, motive remains the same — disturbing a person concerned or in other words “victimising”.

When 'digital bullying' goes too far

An excellent article by ZDNet on the dark side of children's digital lifestyle.

Text Someone - about being bullied

Bullying, a recurring issue in school playgrounds.

BBC has an article today on how UK schools are increasingly spending large sums of money on software designed to help combat such issues.

"Text Someone is the latest service from Truancy Call, one of several systems on the market, which offers pupils the chance to beat the bullies via a technology they are all familiar with - the text message.

"Incidents of bullying can be reported at any time of day or night via text message, e-mail or voice message.

The statistics bear out the need for action in this area. It is estimated that between 15 and 20 children take their own lives each year as a result of being bullied."

Documented reports of several tragic incidents;

-- Text message torment ends in tragedy Helen Algar believes her teenage son died after being on the receiving end of a silent but potent form of bullying - text messaging.

-- A previous tragc incidence 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.

Australia. Mobile phone group launches anti-SMS bullying campaign

Something which just doesn't seem to be abetting, cyberbullying. This last preventive measure comes from the Australian mobile phone industry, as reported by ABCNews Online.

"The peak body representing the mobile phone industry is launching a campaign to help combat the increasing trend of school yard bullying by text messages.

A recent study of first year high school students in Brisbane found 14 per cent had been harassed by SMS".

Related campaigns from the UK and Singapore:

-- Australia. SMS bullies face school suspension - Students who bully by email and SMS could be suspended from NSW schools from next year, under tough new rules announced today, reports The Age Autralia.

-- UK. Radio One help launch anti-bullying drive - DJs and Pop stars are joining forces with the Government and the Anti-Bullying Alliance to launch the first ever Anti-Bullying Week.

-- UK. Pupils 'texting' to stop bullies - A Nottingham school is piloting the country's first mobile phone text messaging scheme to deal with bullying. It is part of the first anti-bullying week in which the government is joining forces with children's charities to tackle the problem.

-- Singapore taps SMS craze to discourage bullying - Singapore is harnessing the power of SMS text messaging to fight an old scourge: bullying in schools through a ampaign unveiled in the local media today ahead of Bully Free Week

-- UK. A new Vodafone's ncampaign targets cellphone bullies - Netsafe aims to support children who are being bullied through education and the launch of freephone number.

SMS bullies face school suspension

Students who bully by email and SMS could be suspended from NSW schools from next year, under tough new rules announced today, reports The Age Autralia.

"New South Wales (NSW) Education Minister Andrew Refshauge said the new rules would give principals the authority to take "swift and decisive" action against "severely disruptive" students.

He announced the rules after a newspaper reported the state's teachers were under siege in the classroom, with more than 1,000 serious incidents in state schools reported to the department of education in the past year.

Dr Refshauge said the incidents ranged in severity from bullying by SMS to teachers going on strike because of student disruption."

The terror of text

Threats sent by mobile phone text message are being blamed for a rise in violent crime figures, reports Manchester Online.

"Police in Cheshire say the number of violent crimes has gone up by eight per cent in the last six months.

But the force says a large part of the increase is due to the fact that the Home Office now classifies harassment by text or e-mail as a violent crime."

Text Message Flirt Fined

Italians love their mobile phones and often carry out love affairs over them -- but they must beware, flirting with text messages can carry a fine - or so reports Reuters.

"A judge in the northern Italian town of Padua on Monday found a man who sent an unsolicited compliment by SMS guilty of harassment and fined him 300 euros ($391), Italian news agency Ansa reported.

"Since you appeared before my eyes I can't do anything but think of you," the man had written to a clerk while on lunch break, Ansa said. She took the offending SMS to the police"

Radio One help launch anti-bullying drive

DJs and Pop stars are joining forces with the Government and the Anti-Bullying Alliance to launch the first ever Anti-Bullying Week.

BBC Radio One will spearhead a new Beat Bullying campaign with on-air messages in the coming week encouraging listeners to visit its One Life website.

People can wear a special anti-bullying wristband to show that they are determined together to 'beat bullying' and support friends who are being targeted.

Famous musicians, sports stars and celebrities will also read lines from a poem written by a victim of bullying for broadcast on national television as part of the campaign. Schools will also be urged to sign up to an anti-bullying Charter for Action.

Schools Minister Stephen Twigg said it is crucial that children who are being bullied know that they are not alone.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance of over 50 organisations is also running events across the country. They aim to develop new approaches to tackling bullying such as using text messaging to report bullying incidents and schemes where young people can support each other.

[via 10 Downing Street and newscotsman.com

For incidents reported around the world on bullying by SMS, Click on this category in Textually.org

Pupils 'texting' to stop bullies

A Nottingham school is piloting the country's first mobile phone text messaging scheme to deal with bullying, reports the BBC.

Pupils at River Leen in Bulwell are able to send an anonymous text if they are being bullied. Posters are being displayed around the school giving details of the text message number.

It is part of the first anti-bullying week in which the government is joining forces with children's charities to tackle the problem.

Related: Radio One help launch anti-bullying drive

India: Sexual harassment of women through SMS on the rise

There is an alarming rise in sexual harassment of women through SMS and mobile photography, India's's largest women's body today said and called for implementation of an effective mechanism to check this, according to newkerala.

''Harassment through SMS is a new phenomenon and is rising. We have received a number of complaints where senior managers sent lewd SMSs to their junior women colleagues. This amounts to sexual harassment of women at workplace,'' the All India Democratic Women's Association joint secretary, U Vasuki, told a press meet here today

Cyber bullying worse than the real thing

A study by Queensland University of Technology (Australia) found out that bullying by mobile phone or email is more likely to have a bad affect on victims than a traditional face to face encounter, as many child victims felt they had no place to hide, nor method of direct retaliation.

Over 13 per cent of students already had fallen victim to cyber-bullying by year eight of school and 25 per cent knew someone who had. More than half of kids thought the phenomenon was on the rise, the study showed.

Via The Inquirer Smart Mobs.

For more on bullying and SMS, check out this category in Textually.org

Singapore taps SMS craze to discourage bullying

Singapore is harnessing the power of SMS text messaging to fight an old scourge: bullying in schools, reports The Age.

"A campaign unveiled in the local media today ahead of Bully Free Week starting September 13 is calling upon secondary school students, many of whom own mobile phones, to discourage name-calling, beating and meanness.

They are being asked to send their peers the message "Be cool, be bully-free" during the week to raise awareness of a prevalent but seldom discussed problem which, according to a survey, affects almost half the city-state's teenagers.

The anti-bullying drive joins a growing list of social improvement campaigns in Singapore. Among other things, Singaporeans are consistently urged by posters and media campaigns to "speak good English", avoid littering, be courteous and always flush toilets and urinals. "

Teenage Bullies use technology

The New York Times has a well writen piece on cyberbullies.

"No longer confined to school grounds or daytime hours, "cyberbullies" are pursuing their quarries into their own bedrooms. Tools like e-mail messages, (text messages) and Weblogs enable the harassment to be both less obvious to adults and more publicly humiliating, as gossip, put-downs and embarrassing pictures are circulated among a wide audience of peers with a few clicks.

The technology, which allows its users to inflict pain without being forced to see its effect, also seems to incite a deeper level of meanness. Psychologists say the distance between bully and victim on the Internet is leading to an unprecedented - and often unintentional - degree of brutality, especially when combined with a typical adolescent's lack of impulse control and underdeveloped empathy skills.

"We're always talking about protecting kids on the Internet from adults and bad people," said Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org, a nonprofit group that has been fielding a growing number of calls from parents and school administrators worried about bullying. "We forget that we sometimes need to protect kids from kids."

Interestingly, in a previous article in UK EDP24, girls were identified as major culprits.

For related articles and examples of cyberbullying, which has at times resulted in terrible trajedy, click on this category in Textually.org

Death threats by SMS

Kids are not the only ones who are subject to SMS bullying and harassement. In Malaysia, Road Transport Department enforcement director Solah Mat Hassan has received three threats on his life via SMS, according to the Star.

"The contents of the messages, which were in Bahasa Malaysia, were about being shot, death and bullets." 

And in another related article, the Star reports that a Brazilian football coach coach, Mirandinha, received a death threat from a disgruntled fan by text message, telling him to leave the country immediately (Malaysia) or his Brazilian wife would be murdered.