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Cyber-bullying: Shut websites call

Updated on 31 July 2007

Source PA News

Websites such as YouTube must be closed down to stop bullies targeting children and school staff online, teachers demanded.

Nowhere is safe from so-called "cyber-bullying" as bullies continue sending abusive text messages or emails outside school, the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) said.

Perpetrators post mobile phone videos on websites, showing teachers as well as pupils being attacked or humiliated, the union's annual conference in Harrogate was told.

Delegates backed a motion demanding that such websites be closed down.

The motion was proposed by Kirsti Paterson, from the PAT's Highland and Western Isles Federation, who said one teacher had been the subject of a death threat posted online.

A pupil posted a doctored picture of the teacher, headless, with the caption: "YOU ARE DEAD".

She continued: "Nowhere is safe from cyber-bullying. It can carry on 24/7 through mobile phones and in multiple forms online.

"Remarks, images posted online can easily be copied and made available to a global audience.

"In the short term, confronting this problem must be the closure of sites encouraging cyber-bullying."

Catriona Tait, a newly qualified primary teacher from Dundee, said one in four pupils had experienced cyber-bullying at some time.

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