Study targets 'toxic' cyber-bullying

The West Australian Government will spend $400,000 on a world-first five-year study into cyber-bullying, amid growing concern about the damaging effect on children being targeted by abusive text messages, emails and degrading digital photos.
Education Minister Mark McGowan said yesterday that up to 15 per cent of WA students were victims of "vicious" cyber-bullying, which was generally anonymous and had potentially dire consequences.

Access to mobile phones and computers had increased the problem, with students using those technologies to "intimidate and harass in a way that has not been seen before".

The study, to be headed by child behaviour expert Donna Cross from Edith Cowan University, will examine the extent of the problem and ways in which children, parents and teachers can deal with it and even prevent it.

About 4000 children from 40 schools will be involved in the study, and while WA will be the main focus, children from Queensland and South Australia will also be contacted to ensure the results were consistent with other states.

Professor Cross said cyber-bullying was far worse than traditional forms of bullying because of its anonymity, which could trigger paranoia among victims who had to return to school each day not knowing who was targeting them and suspecting everyone.

"We know with traditional bullying that children experience depression, anxiety, they're socially ostracised, they have physical health outcomes that harm them, they drop out of school, they achieve less," Professor Cross said.

"But with cyber bullying it cranks up to a toxic cocktail."

She said it was more pervasive because nasty or embarrassing messages with photos or videos attached could be sent to hundreds of people at a time, increasing the victim's humiliation and sense of isolation.

She said victims often did not tell their parents because they were scared they would have their phones or computers taken away, which was like losing afriend.

And perpetrators felt empowered to be nastier because they did not have to confront their victim face to face.

She said cyber-bullying was most prevalent among 11- to 16-year-olds, and slightly more common among girls. However, remarkably little research had been conducted.

The aim of the study was to equip children, parents and teachers with the skills to identify bullying. Parents, in particular, needed to be aware of how to find out if their child was being bullied or was bullying others so they could do something about the problem.

Professor Cross said the use of video technologies was particularly worrying.

"It's enough to have something written about you but to actually have your face associated with it so that people can see it was really you ... means that kids get involved in things like happy-slapping where they set up a situation to humiliate someone and film it and then send it to as many people as possible," she said.

Mr McGowan said he was aware of examples where children had even photographed classmates at swimming carnivals and then sent out embarrassing footage of them in their bathing costumes.