Some students are using technology like email or mobile phones for bullying.


MEGAN MAGILL: The face of the class bully is changing. No longer content with taunts in the playground, they've found a new domain in cyberspace. Students are being harassed through internet sites, emails and text messages on mobile phones. It's so prevalent, it's been given a name - cyber-bullying.

MONIQUE AFFLECK, CHISHOLM COLLEGE STUDENT: It's hurtful and it should not be allowed.

NICOLE ABSOLON, CHISHOLM COLLEGE STUDENT: Some people just don't want to tell teachers or even friends because they don't want to make matters worse.

MEGAN MAGILL: A small pilot study in Brisbane has found the practice to be most common among 13 and 14-year-old girls.
Marilyn Campbell is a child psychologist and a researcher with the Queensland University of technology.
She says, of 80 students surveyed, 14 per cent said they had been targeted by cyber-bullies and 11 per cent admitted to dishing it out.
And judging by similar studies it's also on the rise in the UK and America. Marilyn Campbell believes cyber-bullying could be more harmful than face-to-face playground bullying.
Education Queensland doesn't have specific policies relating to cyber-bullying, schools deal with it on a case-by-case basis. But it recommends that mobile phones be used in emergencies only. In some schools such as Brisbane's Chisholm College which is part of the Catholic Education system anti-bullying procedures are in place.

CATHERINE THOMPSON: If a parent finds that a child for instance has been bullied over the internet or they've received a text message that's of a bullying nature then they obviously need to sit down and talk to the child and ask them if they know who it might be who's trying to get at them.

If it's of a serious and threatening nature then obviously it becomes a legal issue and our recommendations have always been that they seek advice through the police.

MEGAN MAGILL: Students there have restricted access to email and big brother is watching what they type.

BEN SCULLY, IT CO-ORDINATOR: We may disable their account, give them a warning and say 'right, we did notice that you were on this restricted site for a very short period of time; we are giving you the benefit of the doubt. If it happens again, however, then you will lose your account'.

MEGAN MAGILL: Parents like Jenny Barton say they too have an important role to play.

JENNY BARTON, PARENT: I try to have close supervision. Sometimes that's not always possible. It's more or less a time supervision and I have to put an element of trust in with these kids that they're doing the right thing.

MEGAN MAGILL: Marilyn Campbell says students who aren't involved in bullying can also make a difference.

MARILYN CAMPBELL: If you have empathy programs if you have buddy programs and you actually convert the bystander to an ally so that you actually make the kids say 'don't do that, that's not how we act around here. You wouldn't like it done to you so we just don't do things like that.'

So if you convert the bystander to an ally, that's a very powerful way of curbing both face-to-face bullying and also cyber bullying.

MEGAN MAGILL: But students aren't convinced that cyber-bullying is going to be eliminated.

MONIQUE AFFLECK: There's not much that we can actually do about it. I don't think there is anything.

STUDENT: Always tell someone if know that it's going on. Because if you don't, then it just gets worse.