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NCH released these figures in new survey and due to the results, the organisation is calling for greater awareness of the problem amongst parents and teachers. The group also wants to see better education for children and young people on how to deal with what NCH calls "21st century bullying techniques."
According the UK-based non-profit organisation, mobile phones appear to be the most commonly abused medium with 16 percent of young people in the survey claiming that they have been the victim of bullying or threatening text messages. Seven percent said that they had been harassed in Internet chat-rooms and four percent were harassed via e-mail.
But what worried NCH most was that after the children were threatened, over a quarter of the victims (29 percent) told no one about the incident. Of the 69 percent who did tell someone 42 percent turned to a friend and 32 percent to a parent.
NCH also said that it was concerned that these incidents, often affecting children as young as 11, were coming from anonymous sources. "They're either not telling anyone and suffering in silence, or are confiding in people who themselves don't know how to deal with it effectively," said, John Carr, associate director of NCH's Children and Technology Unit.
"If we want our children to benefit from all the good things IT has to offer, we need to protect them from the risks it poses," he added.
NCH questioned 856 UK children between the ages of 11 and 19 who had mobiles and e-mail access in the face-to-face interviews which took place in February 2002 to March 2002. NCH said that although children of all ages suffered from this e-abuse, 15 to 16-year-olds seemed to experience the highest proportion of victimisation.
"This is just an initial piece of research into the matter," an NCH spokesperson told ElectricNews.Net. "We'll be looking at the problem on an ongoing basis," she said.
For now, the spokesperson pointed to advice that NCH was offering advice to parents and children on how to deal with possible situations. First, children should tell someone who can help when they are the victim of e-bullying. Second, young people need to be careful who they give their mobile number and e-mail addresses to, and should not hesitate to change e-mail addresses or phone number when a problem arises. Finally NCH said kids that receive a frightening or aggressive message should make a record of the times and dates when the messages are received in case they need to be reported to the police.
NCH also called for schools to amend their bullying policies to include text and on-line abuse and must make a commitment to educate teachers, as well as pupils of the risks associated with these new technologies.
The charity is running a conference that deals with the issue later this month in Bristol called Children & The Internet: Risks & Opportunities. The event will take place on 26 April and is directed toward professionals working with children and young people, whether involved in social services, education, health, leisure, voluntary agencies or the police.
For more information visit NCH's Web site.
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