Students receive IT training to mentor victims of cyberbullying

17:00 18th November 2009

Computer training has been used to equip students at Cornwall College with the skills necessary to help younger victims of cyberbullying deal with their experiences.

The training has been provided in London by the organisation Beatbullying and will enable the students to act as mentors to children in local schools by responding to concerned postings on social networking sites, reports the BBC.

Student mentors will all be from colleges and universities and the intention is to create a special virtual community on the internet to address the issue of bullying.

Chris Peck, 17, one of the newly-trained mentors, told the BBC: "[Children] can come to us and talk to us [and] we can then give them advice as to how to resolve the situation."

He added that contacts perpetrating the bullying on social networking sites can be blocked to prevent them harassing victims.

Around 20 per cent of schoolchildren aged ten and 11 have been bullied on the internet within the last year, according to figures from the Anti-Bullying Alliance.

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