Social Media Portal: More education needed regarding cyber bullying

13:00 17th February 2009

Both children and their parents or guardians need more effective education into the growing problems of cyber bullying, according to Social Media Portal (SMP).

Tim Gibbon, co-founder of the SMP, said that as technology has improved, become more flexible and available to more people, cyber bullying has also become more prolific and as a result the issue needs to be more thoroughly investigated.

He went on to say that greater awareness is needed of all the different forms of communication available and in what ways young people are susceptible.

Computer training and IT courses could be undertaken by parents and guardians to help them understand more about the technological worlds their children engage with.

Mr Gibbon said: "Cyber-bullying could be deemed as even more of a threat to the safety (both mental and physical) of young and impressionable people as it's more prevalent and it has immediate and wide-reaching real-life impact on these individuals' lives."

Recent research from Microsoft found that 45 per cent of teenagers favoured spending most of their internet time on social networking sites.