Cyber bullying out of control

Websites set up to terrorise teenagers are going unchecked and unregulated in the Bay.

The Facebook pages - sporting names such as Tauranga Goss, Otumoetai Dirtay Confessions, and Tauranga Dirt - are anonymous sites where local teens post hateful messages about classmates without being identified.

Although secondary schools are soon out for the holidays, the teen networking sites on the web mean there may be no reprieve for bullied teens during the summer.

The mother of a teenager at a local college, who spoke on condition she was not named, said she thought schools should be doing more to stop the malicious internet sites.

"It's appalling the stuff they write about each other. Comments like, '***** should go kill herself, no one would miss her or care'. It's just vile, the little creeps," she said.

Her daughter had been targeted with abuse as well as other teenage girls she knew.

"Someone wrote that my daughter is an ugly ... slut or something, and they all jumped in.

"She thinks it's disgusting and her friends think it's vile. It's just horrendous."

The mother said one Year 9 girl at the school her daughter attended attempted suicide and later received a text which read: "Why don't you slit your wrists."

She said she had spoken to the school about the Facebook pages, as well as the police, but eventually had to take matters into her own hands and contact Facebook directly to get the pages removed.

She thought the school should do more to address the problem, including disciplining the students responsible for hosting the pages.

"As far as I'm concerned they're not doing enough. The police can't do anything, the schools won't do anything.

"Isn't it classed as cyber-bullying? Surely bullying shouldn't be tolerated in any form. I think the school has an obligation to sort it out. And if not the school, then the parents," she said.

Family therapist Les Simmonds, Relationship Services clinical leader for Bay of Plenty and Gisborne, said bullying through computers and cellphones was a major problem in Tauranga.

"It's actually quite common. Traditionally we've associated bullying with being punched ... [but cyber-bullying] is just focused on the emotional side.

Cyber teenage bullying out of control

"It really does drive some of these young people into a very depressed and negative state.

"I feel quite strongly about the way the internet operates.

"Being able to vilify people without good cause; I wonder why that can't be stopped."

Mr Simmonds said the only way for bullied teens to tackle the problem was to try to ignore it.

John Fenaughty, research manager with NetSafe, a cyber-bullying advice service, said the problem may not end when school is let out as it might have in the past. "Technology is such an important part of teens' lives. More so than ever people who have a grudge can do [cyber-bullying] during the holidays.

"One of the things with cyber-bullying is it has the potential to be 24/7.

"Whereas with face-to-face bullying you might be spared the abuse over the holidays," he said.

Rumour-spreading on the internet had been found to be one of the most distressing forms of bullying, Dr Fenaughty said.

Otumoetai College principal Dave Randell agreed the Facebook pages were a problem but said schools weren't usually able to halt online bullying.

"I don't have an answer, I wish I did. Every school in New Zealand is faced with this," he said.

"I've had five so-called 'Dave Randell' Facebook pages.

"We find that young people put stories [online] to get reactions. There's no guidelines, there's nothing at all, you can put whatever you like on there."

Mr Randell said cyber-bullying needed to be monitored by parents because the offences were usually committed at home.

"We do everything we possibly can to stop it ... [but] we have the young people for six hours a day.

"Sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand, when can a school be accountable and when it can't.

"My strongest advice to parents is to monitor what your kids are doing.

"Look at what your child is doing and make your kids accountable for it if you see stuff like that."

Tauranga Girls' College principal Pauline Cowens said her school had held assemblies about the Facebook sites and she had included details in a newsletter to parents. She said some students possibly did not realise the extent of the accusations they made on the internet. "It's more than texting, it's a public forum. I don't know that they understand what that means," she said.

Tauranga Boys' College principal Robert Mangan agreed that behaviour beyond the school gates was as much a concern for parents as the school. "There are areas where young people will do things outside the school. To be monitoring Facebook sites of students, I guess there needs to be some parent supervision as well," he said.

Terry Collett, headmaster at Mount Maunganui College, said he was not aware of the pages circulating at his school but agreed it could be a problem. "In the end, it's a few sleazy sites, and the people who go on them are probably of a similar ilk."

IT expert Roland Leemans, managing director of ReserveGroup in Tauranga, said Facebook needed to be more responsible with the management of its pages.

Schools could do little to monitor students using the pages if they did it from home. Facebook could be contacted to regulate the pages but the social network could be unresponsive. "It's like they don't care," he said.