Cyber Bullying Intervention
Intervention programs to combat the rapidly growing trend of cyber-bullying in school aged children
With the growth of virtual technology there are some alarming trends emerging regarding the extent to which young people are using e-mail, mobile phone text messaging, mobile phone calls, mobile phone cameras, chat rooms, and websites to bully their peers which results in broad social, emotional and mental health implications particularly among young teenagers. The Child Health Promotion Research Centre was awarded $200,000 from Healthway; $400,000 by the WA Government and another $300,000 recently from the Telstra Foundation to conduct the world's first study into how schools, families and students themselves can combat the effects of cyber bullying. This research initiative is called Cyber Friendly Communities Program. Material is currently under development for this Program including parent/teacher CDs and websites as well as primary and secondary websites and materials. This material will be trialled in primary and secondary schools throughout Australia and South East Asia over the next two years with an aim to refining the materials for a final comprehensive cyber bullying intervention program.