Social media companies must step up to help tackle cyberbullying, schools warn
In Catholic Mulconry These Have School The Primary Management Association Debates Panies Social Away Lightly Gotten Said (cpsma) Of Media Seamus
Social media companies must acknowledge their responsibility in tackling cyberbullying as some situations are almost impossible for a school to address.
The current anti-bullying procedures for schools, published in 2013 by the Department of Education, also need to be reviewed in order to effectively address bullying.
That’s according to school management bodies who met with the Oireachtas education committee on Tuesday as it continued its discussions on school bullying and its impact on mental health.
Schools are experiencing a rise in interpersonal issues occurring outside of school on social media, according to Seamus Mulconry of the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA).
Social media companies have gotten away lightly in these debates, he told the committee.
"We know that social media is designed to be addictive.
“I think there needs to be a really serious conversation with the social media companies as to their responsibility because this is having a profound psychological impact on our children and young people.”
An Online Safety Commissioner, with whom schools could have some sort of direct line, would be very helpful in terms of tackling this type of bullying, according to John Curtis of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB).
“We do find that some of these cases are just so difficult that we scratch our heads and wonder what to do,” he told the committee.
“A comment is made online at two o’clock in the morning during the summer holidays. We're not training teachers adequately dealing with some of these issues and we do need to look at that.
“Of all the issues I dealt with the school as a principal for 20 years, issues relating to bullying behavior or perceived bullying behavior or problems with the relationship between pupils, were the most difficult to deal with.”
A review of the anti-bullying procedures would give the Department of Education an opportunity to look at how it could collect data regarding bullying, according to Ann O'Dwyer of Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI). Schools should also look to a restorative approach when it comes to addressing bullying, she added.
"The restorative approach is one of the most beneficial and sustainable approaches to dealing with bullying, whether it's bullying within the school, or bullying that permeates outside the school or on the online space as well. If a restorative approach is used, it means that the perpetrator of the bullying is not demonized, because they're a young person growing up as well."
However, not enough teachers are being trained in this method.
"I think if we're being strategic, that is one area that, when we're reviewing the procedures, that we put in training and cyclical training for teachers."