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The nation’s top cyber cop has dealt with dozens of cases of cyber-bullying in his first three months. Picture: Thinkstock
KIDS as young as 11 have been targeted in a spate of vicious cyber-bullying attacks that have been referred to the nation’s top cyber cop over the last three months.
The online attacks have included sickening campaigns to encourage bullying victims to self-harm, and threats to publicly “out†teenagers presumed to be gay by their classmates.
The office of Australia’s Children’s e-Safety Commissioner has intervened in and resolved 40 cases of serious online bullying and harassment targeted at kids in its first three months in operation.
It has also removed more than 2000 pieces of illegal content online, the vast majority of which was child exploitation material.
Cruel ... some of the cyber bullying attacks have involved kids being told to self-harm. Picture: ThinkstockSource:Supplied
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said the big social media companies were cooperating well with the eSafety Commissioner, with sites including Facebook, Instagram and AskFM all taking down offensive material within 12 hours of being requested to do so.
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While the cyber cop has powers under the law to force the hand of the major social media companies, Senator Fifield said so far “the process has been efficient and cooperative with no need for legislative sanctions to be usedâ€.
Julia Cornwell-McKean, the manager of cyber bullying complaints with the Children’s eSafety Commissioner, said the majority of children targeted by cyber-bullying attacks were aged between 14 and 15.
Horrific ... kids as young as 11 were subjected to online attacks. Picture: ThinkstockSource:Supplied
But she children as young as 11 were targeted in some serious cases of cyber bullying that made their way to investigators since July 1.
She also said the methods of bullying and online harassment were varied.
“Around half of the issues were about people saying nasty things (online) in some cases serious nastiness, like inciting other children to self-harm, sexual comments, taunting, outing and attacking people’s vulnerabilities,†she said.
While most of the complaints were being lodged by parents, Ms Cornwell-McKean said her office has also had calls from concerned teachers raising issues of cyber-bullying within their school.
In addition to the more serious cases of cyber bullying that were addressed, more than 600 children were referred to the Kids Helpline for support and counselling by the eSafety Commissioner.