One in four teens cyber-bullied

As a British teen cyber-bully is jailed, experts here say the phenomenon is widespread in New Zealand.

Keeley Houghton is serving a three-month sentence in a young offenders' institute after being found guilty of harassment on Facebook.

The 18-year-old waged a four-year hate campaign against a schoolmate, Emily Moor. But even though Houghton is locked up, Moor and her family don't feel safe.

Houghton's mother Nicola is determined to clear her daughter's name and has set up a Facebook page called "Keeley Is Not A Bully".

Moor's mother Connie told the Daily Mail that "Even though Keeley is in prison, we are still being tormented on Facebook by her mother's campaign. We have contacted Facebook's administrators to ask for the site to be removed."

The site was removed yesterday.

On being told details of Moor's experience, New Zealand Netsafe executive director Martin Cocker said such campaigns of relentless intimidation were typical of the cyber-bullying phenomenon.

"It is something we're only just getting to understand," said Cocker. "We've created this term cyber-bullying and we use it generically, but it's not as well understood as we'd like.

"We want to see more education for families about what it is and how to combat it. Our research shows that in secondary schools, in any given 12 months, about one in four children reports being subjected to some level of cyber-bullying," said Cocker. "It's widespread."

Netsafe has dedicated a section of its website to cyber-bullying, with information for young people, parents and teachers.

The organisation's advice to people being cyber-bullied is to save evidence of the bullying, not to respond to it and to tell people they trust. They should contact the police if the bullying involves threats of harm.

In Facebook's statement of rights and responsibilities, users are asked to make commitments, including that they "will not bully, harass or intimidate any user".

A Facebook spokeswoman in Australia said the site's "reporting function" was an important way to combat bullies. Users can click a button to report any user, group, page or comment they feel uncomfortable with. Facebook will then monitor and remove the offending element where necessary.

"If somebody threatens violence, it gets taken down straight away," said the spokeswoman. But she added that it is difficult for Facebook to be the judge of what is and isn't objectionable."