Telecom apologises over text bullying

Telecom has apologised to a family for mishandling their complaints after they were hounded for months by a pack of teenage text bullies.

The plight of the family was outlined earlier this week after a Wairarapa school pupil was threatened with violence "and much worse" during a text siege of the pupil's cell phone by classmates, the mother said.

The family wished to remain anonymous.

Telecom spokesman Phil Love said: "We do get a lot of text bullying cases and most are handled well. But we missed the mark with this family and we apologise."

Relentless bullying carried on for months from mid-year until December with the school, police, and Telecom advising the family they were near powerless to help. At the height of the abuse the child became too frightened to leave home alone, stopped eating, and threatened suicide.

The bullies also targeted the mother and friends of the pupil, she said.

The parents were finally forced to withdraw the child from school, the mother said, and the child has since been enrolled at another Wairarapa school and the abuse has stopped altogether.

Mr Love said any victims of phone misuse over the Telecom system should log the texts or calls and contact the Telecom Call Investigation Centre.

Possible remedies open to the company include offering the victim a new calling number or caller id, Telecom sending a warning text or call to the offending party, blocking the offender from calling or texting the victim, or blocking the offender from the Telecom network.

"What happened to this family constitutes misuse of a phone and we have quite a comprehensive range of solutions available to them. We see text bullying as abhorrent and we don't sit on our hands with issues like this.

"Unfortunately the family got bad advice (from Telecom)," he said.

* Victims of phone abuse and text bullying may contact the Telecom Call Investigation Centre at 0800 66 28 55.

- WAIRARAPA TIMES-AGE