3rd March

Website to Beat Cyberbullying Goes Live
The charity Beatbullying has launched a peer mentoring website to help crack down on online bullying.

The site will allow young people who have been bullied through digital channels, such as mobile phones and social networking sites, to seek advice from a pool of 700 young "CyberMentors". The mentors, who are 600 secondary school pupils and 100 young people in further education, have gone through a five-stage training programme. The scheme is partly funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who launched the CyberMentors scheme today, said: "Just as we wouldn't let them go unsupervised in playgrounds or in youth clubs, so we must put in place the measures that we need to keep our children and young people safe online."

Emma-Jane Cross, chief executive of Beatbullying, said: "CyberMentors is the first time that the third sector, government, volunteers and young people are working together on a large scale and in an integrated way to tackle one of the biggest issues facing society today. We're looking forward to encouraging more social networking sites to come on board and address everyone's responsibility to keep young people safe."

source: Charlotte Goddard, Children & Young People