'We need parents on board!' Online bullying surges as 'childhood emergency' declared
A "childhood emergency" has been declared by the charity Children First, as they say that urgent action is needed to contain online harm and the mental health crisis it has caused. Daily Record readers have welcomed the call in our comments section - and they want buy-in from everyone involved.
It comes amid the Record's Our Kids ... Our Future campaign, which has specifically called on social media giants to remove violent clips of attacks on young people from their platforms before they go viral. Our Kids ... Our Future was launched in February last year after a sickening series of attacks on youths took place across the country.
A survey conducted by the charity in September revealed that 84 per cent of participants were very or extremely worried about the impact of social media on children and young people. A further 81 per cent also revealed that they were worried about children's access to violent content online.
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How bad is youth violence in your area? Have your say in our poll.
It's the cyberbullying that has worried readers the most. Commenter Weegrannyright says: "This must stop, get the families to work together for the good of all of our children." Readernews says: "Social media definitely needs to step in and remove all videos as that adds to trauma. Kinder communities needs to be the focus."
Reader Dontcallmems says: "Schools need to crack down on mobile phones and ban them."
But Bj61 is worried about phone bans: "This is 10 years too late. I worked in education and it's been going on for ages. The school has no power with the phones. When we tried to ban phones at certain times, the parents kicked up hell - "It's his/her phone I need to contact my child. You have no right to stop my child using their phone" etc.
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"I totally agree, ban the phones. But we need the parents on board, the parents of the pupils that are not being bullied, who can't see why their child should have their phone removed or limited in usage."
Reader Vod writes: "Social media should be 18+ and need some sort of verification system, issue is most them are 14+ and all you have to do is say 'I'm above 14'."
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland on Wednesday, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: "I don't think we can get away from the responsibility on the tech side to reduce the harm in the first place. What we need to do is focus on the preventative action that we need to see around online content and mobile phones."
Forbes admitted that the Scottish Government needs to do more to support child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). Devastating figures revealed earlier this year that over 5,000 children and young people were still on waiting lists. Of this figure, 147 were waiting over a year.
Have your say! What ways can you think of to help reduce online harms for children? Comment below, and join in on the conversation.