Children as young as 8 subject to online bullying
Children as young as eight are beginning to experience bullying via text and online messages, a Trinity College expert has warned.
Marion Flanagan, an Anti-Bullying tutor in Trinity College Dublin, said primary schools need to act quickly to educate and inform young children on the advantages and dangers of interacting with the peers online.
Although Facebook has set an age limit of 13 to use their site, there are currently no features in place to stop a young child lying on their online application.
Flanagan said social media is a tool which needs to be understood and controlled.
"The way to deal with it is to embrace it and teach children how to use it appropriately, because really, the way to communicate now for a lot of our young people is online," she said.
"And there's nothing at all wrong with it, really - it's just that they have to make sure to use it appropriately."
