Safer Social Networking for Children
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-05318, in the name of Alex Johnstone, on safer social networking for children. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament acknowledges the work done by organisations such as respectme to highlight and combat cyberbullying; understands that one survey of children and young people in Scotland found that 16% of respondents thought that they had been cyberbullied, with 63% stating that the aggressor was known to them and also found that 25% of respondents were concerned about cyberbullying online, and commends Mr Jamie Tosh of Arbroath, whose daughter’s experience of cyberbullying has led him to develop Kibooku, which he believes provides a safe social networking experience for children and young people.
17:02
Many of us who grew up before the advent of the internet view the worldwide web as a tool that we can use to communicate or to do research. In our leisure time, we might use it to download a television programme that we have missed or a film that we would like to see, or perhaps to buy something that is not readily available on the high street.
However, for young people, the worldwide web is more than that; it is a virtual place. It is a space that they can spend time in and meet up with friends, in the same way as they can when they meet up in person. Research shows that children and young people do not differentiate a great deal between friendships online and friendships in person.
However, young people can be bullied in person, but can be equally vulnerable to bullying or other kinds of sinister behaviour online. In some respects, online bullying is worse. Previously, when a child came home from school and the front door closed behind him or her, they were safe from their tormentors. Now, bullying can continue in the form of cyber-bullying, which Scotland’s anti-bullying service, respectme, tells us was emerging as far back as 2007. Respectme also found that children and young people are online almost every day, with research from the Office of Communications showing that 91 per cent of children aged between five and 15 live in a household with internet access, with personal computer or laptop internet use at home running at 65 per cent of five to seven-year-olds.
Ofcom’s research also showed that parents have relatively low levels of concern about different aspects of their children’s internet use, with fewer than one third of those who were asked saying that they were “very concerned” or “fairly concerned” about their children giving personal details to inappropriate people and 27 per cent being concerned about cyber-bullying. However, the research by respectme showed that 16 per cent of the children or young people who were questioned said that they had been cyber-bullied and that 25 per cent of them worry about it.
Awareness of this important issue—which, as we know, can ultimately have tragic consequences—is growing, but awareness campaigns and media coverage are showing that there is no room for complacency. More must be done to ensure that parents who want to know where their children are and whom they meet when they go out also know the same things about their children when they go online.
Recently, I was delighted to meet Mr Jamie Tosh from Arbroath, whose daughter had been a victim of cyber-bullying. He decided that it was imperative that a safe online environment be provided for children who are too young to join other social networking sites, but who feel the need to do so in order to communicate with their peers. Mr Tosh—who is listening to the debate from the gallery—has invested a lot of his own time and money in such a site, which is called Kibooku, and I commend him for his hard work.
Kibooku is a social networking site that is aimed solely at children from the age of six and upwards. It is innovative in the way that it requires parental monitoring of their child’s activity at least every two weeks. Crucially, it also verifies the identity of the adult, thereby providing a strong disincentive to adults who might attempt to log in for inappropriate reasons. Members and staff will have the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of the site and an explanation of how it works in the middle of the day tomorrow, when Mr Tosh will be in Parliament to demonstrate it.
I believe that such innovations will ultimately play a substantial role in keeping our children and young people safe online, but we must all work together to help deliver the positive experiences that we want our young people to have. Of course, politicians have a role to play in that. Businesses, too, can and do contribute, but the internet is an exceptionally difficult place to police and it is vital that we encourage parents and responsible adults to engage positively with children and young people to keep them safe in the virtual world that is so important to them.
When we discuss issues in the chamber, it is quite common for us to ask questions to which we seek answers and to air problems for which we worry that there might never be solutions. Tonight and tomorrow, we have the opportunity to take a problem and look at a possible answer to it.
I beg support for the motion in my name.
The debate is quite popular, so I ask that speeches be kept to four minutes, please.
17:08
We are told that 55 per cent of children and young people access the internet every day, and that 53 per cent are online for up to two hours daily, so creating a safe environment in which they can do that free from the risk of bullying, or of being targeted by inappropriate adults, is hugely important.
Bullying of any kind can be a devastating experience for a child, and anyone who has had or has worked with kids knows just how cruel—often without their entirely realising the pain that their words or actions can cause—they can be to one another. For three years while my son was completing his primary school education, I coached football as a parent helper, and was taken aback by how nasty otherwise decent children could, on occasion, be to each other.
Seven years on, with the internet having exploded in the intervening period, we have seen the emergence of cyber-bullying. In a recent parentline survey, almost 19 per cent of parents revealed that their children had suffered some form of cyber-bullying. In a Children 1st survey, 79 per cent of respondents considered cyber-bullying to be an issue and 29 per cent of them revealed that their kids had fallen victim to it. In a survey of 2,500 young people that BeatBullying carried out, 50 per cent of respondents said that they had been cyber-bullied and 11 per cent admitted to being cyber-bullies.
There is, undoubtedly, an online bullying issue to address. Sadly, we must also face up to the fact that a threat is posed to youngsters by some unsavoury older people. The scale of that might be hard to quantify, but in some respects the scale is irrelevant. If one child is liable to be under threat from such advances, we have a responsibility to try to stop that.
I understand that those who facilitate standard social networking sites are not altogether exercising the level of responsibility that we might expect. Facebook, which is reckoned to be visited by 68 per cent of young internet users, is an example of a social networking site that is extremely easy to join. It does not verify the date of birth that is provided, so a youngster can claim to be in their late teens and gain full access to Facebook and its services. As users can send messages anonymously, the problem of trolling very much exists.
I have only a basic understanding of the services that social networking offers, but a friend who is in their mid-20s and who possesses a decent grasp of Facebook tells me that even an individual who is well versed in the service can be caught out in managing privacy arrangements. A short time ago, Facebook initiated changes to its privacy rules that require every user to go to their settings and reset all the restrictions that they had set before. My friend was unaware of that requirement and assumed that their photos, posts, interactions and information would remain accessible to friends only. It turned out that several profile sections, including all photos, were visible to anyone. That highlights how easy it is to access a stranger’s profile and for strangers to find out personal information about people. That is bad enough for adults, but what about kids?
The advent of Kibooku, which the motion highlights, is therefore extremely welcome. As parents, we have all been subjected to the pleading of our children when they are desperate to be the same as their pals; we have all had to endure the pressure that comes from the well-worn phrase, “Everyone else gets to, so why can’t I?” A number of parents cave in on social networking and allow their kids to lie about their age in order that they can sign up. Parents believe that, if they befriend their children on a site and occasionally check on what their children are doing, that will be fine, but that might not be the case. That is why a system that is designed with kids and their safety in mind is to be welcomed.
After looking at the safeguards that Kibooku offers, I think that the question is not so much why people would sign their children up to it as why people would not sign them up to it. The fact that it allows children in the six-to-13 age bracket to access social networking only with parental controls in place, which include monitoring friend requests and private messages, makes the site a no-brainer. I say that not because Jamie Tosh—Kibooku’s creator—is a constituent of mine, but because all of us support ensuring that youngsters can participate in social networking in a protected environment.
I thank Alex Johnstone for bringing this important matter to the chamber for debate and I add my support for the motion.
17:12
I welcome the opportunity to speak in this members’ business debate on safer social networking for children and I thank Alex Johnstone for securing the opportunity to consider such a serious issue of our time.
I was shocked to discover from statistics that the number of young people who have fallen victim to cyber-bullies in recent years is not only alarmingly high, but is increasing. That form of bullying can have a devastating effect on a child’s wellbeing and can lead to depression and anxiety. I have been troubled to hear that, in some extreme cases, young people have taken their own lives. As the mother of three children, I identify with the concern of parents and carers that their children could be at risk of being targeted through emails, texts or social networking websites.
It is crucial that we help to raise awareness of cyber-bullying among those who look after children, so that they are aware of potential signs of bullying via texts or the internet. As do my colleagues who have spoken, I commend the work of respectme in its most recent anti-cyber-bullying campaign, which offered advice on how to handle cyber-bullies. I welcome the fact that the Scottish Government is represented on the United Kingdom Council for Child Internet Safety, which discusses cyber-bullying along with other aspects of internet safety.
In a survey of more than 2,500 young people by BeatBullying, 50 per cent of those who were questioned said that they had been cyber-bullied and—worryingly—29 per cent had told no one about being cyber-bullied. Parents and carers must look closely at the online activity in which their children engage.
Children 1st has an excellent “Twelve Top Tips” guide that is definitely worth reading and which is available on its website as part of its “See. Hear. Speak. Act on sexual abuse” campaign to protect children. BigAmbition Scotland states that if a teenager or young person perpetrates cyber-bullying, it is common for them to lose their internet service provider or instant messaging account for violation or misuse of the service. It is important to consider that point.
I want to highlight, too, Glasgow City Council’s efforts on its anti-bullying policy, which now requires all discriminatory behaviours in education establishments to be recorded and reported. To recognise that online bullying can be just as harmful as bullying in the playground is a step towards dealing with the issue and helping to prevent it.
It is a joy to hear of young people leading the way in combating cyber-bullying, as in the case of children in Gallowhill primary school in Renfrewshire, who set up a social enterprise called Support Me, through the social enterprise and skills programme. That anti-cyber-bullying business has been so successful that it has won an award for its workshops. I believe that that example shows that the issue must be tackled by adults and children working together. We need to encourage and give credit to all campaigns that attempt to make the internet a safer place for children. In raising awareness in that way, we can try to limit the detrimental effect that the internet can have on young people in our communities.
17:16
The internet is a fantastic resource that has opened up opportunities for communication and knowledge sharing that most people would never have dreamed were possible. For example, those of us who have relations in other countries find it much easier to communicate with them and share what is going on in our lives. Indeed, my father works in Africa quite often and I have family in Canada, but I have been able to keep them all up to date, via social networking, with my children’s progress. It has been fantastic for that.
We should also accept, though, that the internet is a place of great dangers. The anonymity that it offers to users makes it a place in which bullies can operate with much greater impunity than in a physical environment. That is why a resource such as Kibooku is so fantastic and extremely welcome, given the figures on aggressive and unpleasant behaviours online and parents’ worries about that.
My children are too young to use social media, but one day they will probably wish to do so and explore the internet. My son has developed something of an expertise with the touch-screen computer at his nursery, so it will probably not be too long before he tries to use computers to access the internet and all the opportunities that it will offer him. However, there are concerns about the dangers out there, which is why we require safe social networking and internet environments for our children.
We must accept that young children will want to use online resources. We can put in place firewall protection and parental controls, but there are only so many restrictions that parents can put in place. That is why I think that the parent-child element of Kibooku sets it apart from other social networking sites. The fact that the parent must be involved in the registration process differentiates it from other social media, which is extremely welcome. It provides the assurance to parents that their children are accessing something that is more secure and safe for them, and it allows the children to know that it is safe to use. Hopefully, they will be more willing to consider it than other social networking sites.
I look forward to the opportunity that will be presented tomorrow and I hope to find the time to be able to come and have a look at Kibooku in action. However, we should not allow other social networking forums and sites off the hook. It would be stretching it to assume that Mr Zuckerberg is sitting in Facebook headquarters right now watching a live stream of this debate, but he and his company and other social networking sites, be it Bebo, Microsoft Messenger or BlackBerry Messenger, must up their game and start taking more responsibility for the fact that they allow young children to access their sites without the proper verifications.
I have seen profiles of friends’ children and of family members who are clearly too young to have their own profile according to the sites’ rules but nonetheless have one. Not enough is being done by companies to ensure that they are protecting young people from some of the difficulties and dangers that lie in accessing social media sites at a young age.
As well as welcoming the introduction of Kibooku and congratulating Mr Tosh on his fine efforts, this chamber should also be sending a message to the other social networking organisations that they have much to do to ensure the safety of not only Scotland’s children but children around the world. I hope that, somehow, that message reaches them at some point.
17:20
I, too, congratulate Alex Johnstone on securing the debate.
Safer social networking for children is a serious issue. It can be difficult for adults easily to spot abuse and bullying that can have devastating effects on children and young people. As the number of young people going online grows and users get younger, it is essential that social networking sites, parents, guardians and teachers all play their part in ensuring that our young people are safe online.
Social networking can be positive, providing users with the ability to stay in touch with friends and family if they live or work in different parts of the country or the world. Young people can feel connected to friends across neighbourhoods, towns, cities and countries. That can be useful to young people when they live in rural areas, like many in the Highlands and Islands do.
Many groups and organisations can find it easier to connect with young people in a format that they enjoy and use to contact their friends. Many youth advice groups and charities now use social networking as a means of promoting their work and reaching out to young people who need their help. In the Highlands and Islands, essential charities, such as Ross-shire Woman's Aid, which provides services to children and young people experiencing domestic abuse, use social networking to share information on how to get help or advice. That highlights the potential for social networking to positively benefit young people.
The internet is notoriously hard to police and I join Alex Johnstone and other members in applauding Jamie Tosh for developing Kibooku as a safe online place for young people. Unfortunately, popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter are often not safe places for children, be that due to the risk of predatory behaviour from others or the content of the images and videos that are shared online. Sadly as Children 1st has highlighted in its statistics, around 50 per cent of young people have suffered from cyber-bullying. I agree with Mark McDonald that the other sites really have to up their game.
Sites such as Kibooku, which are designed with young people in mind and factor in an element of parental supervision and guidance, mean that young children can be safer online. Figures suggesting that one in five children are the victim of aggressive or unpleasant behaviour online will make sites like Kibooku attractive to parents, and I am also pleased to see that a donation from the user fee for the site is being made to the Cash for Kids charity.
I acknowledge that not every parent or young person will make the switch over to child-friendly websites. However, I endorse the recommendations that have been made by Children 1st and agree that it is everybody's responsibility to protect children, and I call on social networks to do more to ensure that young people are safe online.
A separate but relevant aspect of keeping our children safe online is keeping them safe from exploitation. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre brings together an extensive range of experts to ensure that young people are kept safe online. It provides online reporting mechanisms alongside education videos and helpful information that is tailored to specific age groups as well as parents and those working alongside children.
I encourage the leading social networking sites to have a CEOP link on their websites. That would mean that if a young person felt vulnerable online, they could immediately flag that up and receive advice and information or file a direct report that staff at CEOP could follow up in the interests of keeping young people safe online.
I close by praising Scotland’s anti-bullying service respectme, which plays a significant role in supporting young people to stand up to cyber-bullying. We can all play a part in keeping children safe online and ensure that they do not miss out by speaking out and by increasing awareness of cyber-bullying among parents at home, among teachers in the class and, indeed, in any place where young people may be online.
17:25
First, I congratulate Alex Johnstone on securing this important debate. My thanks and gratitude also go to Mr Tosh, who has taken the bull by the horns in doing something that other networks should have done many years ago.
Bullying takes many forms and can be disguised in many ways. I am certainly aware of the internet bullying that takes place. The internet is not all bad; it is there for a positive reason. The internet can open up a new world, especially for people with disabilities, to whom it can give freedom and access to a world that they sometimes cannot experience otherwise.
However, I am very much aware of the bullying that takes place, which can include encouraging people to self-harm. It will come as no surprise to the Parliament that I will focus on the bullying that takes place in connection with eating disorders. There are pro-anorexic sites—at least 500 of them—and exposure to those sites can encourage people to self-harm. The sites encourage people—probably virtually—to kill themselves. That is what they do. That is the harm that can be caused through those sites. They are there and they should be policed. For far too long, we have had a passive interest, yet one in five six to 11-year-olds are exposed to sites that encourage them behave in a way that can cause self-harm and bullying.
Last week, my daughter saw a photograph of a young girl through the profile that she had presented on Facebook. Comments such as “Give her a good meal” flooded in, along with other comments about doing this or doing that. Those comments were offensive and disgusting and they should have been taken off the net. For far too long, we have been passive. Facebook and internet sites such as other social networks should police themselves. They should have the authority to remove such disgusting and terrible comments from the internet.
I have no idea why we are passive or why we do not police such sites, but we need to take action. I am not sure what the Scottish Government can do, but this Parliament needs to send a clear message to all the social networks that they should get their act together, stop encouraging children to bully and stop letting our children be harmed through their networks. We also need to send a message to children that they should use the internet in a positive way to interact with family and friends across the world, but not to bully.
17:28
Like colleagues, I start by congratulating Alex Johnstone on securing the debate and Jamie Tosh on his work in the north-east of Scotland.
I have taken an interest in the topic as an avid user of social media myself. To try to understand the size of the challenge, I carried out some research of my own in Edinburgh around this time last year. I visited Craigmount high school in the west of Edinburgh, where I met a class of secondary 1 pupils. Every one of those S1 pupils had a 3G mobile phone in their pocket, the majority of them had their own laptop and 40 per cent had their own iPad. That happens at 12 years old. All the pupils had Facebook profiles. Despite the fact that the age restriction on Facebook applies until someone is 15 years old, many of those pupils had had a Facebook profile since they were 10.
Craigmount high school has an excellent information technology department, which really is at the cutting edge of integrating technology into the educational experience. Mobile smart phones are used in the classroom and are integrated into homework programmes. That reminds us all of the educational value of technology, which we should not lose sight of.
The school is about to wi-fi enable its whole campus, which brings huge educational possibilities. When I spoke to the school about that, I was told not to worry about kids being able to get on Facebook on the school campus, because that is not possible with the City of Edinburgh Council’s IT system. However, the blunt reality is that that is irrelevant when every kid in the class has their own 3G phone in their pocket. They are not protected by council bullying policies. The danger is far greater than that.
I do not know about you, Presiding Officer, but I am not sure how many of my Facebook friends I could count on in a crisis or how many of my Twitter followers actually agree with my views. As Alex Johnstone said, the definition of friendships and relationships is remarkably distorted online. We need to do more to support children and young people to cope with the increasing online cataloguing of their lives and growing pains—things such as spots, haircuts, fashion faux pas, likes and dislikes, academic results, who their parents are, what their parents do and, as Dennis Robertson mentioned, body image and what they look like.
Much of our societal debate about children’s online safety is focused on the warning signs of predatory relationships and grooming, but far less public attention is paid to online peer-led bullying. Many parents safeguard their family computers, have the talk with the kids about online strangers and think that they are safe, only to let them go online and suffer silently at the hands of their classmates and acquaintances. Such bullying can be blatant and playground-like, but it can also be subversive and darkly psychological. Malice can spread like wildfire through a young person’s cyber-world in minutes and can cause a lifetime’s worth of damage to their self-esteem and feelings of self-worth.
If members think that I am exaggerating, they should take a second to look at the website www.littlegossip.com, which is dedicated to actively encouraging young people to leave anonymous comments about their classmates and teachers on a school-by-school basis. That is a truly frightening experience.
I am sure that the member will also be aware of the existence of groups on sites such as Facebook and Bebo that are devoted entirely to criticising and bullying individuals, which happens frequently.
Absolutely. Like the member, I completely condemn that. We need a strategy to take that on and we should not just rely on people to report it, because that does not always happen.
I will say a word about the bullies, because we cannot forget them or the reasons why they find themselves having to bully other young people. I am aware of two kids in Craigmillar who have been excluded from school because they were involved in cyber-bullying. We all know what happens to the educational outcomes and life chances of young people who are excluded from school, so we need to keep sight of their hopes and ambitions for the future.
I want to say a word about some good work. Catriona Laing, who I believe is the only e-safety schools officer in Scotland and who is currently employed by Perth and Kinross Council, has developed a peer-led model that aims to give kids the capacity to support one another when they are bullied online. I will be pleased to welcome her to next Thursday’s meeting of the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on children and young people. I encourage other members to attend that meeting, which will focus on cyber-bullying.
I am afraid that I have one word of criticism. On 10 May last year in the chamber, I raised the issue with Kenny MacAskill in the context of how cyber-bullying crimes are reported. He was helpful, and I asked whether he would be willing to meet me, but he said that it would be more appropriate for me to meet one of the education ministers. On 16 May, I informally approached Aileen Campbell, who said that, if I wrote to her, she would agree to a meeting. I did that but, on 22 June, I got a letter back from Alasdair Allan saying that there was no reason to meet me to discuss the problems with cyber-bullying. I felt that I had a lot to offer the debate and a lot of first-hand information, so I was really disappointed with that. My message to the minister is that I hope that, if he has not been willing to listen in the past, he might be willing to act today.
17:34
I, too, congratulate Alex Johnstone on bringing this important debate to the chamber. I pay tribute to Jamie Tosh and look forward to observing more closely the social networking experience that he has ensured for his children.
The internet in general and social networking in particular are not intrinsically bad but, like anything else, they are potentially a force for good and potentially a force for evil, and we cannot uninvent them. Basically, the problem resides in the wider culture, so that is the fundamental issue that we must address. I will devote most of my speech to how we can educate young people and challenge some of their attitudes.
Parental supervision is also important. Jamie Tosh clearly takes that view, and I commend him for it. I refer members to a really good article by Colette Douglas Home in The Herald today, in which she, too, says that, in the current circumstances, parental supervision will be necessary.
We want more fundamental changes in the culture but, until those have happened, we must not hesitate to have parental supervision. I do not speak in particular as a parent, given that my children are all grown up. However, once we have worried about our children and a few years have passed, we start worrying about our grandchildren. That, quite apart from my wider concerns, is why I now feel particularly strongly about the forces in society that are leading to the abuses of the internet on which we are focusing.
Like Dennis Robertson, I believe that we must challenge Facebook and other companies that are in charge of social networking sites, because they have a responsibility. I am sure that we were all deeply moved by what he said about sites that, in effect, promote eating disorders. We must challenge Facebook and others about such sites.
In fact, that is precisely what the Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust did in relation to a particular Facebook group. In the group, ex-boyfriends posted photos of girls with derogatory comments. Through the action and protests of Zero Tolerance, that group was closed down. We all need to follow such examples to ensure that people who are in charge of such sites take full responsibility for them.
Educating and challenging must be fundamental. I commend the police in Leith, who, about a year ago, ran a campaign in primary schools in my constituency. It was based around a poster campaign about cyber-bullying. The police went into schools, talked to children and raised the profile of the issue.
It is clear that cyber-bullying in primary schools—or indeed, secondary schools—is completely unacceptable. However, I must raise the issue of gender, because girls are often most adversely affected—perhaps increasingly so as they get into their teens, but in their pre-teen years as well.
We ought to make reference to sexting. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children did a study about that and found that it was often coercive, with girls being most adversely affected. Sexting, of course, is sharing sexualised photos and images by mobile phone. The NSPCC said:
“Sexting is not a gender-neutral practice; it is shaped by the gender dynamics of the peer group in which, primarily, boys harass girls, and it is exacerbated by the gendered norms of popular culture, family and school that fail to recognise the problem or to support girls.”
We must look at the context for cyber-bullying, including sexting. That means that we must address the culture in which young people are growing up. We must examine the expectations about gender in that culture and what is regarded as normal and acceptable in relationships. Tragically, that is increasingly being poisoned by the influence of pornography. We must address that dimension of the topic as well.
That is why, as I said in a debate two weeks ago, we must increasingly use in schools material such as the Zero Tolerance respect packs. Ultimately, we must challenge the attitudes that underlie cyber-bullying and the wider forms of gender stereotyping that are the underlying cause of the problem.
17:38
I listened with great interest to the debate, and I thank Alex Johnstone for bringing the issue to the Parliament’s attention.
Children especially have made the online environment their natural home. That was brought home to me a year ago when I found my four-year-old niece advising me not only that I should get myself an iPad, but on which type I should get.
For many children, the internet is not simply a device, a form of technology or a tool; it is an integral part of their lives, seamless with the physical world that lies outside of chat rooms, social media and blogs. As Mr Johnstone quite rightly said, it is another place where children go and interact with one another and with other people.
The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that the safety and wellbeing of Scotland’s children and young people is a key priority wherever they go. While it is the prerogative of children and young people to explore and enjoy the online world, it is our responsibility to ensure that they do so safely.
We need to ensure that our children and young people are fully equipped with the knowledge and skills that they need to use the internet safely. To that end, I was encouraged recently to see a class of primary 5 pupils in Fife learning about such basic questions as whether they should allow photographs of themselves to go online and whether they should allow strangers to have their home address. As Mr McDonald pointed out, none of this need take away from the enormous benefits that the internet brings, not least in rural areas, as Ms Grant observed.
We also believe that parents should be supported and empowered to protect their children online, and the current options on parental controls are an essential part of this work. Mr Johnstone acknowledged the difficulty of trying to police the internet. It is not simply a matter of filters and hardware; rather, as he pointed out, understanding and awareness are needed among parents, children and young people about the risks of the internet. We are working with many stakeholders in Scotland to improve the level of understanding, particularly through schools.
Kezia Dugdale mentioned the important reality that in some cases whole websites are devoted quite openly and commercially to the persecution of individuals. She also mentioned correspondence, which she did indeed have with the Government and with me in seeking a meeting to raise awareness around the issue. It was felt at the time that respectme was already undertaking a campaign of awareness, but that does not take away from the importance of the matter that she raises. For that reason, I am happy to meet her.
The Scottish Government is already planning a number of steps to raise awareness. They include supporting the UK safer internet centre’s “connect with respect” theme for safer internet day 2013, in which respectme is also involved, and launching an internet safety awareness competition for all Scottish schools, which will coincide with safer internet day on 5 February. The Scottish Government-led stakeholder group on child internet safety will continue to monitor online safety in Scotland.
Under the curriculum for excellence, health and wellbeing is now a curriculum area in its own right. Learning in health and wellbeing ensures that children and young people develop the knowledge and understanding that they need for mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing now and in the future. That learning will, I hope, promote confidence, independent thinking and positive attitudes and dispositions, and it will help to develop the ability to make ultimately positive choices. Building up children and young people’s own capacities, skills and resilience as opposed to trying to resolve their difficulties for them will engender a sense of self-respect that will, in turn, impact on their respect for others.
Those principles apply equally across settings, be it in the classroom, in the playground or in children’s online activities. We know that children and young people’s wellbeing can be severely impacted by bullying, and I take the issue very seriously. Mr Robertson spoke very powerfully indeed about the responsibility that social networking sites have to ensure that they do not publish not only material that is actively harmful but material that encourages others to promote harmful behaviour as well.
Mr Dey and others mentioned that children as well as adults are capable of cruelty. Bullying of any kind is totally unacceptable and must be dealt with quickly whenever and wherever it happens. The Government recognises that anti-bullying approaches are best developed locally in consultation with the community. That is reflected in “A National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People”, which aims to strengthen local solutions by offering guiding principles and common visions and aims.
I echo the sentiments of the motion and those of a number of speakers in the debate, and I commend the national anti-bullying service respectme. It supports adults who work with children and young people, building capacity to prevent and tackle all types of bullying effectively through training, policy development and the provision of advice and information through its website.
With respect, I say that awareness, guidance, tolerance and all the things that the minister has mentioned are fine, but we need to tackle the problem at the nub and get to the industry itself. It is not just about the children. It is the industry that allows the problem to happen that we must tackle. What steps can we take to do that?
I entirely concur with what Dennis Robertson said about the need to tackle the industry. Although it may be very difficult to police the internet, not least because so many sites and servers are located outside this country, that does not excuse websites such as the one that the member mentioned from moral responsibility and it does not absolve them from severe public and political criticism, such as there has been today in this chamber, if they promote the type of disgraceful material that he has described to us.
It is also important to say that the Government funds ChildLine Scotland to provide help and online services that offer direct support to children and young people who experience bullying, which can be invaluable in helping them deal with the issues. We also provide funding for the choices for life initiative, whose website also contains useful information.
Cyber-bullying is a relatively new phenomenon. What may have in the past been passed around in notes or written on a wall is now being written on social media sites. Because of those developments, we all need to ensure a safe online environment for children. For that reason, I welcome the motion and look forward to a time when we ensure that all children and young people are empowered to make the internet the positive force that it can be in their lives.
Meeting closed at 17:46.