- One in 10 girls claims to have been targeted by cyber bullies
A new phone app is being launched with the aim of putting an end to cyber-bullying of children via texts and mobiles.
The Block’em app was thought up by Helen Perry, who was herself subjected to harassing calls on her mobile as an adult.
“I found it all very unpleasant, as an adult, and I couldn’t stop looking at the messages,” she told Sky News Online.
“Then I started to imagine what it would be like for a child to experience it.”
She and friend Stephen Anderson created the app to block phone calls and texts from specific numbers so that the owner of the phone can keep their number.
Helen Perry says, “The idea is that a child in a bedroom with a mobile phone should feel safe and secure, not threatened.”
The person making the unwanted contact does not know they are being blocked.
The app, priced £1.79, can be downloaded from the Block’em website and is, according to mother-of-three Ms Perry, easy to use.
“The idea is that a child in a bedroom with a mobile phone should feel safe and secure, not threatened,” she said.
“With this app, they can just enter the number they don’t want calling and it’s blocked. “
“They can always unblock the number at a later date.”
The app is aimed at children between the age of 11 and 15 and the idea is being backed by the NSPCC ,with 70% of the profits from the sale going back to the children’s charity.
Cyber-bullying is considered more of a problem among girls than boys, according to the Home Office’s British Crime Survey.
One in 10 girls between the ages of 13 and 15 now claim to have been bullied either through email or mobile phones.
The study also revealed that the average parent believed harassment and intimidation of their child started as early as the age of eight.
Source : SKY News
