Bully Stop: Mobile protection

WITH the Phoebe Prince court case beginning next week, a team of Irish software experts has come up with an innovative application to help prevent a child being bullied through their mobile phone.

Bully Stop is the first ‘off the shelf’ mobile phone tool specifically designed to prevent children from being bullied on mobile phones.

The software is first downloaded to a computer, then transferred to a mobile phone. Parents can then configure their child’s phone to stop them receiving abusive or bullying text messages, pictures or calls from certain people.

Created by Tony Cullen and Jim Cullen, Bully Stop has been approved by Trinity College Dublin’s Anti Bullying Centre, part of the European Safer Internet Programme as an extremely useful tool for parents.

By putting a number on the Bully Stop block list, that number will be blocked and your child will never receive a call, text or picture message from it again.

However, Bully Stop maintains a log of all attempted contact with your child. This log can then be used to approach the people involved and show proof that bullying or aggressive communication has occurred.

Bully Stop also contains an OK list and the application can be used to only allow contact from people on that list.

Cyber bullying has become more and more of a threat in recent years, with studies suggesting up to 50% of children have been bullied via their mobile.

Cases such as the tragic suicide of Phoebe Prince due to such activity highlight just how damaging to a child’s self-esteem it can be.

- Bully Stop costs €20 and can be downloaded through www.vmad.com