Protecting young people - Children need help to beat bullies

Just as the dark side of humanity is a reality, its manifestation, its destructive intrusion into innocent lives, seems unavoidable and today well nigh uncontrollable.

The centrality of evolving social media in our lives, especially in the lives of our children, makes it hard to see how vulnerable children can be shielded from the anonymous dangers lurking online. And what a tragedy that is, and how reflective of the worst in human nature, that something as enriching as the great communications revolution also facilitates cowardly and potentially lethal cyberbullying.

Over the weekend 13-year-old Donegal schoolgirl Erin Gallagher killed herself after she had been bullied online. Erin had warned friends — on a social networking site of course — of her plans but nothing could have been done to change events set in train by the cruelties inflicted by faceless, online thugs.