Confronting bullying - Stand up and fight

Anything that will protect vulnerable, emotionally brittle young people from the worst excesses of bullying on social media or elsewhere is to be welcomed.

The announcement from Ask.fm, a controversial website implicated in several teen suicides, that it has introduced changes to make it safer for users is a step in the right direction. So, too, is the decision to place anti-bullying information in schoolbooks before the end of next year.

The existence of bullying and its sometimes tragic consequences cannot be denied. However, it might be counterproductive to pretend that the rough and tumble of daily life does not need a certain emotional and psychological robustness.

By all means make people aware of bullying, but the best response to a bully is to face them down. As well as protecting our children as best we can from online poison, maybe we should teach them to do that as well.