Zero tolerance - Warning on cyberbullying

THE weekend condemnation of legislation designed to protect schoolchildren from cyberbullying by special rapporteur on child protection, Geoffrey Shannon, sounds an alarm bell that must provoke action — ideally action that would protect all children from online abuse. But in a world increasingly defined by the never-ending advances of communication technologies that seems almost an impossible ambition.

Mr Shannon recognised this when he warned that “I do not think the law has caught up with the technology” while speaking at a conference on education and law in Sligo.

There may be a lazy, dangerous belief that coping with bullying, online or physical, is all part of growing up but, as Mr Shannon pointed out, the consequences can be drastic. Schoolchildren have been driven to suicide and many have quit school because of bullying. There can be no room for bullies in our schools and we should not apologise for excluding repeat offenders. They should lose the opportunity, the gift of an education rather than their victims.