It’s unpleasant but true — kids can be nasty, and the advent of new technologies has seen schoolyard taunting go cyber and become potentially even more damaging. Cyberbullying can take the form of abusive e-mails or SMS threats, spreading rumours online, nasty comments in Internet chat rooms or on blogs, or degrading photos (often doctored) […]

Michael Jackson's 14-year-old daughter has told Oprah Winfrey about her battle with school bullies.

Cyberbullies aren’t just targeting children. Adults are falling victim to online smears and the damage can be devastating, writes Amanda Bower. Michelle, a Western Australian woman in her late 30s, was a bit bewildered the first time she got a Facebook message from herself. She had set up her profile only a few months earlier […]

Black Swan revealed the dark side of ballet and this video shows that even adorable two-year-olds can’t escape its evil influences. The clip, shot at a baby ballet recital in the US, shows two toddlers getting into a serious scuffle onstage. The girls are just two years old, but that doesn’t stop them from getting […]

The mother of an openly gay high school student in the US armed her son with a stun gun so that he could defend himself from bullying, saying that she had no choice. But Chelisa Grimes’ decision backfired. Her son was arrested by school police and has been suspended after he was approached by six […]

Survival of the nastiest should not be the law of the schoolyard. Child health expert Erin Erceg has this advice on beating school bullying. Bullies have made great fodder for stories, from the vile Flashman in the 1857 novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays to the testosterone-laden sports jocks in Revenge Of The Nerds. In fiction, the […]

Childhood bullies don’t get a lot of sympathy but a new study has found they are just as likely to consider suicide as their victims. Research from the University of Warwick found that children involved in bullying — either as bully or victim — are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts by the […]

According to psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg of the National Centre Against Bullying, there are five types of bullying: physical bullying; verbal bullying — eg: racist or homophobic remarks; social (covert) bullying — including a child being excluded from groups, or having lies or rumours about them spread; psychological bullying — where someone is stalked, threatened […]

The internet can be a dangerous place for children — here’s how you can make it safer. Julia was a trusting girl. She trusted her school friend when she suggested that they make a video together after school. Julia trusted that it was like a game. And Julia trusted that, when asked to wear garish […]

Little girls may be sugar and spice, but they are anything but nice when friends let them down. A new study conducted by Duke University has proved that movies like Mean Girls are not as exaggerated as people might think. While previous research suggested young girls were better at forming and maintaining friendships than young […]