How do you stop the cyberbullies

By Sean Coughlan

BBC News education

Teachers have been angered by personal attacks against them on websites. These can be spiteful comments or insulting images - which leave teachers feeling threatened and bullied. But what can be done to prevent it?

Education Secretary Alan Johnson is calling on website publishers to prevent such "cruel and relentless" harassment of teachers - saying that they have a "moral obligation" to stop such online bullying.

But do they also have a legal obligation? And what are the practical realities of trying to stop offensive comments being published on the internet?

The ATL teachers' union says it is ready to take legal action - and if a suitable test case arises it will support a teacher who appears to have been defamed or libelled.

The union says it will target the publishers of websites carrying offensive material, rather than the schoolchildren.

Expense

But it will mean entering into ambiguous legal territory.

Former chair of the Education Law Association, Nicholas Hancox, says it would be "difficult, but not impossible" for teachers to take their complaints into the courtroom.

But there are practical reasons why so far the anger over "cyberbullying" has not become a courtroom battle

Not least of these would be the expense. While major corporations will be willing to risk the cost of a lengthy defence of their reputation, it will be a much tougher decision for an individual teacher or union, he suggests.

This could be further complicated by the international dimension - if website publishers are based overseas, with their only UK presence being a website.

It will also mean that the bullied teacher - whose reputation has been under attack - will have to face the publicity attached to such a case, a difficult prospect that could also limit the likelihood of a complaint reaching court.

In practice, Mr Hancox says that websites are also keen to take down any offending material, as soon as they are notified - which will show that they are acting responsibly when approached.

False statements

This might not be what teachers want to hear - when a succession of teachers' conferences have heard stories about the destructive impact of such anonymous online insults

Andy Brown, a teacher at Ballymena Academy, described a secondary teacher who had been pushed into early retirement by a "campaign of derogatory and false statements placed on a website".

"What about teachers who've had pictures taken and posted of them when they're socialising or have had comments questioning their fidelity to their partner?"

But head teachers are also cautious about expecting any easy answers.

Martin Ward of the Association of School and College Leaders says that although it's a serious problem - it might be something that teachers have to live with, rather than expect to stop.

"It's very difficult to control," he says. The heads' union has been consulted on the government's forthcoming guidelines on such cyberbullying - but Mr Ward says these won't include "any magic solutions, because there aren't any".

Secret recordings

Mr Ward says that when his union has threatened legal action against websites they have always removed any offending material - and that no test cases are in the pipeline.

But he says that technology is now creating a number of difficulties for schools.

Pupils have made recordings of lessons using their mobile phones - which have then been used by parents in disputes with the school.

Parents have also made secret recordings of private meetings with teachers, says Mr Ward.

Among the cases cited by the ATL's Andy Brown was of a teacher who had had a picture of their face superimposed on a pornographic image.

And Mr Brown has also highlighted the difficulty in preventing "innuendo". Much damage could be caused by specific and subtle comments about teachers and their personal lives, he says.

'No bullying'

With so many social networking and video sharing websites becoming so popular among school-age youngsters, there are numerous outlets for putting personal grudges into the public domain - and Mr Ward is not optimistic about being able to stop such cyberbullying.

This is also an international problem. In Canada, pupils were recently suspended from school in a cyberbullying dispute - and teachers in Australia and New Zealand have challenged websites such as RateMyTeachers.

But the founder of RateMyTeachers, Michael Hussey, has robustly rejected teachers' criticism.

"For them to link our site with cyberbullying is ludicrous. They are trying to discredit what we are all about." And he says there is "no name calling, no bullying, certainly no threats".