My Cyber StoryIt was a biology lesson when it all started. I was really enjoying learning about how plants work. “Photosynthesis” I said, when Miss Jones asked how plants get their energy from the sun. Tara Jones looked at me like I was the worst thing she had ever seen. She’s not very popular and gets bullied by Ellen Watts and her gang, so I think she wanted to take it out on me.

At lunch time I got a message. Then another on the way home and another when I was doing my homework.

And when I was chatting to my friends on MSN, I started to get nasty messages. I was really scared and I didn’t know what to do. It felt like I was being bullied in my own bedroom and the next day I pretended to be sick, so I didn’t have to go to school.

Then I remembered an assembly we had when we were told you could stop nasty messages getting through and there are websites to tell you what to do.

There was a link from the school’s website.

The sites told me not to delete any evidence and how to stop more messages. It also told me to tell my parents and teachers what had been happening. That evening I talked to Mum. It was really hard at first and I was in tears. But when she rang the school things started to happen. It was just like any other bullying – my head of year made enquiries and worked out who it was. Tara got in a lot of trouble and she never spoke to me again, not that I minded! I think it made some of the other pupils think more carefully about the sorts of things they say in texts and online too. So maybe a little bit of good has come out of it all.

Here’s a good site, if you need one: http://www.childnet-int.org/kia/