Anti-bullying charity Kidscape: 'Do not name and shame bullies'

Naming children's tormenters can make the experience of bullying worse for their victims, an anti-bullying charity has warned.

Experts at Kidscape, a charity which aims to safeguard children from harm and abuse, says youngsters who post videos online describing their anguish or naming and shaming their aggressors, leave them vulnerable to more harassment.

Claude Knights, Kidscape's chief executive told the Times: "Posting a video on an open site like YouTube does open the young person to a high level of exposures and to comments from a wide range of people who are emboldened by the faceless, impersonal nature of cyberspace, where there are still very few consequences to actions. Vicious comments can increase the victim's pain at the time when their self-esteem is already very low."

The advice follows the death of Toni Connell, a 15-year-old from South Ockendon, Essex who detailed her bullying torment in a heart-breaking video on YouTube.

The year 11 student died at Queen's Hospital, Romford in February after emergency services were called to her home. Police said that they were treating her death as suspicious.

In 2014, Toni recorded a five- minute video in which she held up handwritten notes revealing she had "one true friend" and that "loads of people hate" her. One note read: "to be popular you have to be a slag long hair pretty, have boobs" while another said "Suicidal 5 times."

Connell's family said that she had felt under pressure over her forthcoming GSCE exams and had also been the victim of cyberbullying and had received death threats on Facebook.

"I am very angry with the school as they knew she was being bullied but never did anything about it," her mother Amanda Connell said.

"I know children must have picked on her about her brace as she had been excited about getting it but once she went to school she was immediately begging us to have it taken off."

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers is appealing to parents, teachers and child professionals to step up efforts to spot signs of bullying and to offer young people other ways of sharing their feelings.

"Schools will need to be aware that the events and feelings behind bullying incidents can be preserved vividly ion the internet and that more young people are using this medium," he said. "Above all, though, they should make sure that YouTube is not the only avenue available to a young person to express their unhappiness."