Mr. Damian White:

For us in schools, bullying is a very major theme. All of those others things are contributing to the normal sea of certain behaviours that in the past we would not have accepted or seen as being acceptable. People can hide behind the security of a screen and it is amazing what people would do behind a screen that they would not do in public. Bullying is a major constituent part.

A footballer recently took a case against a teenager who racially abused him over a game of virtual soccer that the teenager was playing. The player had nothing to do with the goal not being scored, yet he was racially abused. That kind of behaviour is in wider society but it is a form of bullying. It was bullying to the victim. We are considering the wider point but bullying, specifically, is a massive issue. It is at second level but also at primary level. We are dealing with it. Now and again, it crops up in almost every school.

It can crop up in games. There are games in which children in two different houses can dress up dolls. I have heard of serious cases of bullying in a child’s game that simply involves dressing dolls. A child might say he or she is going to make a doll look like another child who is not present to defend himself or herself and does not know what is being said about him or her. With regard to online activity, there is a space for bullying everywhere.