Teachers being 'victimised' on Facebook

U.K - Cyberbullying teachers are on the rise according to a survey conducted. It was found from the survey that around 14 per cent of teachers had been victimized on-line or knew a colleague who had been attacked using the internet.

More than one in seven staff members said they or a colleague had been bullied by children spreading malicious rumours about them on-line, according to research.

One member of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers told how a false Facebook account had been set up under the name of another teacher saying that he enjoyed under age sex with both boys and girls.

A senior male teacher in a state secondary school also said his Facebook page was hacked into my pupils who used it to send damaging messages to other children.

At the ATL's annual conference in Manchester, activists called for serious penalties against pupils guilty of so-called cyberbullying.

Mary Bousted, ATL general secretary, said: There have been some horrendous incidents of cyberbullying reported in this survey, which have made people's lives miserable.

Schools and colleges need to have clear policies to deal with it, and make sure that pupils will face appropriate punishment.

The study also found that head teachers were increasingly warning staff against posting compromising pictures and details about their private lives for fear of damaging their school's reputation.

Almost a quarter of teachers said they had been asked to remove information from social networking profiles.