More than 7 in 10 European citizens believe their government is not doing enough to tackle bullying in schools and even more believe not enough is being done to tackle cyberbullying*, research from BeatBullying, Europe’s largest anti-bullying NGO, revealed.
The research comes as this NGO teams up with the #DeleteCyberbullying project to launch Europe’s biggest anti bullying campaign: The Big March, funded by the European Commission. The innovative digital protest consists of introduce avatars created by millions of European children, parents, teachers and celebrities march across websites in March 2014.
The Big March calls for pan-European action on bullying across all levels of society:
- The EU institutions are being asked to observe an awareness day against bullying in Europe, to introduce new laws to protect the right of European children to go online without fear of being bullied or harassed and through a directive to tackle online bullying across member states which includes a framework for cross-border cooperation and intervention.
- Governments of member states are being asked to promote the issue of bullying up the EU agenda and implement the EU anti-bullying strategy in full, including the Laws introduced in the new directive.
- Local Government and Schools are being asked to review their approach to cyberbullying to ensure children and young people have the protections and support they deserve.
- Citizens are being asked to demand politicians take action by supporting The Big March, and to take personal responsibility and reporting negative online behavior wherever they see it.
To march alongside The Big March supporters, log on to bigmarch.beatbullying.org.
Emma-Jane Cross, CEO of BeatBullying said: “Early results from our pan-European survey tell us that the citizens of Europe want more to be done to tackle bullying and cyberbullying. It is clear that bullying is a Europe-wide issue, for which we need a Europe-wide solution.
The Big March gives everyone the opportunity to fight against cyberbullying and put pressure on European governments and institutions to take decisive action to support the 25 million children across Europe whose lives are being ruined by bullying.
We urge the citizens of Europe, schools and NGO’s and companies alike, to join The Big March, and help change young lives forever”.
