Firms ‘failing’ on cyber bullying

Social media platforms are failing to effectively tackle cyber bullying, a new report claims.

Technology companies were accused of offering a “tokenistic” response to the problem as MPs and leading charities warned shortcomings are placing youngsters’ mental health at risk.

Cyber bullying takes a number of forms – including mass “unfollowings”, sharing of embarrassing photos and threatening, intimidating or nasty messages, the study found.

It highlighted how children and young people are using social media for hours every day, often across multiple profiles.

A survey of 1,089 respondents aged 11 to 25 found almost one in 10 admitted logging on after midnight every night.

Conservative MP Alex Chalk, who led the inquiry alongside charities the Children’s Society and YoungMinds, said: “Cyber bullying can devastate young lives, but to date the response from social media companies has been tokenistic and inadequate.

“It has failed to grip the true scale of the problem.”

The report welcomed positive initiatives adopted by social media firms to tackle abusive content, such as the use of algorithms.

It also called on the Government to require platforms to publish data about their response to reported episodes of bullying.