New Blockem app prevents cyber bullying
15.06.2011
A new Android app, aimed at children between the ages of 11 and 15, makes it easier to block unwanted contacts.
by Rune H. Rasmussen
The Block’em app, which is available as an Android app, was created by Helen Perry and Stephen Anderson, whose aim it is to put an end to cyber-bullying of children via texts and mobiles.
The app enables users to block incoming phone calls and texts from specific numbers, while not notifying the person making the unwanted contact that they have been blocked.
Easy to use
Helen Perry, who is a mother of three, has herself, as an adult, received harassing calls:
"I found it all very unpleasant, as an adult, and I couldn't stop looking at the messages," she told Sky News Online. "Then I started to imagine what it would be like for a child to experience it."
According to Ms Perry, the app is easy to use:
"The idea is that a child in a bedroom with a mobile phone should feel safe and secure, not threatened. With this app, they can just enter the number they don't want calling and it's blocked. They can always unblock the number at a later date."
The Block’em app is aimed at children between the ages of 11 and 15. The app works with smartphones running Android 2.0 and above, and is available for download at the Block’em website, priced £1.79. Block'em will donate 70% of its profits from the sale of this App to the children’s charity NSPCC.
Extent of cyber bullying
According to a recent survey by the Home Office's British Crime Survey, six per cent of all children aged 10 to 15 reported that they have experienced being cyber-bullied. Still, cyber bullying is considered more of a problem among girls than boys, with one in ten girls between the ages of 13 and 15 saying they have received harassing or intimidating messages, either through email or mobile phones.
As well as this, the study revealed that the average parent believed cyber bullying of their child started as early as the age of eight.
Related Video Clip:
Sky News Australia
App aims to end cyber-bullying in UK
Sources:
Sky News Online
NSPCC-Backed App Aims To End Cyber-Bullying
British Crime Survey
Children’s experience and attitudes towards the police, personal safety and public spaces: Findings from the 2009/10 British Crime Survey interviews with children aged 10 to 15 (PDF)
Related articles on kidsandmedia.co.uk:
Problems related to digital bullying
Topics for discussion – Parent and child: Cyber bullying
Topics for discussion – parent to parent: Cyber bullying
Images:
Screnshots from www.blockem.co.uk
