WITH the rise and rise of the internet, a worrying trend has sprung up where school bullies use the latest technology to prey on their victims.

Whereas in the past, bullies ganged up on their victims in the playground, cyberbullies can use new technology to torment other children.

Examples include pictures of a student, often taken on a mobile phone, being put on the internet - allowing malicious comments to be posted by others. Then, there is the so-called happy-slapping' phenomenon, where physical bullying is recorded on mobile phones.

Worryingly, research by the Anti-Bullying Alliance suggests that up to one in five pupils has been bullied via the internet or mobile phones.

Worcestershire County Council has recently updated its anti-bullying guidance which gets sent to headteachers to include cyberbullying.

One Worcester school has already taken positive steps to stamp it out before it becomes a big problem.

Bishop Perowne CofE College, Merrimans Hill Road, implemented innovative monitoring software from Securus to keep its pupils safe online last autumn.

And the effect?

In five months, the school says there has already been a 30 per cent decrease in cyberbullying incidents.

Ross Gurr, systems manager at Bishop Perowne, said: "No school, primary or secondary, can afford to operate without some form of internet protection.

"Our problems are no different to those you'd expect to find in any other school - we had some instances of e-mails being used in destructive ways and pupils circumventing our stringent safeguards to access blocked sites.

"Securus provides screenshots of every violation, both on and offline, along with details of the user, workstation, time and date. We've seen a noticeable decrease in bad behaviour online. Pupils are aware they are being monitored and this focuses their minds on putting IT to its proper use - to facilitate learning."

It's a similar scenario at Nunnery Wood High School, Spetchley Road.

As well as having IT monitoring systems in place at the school, headteacher Alun Williams is also taking steps to ensure parents can help in the battle to stop cyberbullying taking hold.

"There have been very occasional instances here where pictures or comments have been posted on websites like MySpace," he said.

"Although these are done from home the consequences spill into school life."

Mr Williams is now in the process of organising an information evening for parents to come into school and get hands on experience of the websites their children could be logging on to.

"Too many parents are naive or oblivious to technological advances," he said. "The idea of the evening will be to show the positive uses of technology but also make parents aware of cyberbullying and how it can happen. My advice to parents would be to talk to their children about what they are doing on-line and ask them to show them any websites that they've created."

At Christopher Whitehead High School, in St John's, headteacher Neil Morris sent letters home with his students only last week warning of "new forms of bullying fuelled by technological advances".

After becoming aware of some students using their mobile phones to take pictures of their peers, which could then be placed in chat rooms, he has ordered for any phones taken into the school to remain turned off or risk being confiscated.

He also appealed for parents to monitor their children's use of the internet and website chat rooms.

HOW DOES THE ANTI-BULLYING SOFTWARE WORK?SECURUS software searches for inappropriate words and phrases, monitoring potentially harmful activities, whether pupils and teachers are using the internet and e-mail, or working offline in other applications such as Word. Recognising that evidence is crucial in helping teachers deal with incidents, Securus provides screenshots of every violation, along with details of the user, workstation, time, date and nature of the incident. The firm's founding director, Bill Jenkins, said: "Issues such as cyberbullying, predator grooming and racism in all their insidious forms are a real and growing concern and schools need all the help they can get to control the problem. Schools need to be vigilant about protecting pupils and preventing them from accessing unsuitable material." Designed to detect, record and report violations on a PC network that fall outside a school's acceptable use policy, Securus enables potentially difficult issues to be spotted quickly. Schools can continually monitor pupils' activities, block dangerous websites and identify pupils illegally downloading and sharing unlicensed files. Securus keeps a constant check on all PCs and, if it discovers a new application, it will add this to a list For more information on Securus and internet safety contact Bill Jenkins on 01932 255480.