Cyber bulling is a relatively new area that some schools cover really well. Most bullying policies tend to cover the cyber world as well as real world instances. Viral marketing is a different beast that aims to sell products. By mixing cyber bullying with a viral campaign pushed by children, aimed at bullying, we now have created a new modern day mythology creature.
The current trend in schools is called “slap a” and seems to stem from children and young people’s facebook co
ntacts. This week has seen the advent of “slap a ginger” and took this one stage further onto “slap a slag”.
This behaviour is pure bullying on an open plan and should be tackled directly. Tackling problems like this could be quiet difficult due to the viral effect facebook pages and comments can have. The last viral piece I personally took part in was to change your icon to a childhood cartoon character in mark of a anti-bullying campaign for Barnardos. It seems that campaigns like this could be positive but equally a “slap a” viral campaign can can have opposite effects.