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Talking to someone your own age is appropriate for dealing with most low-level types of bullying. For example, if you are being picked on or teased, being called names or having rumours spread about you, you will be able to get help and support by talking to a CyberMentor either in your school or online using the chat and messaging on this website. However, looking after everyone who uses this site is really important to us. All CyberMentors are trained to hand over serious problems to a Counsellor at Beatbullying or a teacher or trusted adult supporting the scheme within your school. By serious problems, we mean things like self-harm, depression, suicidal thoughts or physical, emotional, sexual abuse or neglect (when someone’s not looking after you properly). If we are worried about your safety or your safety within your family If you tell a CyberMentor or a Counsellor about something serious that is happening to you or that affects your safety or your safety within your family, we may take further action, depending on what you tell us. There is no set rule on what action we might take – all reports made to us are dealt with on a case-by-case basis. We will always try and let you know if we need to contact your school or your parents or carers. For example, if you tell us you are depressed or hurting yourself (self-harm), we will talk to you online and offer you counselling to help you deal with your feelings. If you tell us that an adult is hurting you (physically, sexually or emotionally) or not looking after you properly or that you are feeling suicidal, the Beatbullying Safeguarding Team will discuss this and report what is happening to you to your Local Authority Safeguarding Team or your school or your parents/carers or the Police in certain circumstances. What we do will depend on what is happening to you, but we will always try and let you know when we need to do this. What sort of information might Beatbullying tell someone else about me? In serious cases, for example of abuse or neglect, Beatbullying’s Safeguarding Team will pass on a summary of the conversations you have had with a CyberMentor or a Counsellor, or they will be asked (by the Local Authority Safeguarding Board or Police) to pass on exactly what you have said; this is called a transcript. How are these reports recorded? If we are worried about your safety, Beatbullying counsellors will record the incident on their session notes, it will be added to the staff watchlist and the user notes and will be shared with the Safeguarding Team, who will decide what the best course of action is. All records are kept for 6 years and then destroyed (deleted online/shredded offline). Talking to your school about what is happening to you For concerns about Registered Users on the website, Beatbullying staff will phone up the school, if we know which school you go to, and ask to speak to the person in charge of Pastoral Care. For CyberMentors, staff will speak in the first instance to the teacher looking after the programme in that school. Reporting to the Police In terms of reporting to Police, Beatbullying works closely with CEOP and has put in place specific reporting procedures to refer directly into CEOP if your online safety is brought into question, for example if an adult or an older person is trying to groom you online. Incidents that happen outside of hours At the moment, Beatbullying has funding to keep our BACP-registered counsellors online from 8am-2am, which means serious problems can only be dealt with between these times. If you need help outside of these hours, please refer to the list of other organisations that may be able to help you. Looking after you online We have designed this website to be as safe as it possibly can be. The site is protected by NetModerator software which filters messages between users, looks for harmful relationships and constantly analyses all conversations (real-timechat and messages) that take place on the CyberMentors website. Sometimes you might see the words *blocked* or *inappropriate* when you are chatting – this means the software will not allow the words you are trying to use. The software is quite sensitive and will not allow you to talk about which school you go to, for example. The software will immediately alert Beatbullying to abusive or threatening conversations and predatory behaviour. If you behave in a way that does not respect others using the website or you ignore the site rules , we will take action to block you from using this website and we will take further action against you if your behaviour contravenes the law. If you would like to find out more about NetModerator and how it works in more detail on this website, please email
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