THE world most famous psychologist Dr Phil McGraw has taken up the cause of Fanore teenager Phoebe Prince.
Speaking last week Dr Phil called for new measures to prevent bullying to be put in the place in the aftermath of the death of the 15-year-old Clare girl in America earlier this year.
Phoebe took her own life after enduring months of bullying by schoolmates at South Hadley School in Massachusetts after she moved to America with her family last September.
Nine teenagers have been charged with a variety of crimes, including statutory rape, in relation to the harassment of Phoebe and proceedings are due to take place later this year.
Speaking at a special hearing on cyber-bullying in Washington, Dr Phil said that teenage bullying in America had gotten “out of control”.
“These kids are getting isolated in their homes. They’re getting isolated on these computers and they’re getting their reputations ruined,” he said.
“These keyboard bullies are anonymous which means they’re even meaner and more aggressive because they can hide behind anonymity.
“These bullies can use Photoshop to doctor pictures and put a child in a humiliating or embarrassing situation. They write emails, write letters, and so often we see these kids become isolated, withdrawn, and stop going to school.
“They can even - as we have seen so tragically with situations like Phoebe Prince - wind up actually taking their own lives. I mean, this is a terrible burden on these kids.”
Dr Phil was testifying before the US House Committee on Education and Labour on Capitol Hill in Washington.
“We’ve got to figure out what to do to get this under control. And so much of what’s going on today is beyond parents because our kids are much more computer literate than we are,” he said.
“We’ve got to give the educators the tools they need to prevent this. There is never any detention [for bullies]. There is never any complaint that is followed up. So, this is something that’s affecting almost half of children and we’re basically not doing anything about it.
“We need to track down who these kids are.”
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