“THERE is no hiding place in cyber-space”.

Many of us recall with a shudder the torment meted out by bullies during our school days.

But teachers and anti-bullying charities are fighting back against the increasing and, arguably, much more devastating phenomenon of cyber- bullying.

Liz Carnell, co-founder of Bullying UK, says that since the internet started gaining mass popularity about 12 years ago it has been increasingly used as “another tool” by bullies.

Bullying UK receives around 1,000 calls per year about cyber-bullying, mainly from teenagers.

Many victims have had embarrassing videos uploaded to the web, or had abusive text messages or comments posted about them on social networking sites.

An increasing number also complain about cyber-bullying on gaming forums.

Websites often take weeks to remove this content and it causes youngsters “enormous distress”, said Liz.

She said: “We know of children who can’t face going to school.

“Cyber-bullying started when people got mobiles phones. When people’s phones had cameras that made things worse.

“We think ISPs should be removing abuse far more quickly and we would like to see the police prosecute more people.”

Dawn Wilks, assistant head teacher at The Purbeck School, said the school holds assemblies to educate students about responsible usage of the internet. It also works closely with police, holds computer education sessions for parents, and phone numbers of helplines are included in students’ planners.

She said: “More and more it’s cyber-bullying now because it’s so easy and accessible and what we tend to find is that lots of issues have started outside of school, on things like Facebook, MSN and Bebo.

“Kids can be bombarded with these texts through the day and night. In the old days, when you left the school gates you got some sort of reprieve for a few hours.”

Andy Puttock, headteacher at Queen Elizabeth’s School in Wimborne, said that their school has similar policies.

Students are educated about responsible internet usage and certain websites are inaccessible on school computers, which also have a link to CEOP’s Thinkuknow website.

Cyber-bullying can quickly escalate, unlike traditional bullying which would involve just a few people, he said.

“It is mainly young people posting messages on Facebook that are not very nice.

“What you find quite often is that things start off almost as a bit of fun, although not very nice, and it escalates – and then they retaliate.

“Cyber-bullying often happens in the privacy of someone’s bedroom so we wouldn’t pick up on it so fast.”

A YouTube spokesperson said its policy of allowing users to police the site has proved “very effective”.

“Our users can flag content they think is inappropriate, and once it is flagged, it is reviewed by our staff and removed from the system within minutes if it violates our Community Guidelines.

“Dedicated staff review flagged videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We also disable the accounts of repeat offenders.”