Call to shut down YouTube
The Professional Association of Teachers backed the proposal at their annual conference in Harrogate, northern England, voicing concern over the growing number of forums on which students could display their harassment of fellow pupils or their teachers.
"Nowhere is safe from cyber-bullying," said Kirsti Paterson, who proposed the motion.
"It can carry on 24/7 through mobile phones and in multiple forms online.
"Remarks, images posted online can easily be copied and made available to a global audience … In the short term, confronting this problem must be the closure of sites encouraging cyber-bullying."
Paterson said that one teacher had received a death threat from a pupil – the student had posted a doctored photo of the teacher, headless, with the accompanying caption: "You Are Dead."
Catriona Tait, a primary-school teacher in Dundee, Scotland, told the conference that one in four students had experienced cyber-bullying at some point.
"Nobody should be subjected to such humiliation anywhere, let alone in their place of work," she said, demanding the closure of sites "encouraging this irresponsible use of technology".
A spokesperson for YouTube, the popular video-sharing website, said that the majority of users used the site responsibly: "YouTube is a community site used by millions of people in very positive ways."
"It's also used by organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to reach people on a range of important issues. Sadly as with any form of communication, there is a tiny minority of people who try to break the rules."
YouTube, created in February 2005, is the world's leading video sharing website.
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