Tuesday, 5th of April 2011

Patrick Walsh unhappy with misleading press coverage of his comments on school bullying

Safe To Tell was concerned at the media reporting of Patrick Walsh’s comments regarding the video recording of bullying incidents.

On 29th March TVNZ reported that:

“The head of New Zealand's Secondary Principals Association is calling for filming of bullying to be made a criminal offence, as more and more videos go viral.

In the United Kingdom, filming bullying has earned the name "happy slapping", where someone assaults an unwitting victim, while others record it on their phones or video devices.”

Concerned that no distinction was being made as to the purpose of recording an assault, we contacted Patrick Walsh, who made the following statement:

“I am disappointed that the media ignored that key message. I would encourage students to take images of bullying and give these to the school or police so the offenders can be caught and dealt with.

“I think however that students who stand by while a student is being seriously assaulted and then load it up on YouTube for entertainment should face criminal prosecution as each time it is played it victimises again and again.”

Safe To Tell considers that this distinction is crucial in making sure that those who wish to perpetrate grievous bodily harm on others are not protected by privacy.

We also noticed an inaccuracy in the use of the term “happy slapping” which does not describe the type of incident that occurred in Wanganui on the 8th March. Happy Slapping as a term relates to assaults, typically but not always by one or two people on another, which are mounted with the sole purpose of recording them, as a distinct form of bullying.

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