Call It Out

Trolling we need to call it what it is – bullying.

We’ve nearly all experienced bullying in some form or another in our lives. However, that doesn’t mean we have to accept it. We need to call it out. Whether it’s online, at school or in the workplace.

That’s why we are very proud to announce that NCFE is spearheading its own anti-bullying campaign, Call it Out. NCFE have teamed up with FE News as official partners and have enlisted the expert support of the Anti-Bullying Alliance. Throughout the year ahead, we’ll be bringing together industry leaders from across education, business and the non-profit sector to confront the toxic issue of trolling head-on.

We need to make sure children and young people know what trolling is, how to cope with it if they should experience it, and crucially how to avoid becoming a troll themselves. Core to this is the development of essential skills such as confidence, resilience, collaboration and positivity. Interestingly, a survey we conducted in 2019 showed that 79% of people believe that mental fitness education should be taught in a similar way to physical education. It also found that 80% of people believe teaching confidence in schools and colleges is as important as teaching Maths and English. One of the themes we’ll be looking at will be the age at which we should start embedding kindness – especially online kindness – into education.

A big part of our Call it Out campaign will also be asking why we even use words like “trolling”, “gaslighting” and “ghosting”, which minimise the cruel impact that these actions have. Why find a ‘cute’ alternative name when really, we should call them what they are – varying and impactful forms of abuse.