20% of 38,000 student Web sites abusive

The Yomiuri Shimbun
March 15, 2008
Source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080315TDY03306.htm

School students across the nation are operating about 38,000 unofficial Internet bulletin boards, and at least 20 percent of them contain insults and abusive language directed at other children, the Education, Science and Technology Ministry said Friday.

A ministry survey of 39 prefectures revealed there are 38,000 of these so-called gakko ura sites, informal bulletin boards that have sparked growing concerns they might be inciting bullying and abusive behavior among students.

Some of the bulletin boards carried messages such as "You're so annoying" and "Drop dead."

The ministry announced the findings of its survey at a forum held in Tokyo on Friday to promote the safe use of the Internet, whose attendees included officials from around the nation in charge of the administration of juvenile affairs.

Gakko ura sites are run by children and students, and have no connection to official school Web sites. According to the ministry, bullying and other problems associated with the bulletin boards began in 2006. In one case that autumn, a third-year male middle school student in Sendai stopped going to school after abusive messages about him were posted on such a bulletin board. Two students who posted the messages were sent to a family court.

Alarm bells rang even louder after a male third-year student at a Kobe high school jumped to his death in July after insulting messages and naked photos of him were posted on an online bulletin board.

The National Web Counseling Council, an organization that handles complaints about Internet-related problems, received 374 inquiries and requests for assistance about these unofficial bulletin boards in the past year.

As calls to do something about the problem mounted, the ministry in January entrusted several nonprofit organizations and private research companies to conduct a fact-finding survey to find out how many bulletin boards are online.

(Mar. 15, 2008)

38,000 underground student websites found in bullying study

Japan Today
Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 07:10 EST
Source: http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/431104

TOKYO — Research on school bullying conducted by the education ministry has found at least 38,000 unofficial secondary school websites set up by students and others, and the ministry is concerned that they could be used to insult classmates or divulge private information, the ministry said Friday.

The research covered websites related to junior and senior high schools in 39 of the country's 47 prefectures, suggesting that there could be even more.

The ministry is concerned at the increasing number of hurtful messages being posted on impromptu websites, which students read but bullies can write anonymously.

Efforts to clamp down on the sites have proved difficult as they can be shut down and re-established quickly.

The education ministry conducted the first survey of its kind in an attempt to fully grasp the extent of the sites, which are based around individual schools but not run by them.

"The so-called 'unofficial' homepage issue has received tremendous public attention and interest, but no one really knew the exact nature of those websites' styles, content, and number," a ministry official said.

"In our interim report, we found at least 38,000 unofficial websites about schools," he said, adding that the ministry will look at the content as it drafts a full report on the issue.

Nearly all young Japanese are Internet users. And a recent survey showed that 96% of high school students have mobile telephones, which can usually access the Internet.