As a consequence, there was extremely high coverage by  conventional media: Television news programs likeTVE News, radio and major newspapers, such as El País and the ABC covered the event.

The helpline has only been operational for a few days but a large number of parents, teachers and children and adolescents who have been exposed to this conduct in their schools have already contacted our psychologists requesting help or advice.

Protégeles has created this helpline with the intention to pursue the following objectives:

• Provide psychological attention to children and adolescents who are suffering a low or intermediate level of bullying (which accounts for most cases)
• Act as an intermediary between parents, schools and public institutions in the most severe cases of bullying. 
• Give an effective response to cyber-bullying or bullying on the internet.

An excellent working  relationship with the main ISPs in Spain has enabled Protégeles to lead actions that have resulted in the removal of many websites that hosted harmful content.

In the case of cyber-bullying, minors transfer their insults and threats to the websites, blogs, etc on the internet.  This reveals the identity of the victim and is a very public form of bullying. Another characteristic of online bullying is that the attack could last until the forum is closed, and therefore could be perpetuated for months.

In some cases telephone numbers and other personal information are published to invite others to participate in the bullying. There have also been instances of teachers or headteachers being the target of this kind of attack. 

Who is behind this helpline? It has been created by Protégeles and the Ombudsman for Children with the collaboration, in its first phase, of the Institute of the Minor and the Family of Madrid, FUNDARCO (Rioja’s local Government), AEMPI (Spanish Association of Mothers and Fathers Internet Users) and MSN.

MSN’s collaboration deserves special mention since they have offered to place 4,000,000 banners in the pages most frequented by young internet users:  Messenger, Hotmail and MSN.