Although technology provides numerous benefits to young people, it also has a ’dark side’, as it can be used for harm, not only by some adults but also by the young people themselves. Email, texting, chat rooms, mobile phones, mobile phone cameras and web sites can and are being used by young people to bully peers. It is now a global problem with many incidents reported in the United States, Canada, Japan, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. This growing problem has as yet not received the attention it deserves and remains virtually absent from the research literature.

EUBully aims include

• To create innovation in the virtual world alongside transfer and roll out of best practice in the use of drama in the physical world, both providing safe and secure environments for bullying to be addressed openly.
• By working with young people who are most vulnerable (Roma, travellers, ethnic /faith minorities, young people in care, disabled, risk of offending, those living in poverty) and recognising their lives include additional support staff (in residential homes, health care systems, specialist associations supporting these groups in the schools and community)

Spectacle Theatre’s role within this project is to create and deliver a new play, film, workshops; teacher training and resources, using a ‘whole school’ approach. The project will be piloted within Wales then delivered throughout Birmingham during Autumn 2015.