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IF YOU CAN think back to what you were doing when you were eleven-years-old, the chances are that demoing your own tech product in front of thousands wasn’t one of them, but that was the case for these five students.
The product in question was BullyBug, a wristband that aims to reduce bullying. When a child presses a button on the wristband, it sends an alert to the teacher’s phone via its app. The teacher can later sit down with the child and help solve the problem.
The idea was conceived by five 5th class students from St. Audoen’s National School in Dublin city centre: Katelyn, Chloe, Ben, Nadine and Daniel.
Earlier this week, the group had the opportunity to show off their idea on centre stage at the Web Summit, and demo a prototype of BullyBug in front of four thousand people.
It’s said that 31% of primary and 16% of secondary students have been bullied at some time, and by giving an easier way to alert teachers to it, it could help reduce this figure.
BullyBug’s creation was part of the Solas Project, a non-profit organisation that works with children and young adults in Dublin’s inner city. Part of its work with schools involves a Dragons’ Den-style programme where kids and volunteer business mentors work with students over five weeks to develop a business idea or product.
One of the business mentors for BullyBug Kris Clarkin of the advertising agency Boys and Girls said the students honed in on the issue of bullying and came up with the idea on the first day. It stemmed from how difficult it is for a child to tell a teacher they’re being bullied in the first place.
“When we started talking about it, one of the main issues was being able to tell a teacher is a difficult thing for them to do,” he said. “The thing for them was although some of them have phones, they weren’t allowed to have them in the classroom.
What they knew was they wanted to be able to press a button that would be able to do something on your phone and they were pretty confident that it was something that could be done.
To get around this, the idea eventually turned into a wristband and while Girls and Boys put a prototype together, the app was designed by 8bytes, the students drove the product forward.
The appearance has put the project in the spotlight and has generated interest among teachers as well as the support of the Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre founder Prof Mona O’Moore.
Even two prominent, multinational tech companies have expressed interest in the idea and talk of piloting it in the classroom has begun. The dream is to make it a nationwide initiative, but for now, it’s about managing expectations and making sure nobody gets ahead of themselves.
“The interest has been quite impressive,” said Clarkin ”When you have an expert in the field saying this could is viable, it’s a great endorsement.”
[The kids are] on cloud nine. For anybody to be able to speak in front of four thousand people is huge, and for an eleven-year-old to do that is incredible. They’ve been in demand as well and we’re trying to manage that because [you forget] they’re kids, and they’re still in school.
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Fantastic idea! Well done!
Self built personal terminators?
Can I just tell these kids they make me embarrassed to be an adult! Good job and keep thinking. A lot of children could benefit from this. Special mention to your teacher who I think could be also very special.
Well done kids! Great to see a solution to the problem developed by those closest to it. Let’s hope it catches on.
Well done them.
Fantastic idea as long as the concept of bullying is taught properly in the first instance. Parents often use the word bullying to describe instances that are in fact just two kids disagreeing with eachother. Children need to be allowed to develop resilience and should be explicitly taught problem solving skills in order to try to figure out such disagreements for themselves without the now ever-constant intervention of parents. Parents are doing their children no favours at all with the “mommy will fix everything” approach. Where genuine bullying is occurring I think this invention could really help open dialogue and would certainly remedy the problem that many teachers face in that often no report is made to teachers when something happens and they know nothing until a parent shows up at the door 3 days later.
Well done, amazing solution! I want one!!
Unfortunately anyone wearing a bully bug is likely to be bullied for it
Or your mates will be pushing the button for you, so you’ll end up having to have chats with the teacher later.
I agree
After being bullied as a kid I do agree. The kids are trying to help bless their good intentions, but I wonder how many have been bullied?
I know I never confided in a teacher, parents or any adult, only myself and the other girl that was bullied confided in each other.
I left the school and she was tormented for years after I left verbally and by exclusion. She still carries the scars as do I. She still lives in the area and never talks to any of her old class.
If they really want to help build a friends network to support those who are victims of bullying, give them a safe space where they can be themselves, have fun and not feel threatened.
Nice idea but in my experience bullying is only accepted as such by teachers if it physical. This App is indeed great in that situation but I have spoken to kids that felt they were bullied by the words and actions of other kids, told teachers and yet nothing was done about it. Teachers played it down. They tried to “reassure” ie convince the child it wasn’t bullying. Every kid in the school knew it was bullying but the teachers never did anything to address it.( Laziness or fear of approaching parents? )Not a word about bullying or treating others good or anything. What good is a bully alarm in that situation? Attitudes to what bullying is have to change first and how it affects the children has to be taken seriously before it can be tackled.
Well done all the same kids. It’s great to see innovation from a young age. I hope it encourages the girls to think seriously about studying science/ engineering/ maths where it is seen mainly as a boys career.
Great idea solutions requires to recognise bullying and not blame it on some mitigating factor.
and what mitigating factor is being blamed? A solution to half a problem is not a solution.
Super proud of these kids and even more proud to be one of there parents alot hard work and dedication went into this project from them they can’t believe how far they have come
It’s called a fist
Sean, I think your idea to stop bullying has quite a lot of merit, though I’d hit the parents of bullies where it hurts, in their wallets
Super proud of these kids I’m even more proud to say one of them is my daughter they have worked so hard for this they can’t believe how far they have come
Super proud of these kids and even more proud to be one of there parents alot hard work and dedication went into this project from them they can’t believe how far they have come
So bullying is getting more common then?
Fair play to these kids making a stand.on bullying these kids a credit to their school teacher and parents well done St Audeons
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