Someone keeps setting up an insta account to call my daughter and her friend ugly.

[youreajetalltheway]

Hi, I'd be grateful for any assistance. As per my title, someone has created a few Insta accounts with my daughter and her friend's photo on, entitled things like 'minging bitches'. The accounts disappear quickly, I don't know if the other parent involved is reporting them or not. On one occasion the only person following the account was the girl who has a history of bullying, so maybe it's her. I want to deal with this swiftly and effectively and don't necessarily trust the school to deal with it. Can I go to the police? I don't understand instagram, could I pay an expert to identify who set up the account? Thank you.

Yes, you can go to the Police. IME the school will say it isn't happening on school grounds so it isn't their responsibility despite their anti-bullying policy saying it is. Save yourself some time and call the non-emergency number for advice.

You can go to the police but I doubt they'll do much to be honest.

Screenshot everything and go to the police.
Make sure they understand your daughter and her friend ate being targeted. It's not one Insta account being abusive and then going. It's repeatedly happening - that is the key bit of information you need to get across.

Thanks very much everyone. It's so upsetting. I'll try the non emergency police then and see how I get on.

I’m not sure how instagram works but can she set it to public comments not allowed or something similar?

@MashedSpud it's not on her own insta account, someone is creating new ones with my daughter's photo and calling the account 'minging bitches' etc

You can go to the police but I doubt they'll do much to be honest
You might be surprised then but it will depend on how abusive it is and what kind of language is used.

What a horrible thing to happen. Kids can be so mean.

Do let the school know too as the school police liaison officer may be able to get answers for you. The same people may be targeting others too. Keep screenshots. At the school I work at a similar thing happened and the perpetrators were identified quite quickly and dealt with.

How do you know about this if they’re not tagging your DD specifically?

And how old is your DD? She should set her instagram to private and hide it so it’s not visible to public then, while it’s hurtful to know that this has happened you won’t see anything these kids post and they won’t gain anything from it as they won’t get any kind of response.

Guessing these are preteens in which case while incredibly unpalatable is sadly not uncommon.

The police are unlikely to do anything about an account set up with this purpose

Captain from personal experience they usually only act if it's hate speech (racist/homophobic) or threatening violence.

The main thing to do is to shut down your DD's Instagram account and delete the App. If the bully knows your DD isn't on Insta this may stop.

That sounds really hard. I think your daughter and her friend should set their accounts to private for a while, as this will at least stop the other account from getting any new pictures (and if they do it narrows things down to her followers).

Keep reporting the accounts to Instagram. I would also keep a record of dates/times/what happened and take this to the police. They may not be able to do much, but they might be able to help.

I would tell school so they are in the picture, but I doubt they will be able to do anything if they don't know who is behind the account.

It isn't easy to find out who is behind an Instagram account, especially if they use throwaway emails etc.

I would go to school, and explain what has happened. It's very very likely that the girl from school that was following it created it. If not her, then a close friend of hers. School would hopefully then have a chat with this girl to get to the bottom of it.

In the meantime I'd insist your daughter goes on private.

Also, if the accounts keep disappearing is it because they’re being reported for being under age? I’m guessing your DD is poss year7 or so? In which case she probably shouldn’t be on instagram anyway.

How old are they? If your dd is not old enough to have an Instagram account then I would be using this as an opportunity to remove your daughters account until she is. You cannot protect them from this sort of online bullying, the damage is done as soon as they are aware that someone is picking on them.

I would also be going to the school with evidence of the girl who was following the account. Have you been screenshotting? The school may try to fob you off but I doubt you'll get far with the police to be honest.

There should be a report button on Instagram. Definitely involve the police.

I know it’s upsetting but seriously the police have better things to do than to get involved with a bit of bullying which goes on in practically every school in the country.

At best the school could get involved, and yes, Instagram have a report function and they do remove questionable accounts,

But the best way to deal with this is to shut down your DD’s instagram for the time being.

Also, is the account only putting up pictures of your DD or are there others? If so I would find out that your DD definitely doesn’t know who they are. Because I know of at least one situation where a child was having these types of messages sent to them on social media and it turned out she was personally involved and had been encouraging the antagonist to send her dodgy messages as wel so as not to get caught.

If your DD is aware that all these accounts are being set up with her picture and name on them and she’s not following them, then I would be wanting to know how she knows.

Captain from personal experience they usually only act if it's hate speech (racist/homophobic) or threatening violence Well the circumstances I experienced did involve homophobic and racist abuse and threats of violence and was prioritised by the police but the school still claimed it was not their problem. As I said , it would depend on the type of language used.

How old are they? Also where is the person getting the pictures from?

If it's your DD social media, I'd say she should come off it altogether. Does she really understand about putting pics of herself online and that anyone can use them etc?

Thanks all, good advice re making her profile private or deleting it. They are year 8, aged 13. My daughter finds out about it as her photos are used and friends tell her. It's an old photo which is being used, I'm not sure where it's come from. My daughter doesn't put much on Instagram but I'll probably get her to step away from it for a while.

Does your DD's school have a Police drop in? The schools I have worked in have drop in clinics with local community officers and this is exactly the type of thing they are there for.
Poor girl. So glad mine missed this whole new trend for online bullying.