Seven-year-olds and their parents are posting abuse and damaging comments about their teachers on social networking sites, according to new research. This is a serious rise in the cyber-bullying of teachers. A survey from a British teaching union found that almost half of teachers had reported abuse to the school, police or the website. A fifth had been cyber-bullied in the past year. Three per cent of the comments were from under-elevens.

The survey showed that 64% of the comments were from students, 27% from parents, and the rest by both. Many were about teachers' looks, ability, and sexuality. The union said: "It is clear that steps need to be taken to protect teachers." It added that the terrible words and lies in the abuse caused teachers a lot of suffering. Many have lost their confidence to teach and have left the profession. They think reporting the abuse would lead to more trouble.