Why Beatbullying's #bigmarch is so important

Today, if you visit certain websites, you'll see a wee procession of brightly coloured avatars "marching" across the bottom of the screen. Those websites range from the JLS Official website (who says nothing good ever comes out of reality tv shows?) to the Demos think tank to Girlguiding UK and 57 other sites.

This is all part of  charity Beatbullying's Big March to call on the Coalition Government to take action on bullying. They want ministers to set up a commission to explore issues around bullying and take action. The particular issues they've highlighted are:

The scope, breadth and effect of child on child bullying, violence in schools, the wider community and online

The cost of bullying violence and harrassment of young people to wider society in economic, well-being and social terms

Can the introduction of specific legislation reduce the incidences of harassment?

Investigate how to best introduce cost effective, evidence based scalable bullying prevention programmes in schools, online and in the wider community.

I was particularly proud that the Coalition Agreement in May included a section on bullying:

We will help schools tackle bullying in schools, especially homophobic bullying

Today's Big March offers suggestions, at the start of Anti-Bullying Week as to how the Government can fulfil that part of its pledge. One of the over 800,000 avatars marching is mine, a little yellow thing with long, shaggy brown hair. I have a special reason for doing so, which I will put in a post later today.

It's not too late to join in. You can sign up here, join the Beatbullying Facebook page here, or follow the progress of the March on Twitter here.

Here is a video about the event, available on You Tube here: