John Chard

Digital Dangers. Cyberbully is directed by Charles Biname and written by Teena Booth. It stars Emily Osment, Kay Panabaker, Kelly Rowan, Jon McLaren, Meaghan Rush and Natassia Markiewicz. This is a TV movie of some note, Cyberbully, as the title suggests, deals with the prevalent problem of on line bullying. Story has Osment as Taylor Hillridge, she's your everyday high school teenager, she's pretty, has good friends and is getting interested in boys. Finally deciding to join the internet revolution, she signs up to a site called Cliquester, a place where loads of cool kids hang and chat their time away. Things are going well, the boy she fancies in school is reciprocating her advances and she's met a guy pal on Cliquester who seems to really dig her. But then the guy she's chatting with turns nasty and pretty soon Taylor's life at school becomes a living hell… It's an after school special with more mature flavours, a picture of serious themes that's accessible to parents and children in that it instigates important discussion. It's certainly not perfect, it stays a little too safe and even stretches credibility during the key scenes, but it tells its story well, makes the points with clarity of narrative and is very well performed by the sprightly young cast. Though unsurprisingly inferior to David Schwimmer's excellent 2010 movie, Trust, Cyberbully makes a good companion piece to that film. These are important movies that drive home the dangers that lurk on internet sites and forums, and thankfully they are being produced with care and consideration of the topics to hand. Could the script and screenplay be much better? Absolutely. But if just one family watches this and manages to sift through problems or potential dangers...then it has done its job. 7/10