Brighton cyberbullying charity champion is local hero

And that’s why the work of this week’s Local Hero winner is proving so instrumental.

Scott Freeman, from Brighton, is the founder of award-winning Brighton-based internet bullying charity Cybersmile – the UK’s first dedicated cyber-bullying charity.

The charity provides comprehensive advice and guidance for people of all ages on how to deal with cyber-bullying, including a 24 hour helpline, workshops for schools and a counselling and liaison service.

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Last month Scott was crowned as the south east’s ‘digital hero’ at the Talk Talk Digital Heroes Awards and scooped a £5,000 charity grant from the telecoms giant in the process.

Cybersmile was formed in 2011 after Scott’s personal experiences of online bullying involving his daughter. A year later the Cybersmile was officially registered as a charity and, since then, hasn’t stopped helping youngsters, parents and families from across the globe on their battles with cyber-bullying.

Scott said: “My daughter was cyber-bullied really badly a few years ago and I saw the effects of what it can do to people.

“But I just couldn’t see where to go to find help for the problem. I knew how it felt first hand as a parent in that position and wanted to make a difference, so I started Cybersmile. The demand was so high. We had parents from around the world getting in contact with us and from there we’ve really taken off.”

Cybersmile is run completely on donations and grants – like the one awarded by Talk Talk last month – and doesn’t receive any help from central or local Government.

On June 21 this year the charity launched the International Stop Cyberbullying Day – a new world-wide day of recognition against cyberbullying – and ‘trended’ worldwide on Twitter.

For more information on the charity, to donate or if you’re experiencing trouble with cyber-bullying visit cybersmile.org.