School bullies have moved online. But is banning all under-16s from social media really the answer? | National & World [Video]

Brisbane, Australia (CNN) — Kirra Pendergast talks to thousands of teenagers each year in her role as a cyber safety educator.

She knows what they get up to online – the texting, the bullying, the sextortion, the threats – but nothing prepared her for the hostility she faced this month in a roomful of students ages 12 and 13.

She’d been booked to give three talks at a high school in Australia but just minutes into the first session, a group of boys started shouting insults common among misogynistic online influencers about the women pictured on Pendergast’s presentation.

Teachers tried to shush them, then a girl in the front row made the final expletive-filled comment that shattered Pendergast’s veneer and saw the special guest speaker flee the room in tears.

“I can’t believe I’m crying on film on here,” Pendergast said in a selfie video filmed soon after in her car. “I believe that the …