An Australian mobile phone group is launching a campaign to help combat the increasing trend of school yard bullying by text message. A recent study showed 14% of first year high school students in Brisbane had been harassed by SMS.

"People who use mobiles think they can get away with it, they believe they were anonymous and they won't get caught, they are wrong on both counts," said Randal Markey from the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association.

"The law is very clear. It's a criminal offence to use a mobile phone to harass, menace or offend someone and almost all calls can be traced. Prevention is always the best way to go and we say be very careful about who you give your number to and also for people to consider using a call ID block."

"We say don't respond if you get a message, save the message and take a note of the time and date for use as evidence of bullying. Tell your parents or your teacher or a trusted adult."

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