[tailrecursion]

If it could be done technically, setting a child's phone to receive only messages that include a valid ID would discourage abuse by making abuse traceable. The school would insist that all children's phones are set up this way so that there's no stigma attached to a particular child not receiving SMS or whatever.

But it's simpler to let the police handle the problem and determine whether it's harassment, or if it's a case of crybullying.

A school's not going to be able to stop bullying. But with message tracking devices in everyone's hand and cameras everywhere, the SCHOOL's problems are solvable without having to go into childrens' phones.

[josephcsible]

> The school would insist that all children's phones are set up this way

Unless the school is paying for your kid's phone and plan, they should have exactly zero say in how it's set up.

[tailrecursion]

The child's phone can be set up one way or another.

In this hypothetical scheme (described above), a child complaining about anonymous abusive messages is ignored by the school. School's not responsible, because the child's phone is set up improperly. If phone were in order, phone would not receive anonymous messages.

A child receiving a traceable abusive message is quickly resolved, and presumably this kind of abuse is rare, for obvious reasons.

Everyone is happy. The school's happy because, under this scheme, they have virtually no work to do in connection with online harassment. The police are happy because fewer harassment cases are being opened (this is true only if most kids set their phone as instructed by the school). Kids are slightly less miserable because online bullying has been made more difficult to pull off.

Finally, sticklers like the parent are happy because they can continue to set up their phone "wrong" and receive anonymous abuse. Which the school won't look into and will presumably pass off to the police.

[josephcsible]

> a child complaining about anonymous abusive messages is ignored by the school. School's not responsible, because the child's phone is set up improperly.

Imagine if the police requested, but technically didn't mandate, that parents install location tracking apps on their children's phones, and that they then ignored missing persons reports for anyone who didn't do so.